Ghost town

Survivors gathered early on Tuesday in L'Aquila, Italy to commemorate the one year anniversary of an earthquake that killed 308 people and left most of the city in ruins.

About 25,000 people, among them aid workers, displaced citizens and members of the civil defense service, gathered under the open sky for a candlelight procession to honor the dead. Four lines of people walked toward the city's cathedral, aiming to arrive at 3:32 a.m., the exact time of the quake. A human chain and balloon launch were scheduled for later in the day as part of the commemorations.

A year after the 6.3 magnitude quake, life inside the walled city in central Italy still has not returned to normal. Of the 120,000 people affected by the earthquake in and around L'Aquila, more than 52,000 have yet to return home or move into new housing.

Home is where the tent is

Many of the city's homeless live in hotels along the Adriatic coast or barrack-style housing, at government expense. Critics say that the new housing estates are too far from the city center and lack transport links, shops and public services.

"The government has done much, but it still has not found a solution to the housing problem," said mayor Massimo Cialente.

Even basic reconstruction work is still pending in L'Aquila.

"We have to get the water, electricity and gas working again... but nothing has been done, not even a feasibility study," Eugenio Carlomagno, a co-founder of a group advocating the restoration of the city, told the French news agency AFP.

Between 1.5 and three million cubic meters of debris has yet to be removed from the city.

To protest against the slow reconstruction, displaced residents have launched a series of Sunday demonstrations, pushing wheelbarrows full of debris through L'Aquila's off-limits "red zone."

Starting from scratch

Some residents accuse the government of misusing funding and failing to build appropriate homes for the victims.

"This money could have been used differently, especially since these homes cost three times more than planned," said Eugenio Carlomagno.

"With the same money they could have accommodated 45,000 people, not just 14,000," he said.

"The authorities had set the wrong priorities," added Carlomagno, whose organization campaigns to rebuild the historic city center of the Abruzzi capital.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi did not attend Tuesday's ceremony, but sent a message of support to a local council meeting held beforehand.

smh/ Reuters/AFP
Editor: Chuck Penfold