If you're planning a trip to Italy in the near future, don't be surprised to see heavily-armed Italian soldiers patrolling the streets of some cities together with Italian police and/or carabinieri. The Berlusconi cabinet's decision to set up a task force of 3000 soldiers to supplement the regular police in certain areas - for example, guarding controversial new landfills in the Campania region or protecting certain urban slum areas - has angered many in the opposition and led to charges that the government is seeking to militarize the country.

        "Italy is not Colombia", protested opposition leader Walter Veltroni , ,who lost to Berlusconi in last April's elections, referring to the crime-riddled South American country. And others pointed out that the last time the military was used in Italy in anything approaching a police action was in the early 1990's when there was a real public order emergency in Sicily. The Vespri Siciliani operation, which sent thousands of soldiers to that island, was ordered following the accentuation of Mafia violence which resulted in the deaths of the island's two most prominent magistrates, Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino. In general, however, other than their ipast nvolvement in protecting airports from terrorist actions, the Italian military's use on national territory generally has been limited to emergency clean-up and aid operations following natural disasters such as earthquakes or floods.

        But others, including some politicians on the left, pointed out that the task force is so tiny compared to the country's 400,000 carabinieri and state police that their influence will hardly be felt. "It is mostly for show", said Pierferdinando Casini, head of a small, right of center party which broke with Berlusconi before the election and now considers itself an opposition group.

        The decision to create the task force first emerged as a hypothesis when Berlusconi promised that despite strong grass roots opposition he would push ahead with plans to open new landfills and thereby resolve, at least temporarily, the Naples trash crisis. But it is also part of the government's pro-active attempts to give Italians a greater sense of security and, said Defense Minister Ignazio La Russa, to reassure Italians enough so they don't think of taking justice into their own hands. "This is what happens when the state is weak and does not respond to the requests of its citizens, he added.

        In reality, all this is somewhat ridiculous. Compared to other countries the Italian crime rate is quite low and I myself cannot remember a time when I ever felt unsafe on Rome's streets, or anywhere else in Italy for that matter. But crime, especially that committed by illegal immigrants or by newly arrived immigrants from some Eastern European countries, particularly Romanian gypsies, has increased and has angered Italians and increased their feelings of insecurity. This was a key issue in the recent election campaigns both for the national government and municipal administrations such as Rome where a new right of center mayor was elected on an anti-crime platform.