Naples - More than 100 000 people marched in Naples on Saturday in one of the biggest anti-mafia rallies in recent years to commemorate the victims of organised crime and demand an end to its stranglehold on southern Italy.
Relatives of victims, some wearing white gloves and holding pictures of their loved ones, led the demonstration as the names of about 900 people killed by the mafia were read out through loudspeakers.
One banner said: "You didn't kill them. They are walking with us."
Another read: "Don't turn the other way."
Writer Roberto Saviano, a symbol of the fight against the mafia since his best-selling book Gomorra exposed how the mob dominates life around Naples, was also at the rally.
The 29-year old has received death threats and lives under police escort.
Some families said they were still waiting for the killers of their relatives to be identified.
Italian police have inflicted major blows on the Sicilian mafia in recent years, arresting several high-profile mafiosi, such as the "boss of bosses" Bernardo Provenzano and his heir apparent Salvatore Lo Piccolo in 2007.
But the country's four biggest mafia organisations - Calabria's 'Ndrangheta, Sicily's Cosa Nostra, Naples' Camorra and Puglia's Sacra Corona Unita - are believed still to account for a large chunk of Italy's economy.
- Reuters
