Protestors clash with police for 5th day as strikes shut down Greece
Güncelleme Tarihi:
About 100 protesters threw fire bombs at police outside the Greek parliament as thousands of protestors gathered for a general strike over government policy on Wednesday, in a fifth day of violence since police shot dead a teenager at the weekend. Turkish demonstrators deface Greek consulate in Istanbul in protest to the teenagers death. (UPDATED)
Clashes have broken out at Athens main court complex, where two police officers accused in the fatal shooting of a teen were testifying. Protesting youths hurled Molotov cocktails at the courts and police fired tear gas. The protesters also attacked and damaged a television satellite truck. At least two people were hurt.
Activists carried banners which read "Sack Karamanlis," referring to Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis, as the largest group, uniting students and teachers, marched towards the national parliament building as part of a 24-hour general strike that strike shut down the country, grounding flights, closing banks and schools and restricting hospital services in action that piled pressure on a conservative government hit by the worst riots in decades.
Workers chanting anti-government slogans gathered in central
"Participation in the strike is total, the country has come to a standstill," said Stathis Anestis, spokesman for the GSEE private sector union federation, rejecting calls by the conservative government to postpone the strike over fears violent demonstrators could join union rallies planned in
On Tuesday, scores of youths clashed with police near where the funeral was held of 15-year-old Alexandros Grigoropoulos, whose killing ignited anger over government scandals, unemployment and high poverty levels, worsened by the global economic slump.
The opposition socialist party has said the ruling New Democracy party, which has a one-seat majority, has lost the trust of the people and has called for elections.
"Government and police on the brink of collapse", the daily newspaper Ta Nea said in its front page headline.
Calls by Karamanlis for political unity were ingored as party leaders blamed the current leadership for the conditions that sparked the country's worst civil unrest since the aftermath of military rule in 1974. "He and his government are responsible for the widespread crisis that the country, that Greek society is experiencing," said socialist party spokesman George Papakonstantinou.
Greece has a tradition of violence at student rallies and fire bomb attacks by anarchist groups, which have heightened tensions with police.
Amnesty International, in a report on Tuesday, accused police of brutality in handling the riots that quickly spread to at least 10 cities across the European Union member state of 11 million people, including the tourist islands of Crete and
ISTANBUL PROTEST
A dozen Turkish demonstrators sprayed red paint on the Greek consulate in Istanbul Wednesday to protest the police shooting of a teenager in
The protesters, who identified themselves as Istanbul-area anarchists, lobbed balloons and bottles of paint at the building, an AFP correspondent witnessed. They also broke the consular car windows before fleeing.
No arrests were made.
"RICH SHOULD PAY"
Wednesday's strike by GSEE and its public sector counterpart ADEDY, which group half of Greece's 5-million-strong work force, was the latest in a series of labor protests against privatizations, pension reforms and the rising cost of living.
"Take your hands off our rights!" chanted a group of 50 people who marched through Syntagma square outside parliament with a banner reading: "The rich should pay for their crisis".
Many shops in central
Karamanlis, who swept to power amid euphoria before the 2004 Athens Olympics, has promised to compensate for the tens of millions of euros in damage in wrecked cars, torched shops and banks;however, his government already faces a big deficit.
In four years of conservative government, a series of ministerial scandals, devastating forest fires last summer, and misfired economic measures have dramatically reversed the mood.