[R-G] Riots test Greek government

[Anthony Fenton]

Riots test Greek government
Mon Dec 8, 2008 12:32am GMT
http://uk.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUKTRE4B603Z20081208?sp=true
By Dina Kyriakidou

ATHENS (Reuters) - Greek demonstrators vowed another wave of protests  
on Monday, two days after police shot dead a 15-year-old boy sparking  
riots that left dozens injured across the country.

Thousands of youths clashed with police and rampaged through Athens  
and other cities this weekend, burning scores of cars and shops in the  
worst protests to erupt in Greece in years.

Pressure on the conservative government showed no sign of easing. The  
Greek Communist Party called a mass rally in central Athens for Monday  
evening and the socialist PASOK opposition, which has risen to top  
spot in opinion polls recently, said Greeks must denounce the  
government.

"We must answer the government's policies en masse and peacefully,"  
the PASOK youth branch said in a statement.

University professors, who had planned to join a nationwide workers'  
strike against pension reforms and economic policies on Wednesday,  
said they would now stage a three-day walkout starting Monday. Blogs  
popular with high school students urged them to stay away from class.

Ignoring the government's appeals for calm, leftist demonstrators and  
anarchists staged running battles with police after the teenager's  
killing, which shocked the nation.

"Justice has taken over," Interior Minister Prokopis Pavlopoulos told  
reporters after an urgent government meeting on Sunday. "Raw violence  
directed at social peace and the property of innocent people is  
inconceivable."

The minister submitted his resignation but it was rejected by Prime  
Minister Costas Karamanlis, who has seen his government's popularity  
eroded in the face of scandals and as the world economic crisis bites.

The shooting touched a raw nerve among Greek youth, whose anger has  
been fanned by the growing gap between rich and poor in recent years.  
Violence at student rallies and fire bomb attacks by anarchist groups  
are common.

POLICEMAN CHARGED

Two police officers have been charged over the shooting -- one with  
premeditated murder and the other with abetting him. A police  
statement said one officer fired three shots after their car was  
attacked by a group of 30 youths in the bohemian Athens district of  
Exarchia.

A police official said the officer had described firing warning shots,  
but witnesses told TV he took aim at the boy, identified as Alexandros  
Grigoropoulos.

Just hours after his death, protesters clashed with police in Athens  
and the violence spread across the country, as far as the northern  
city of Thessaloniki and the tourist islands of Crete and Corfu,  
leaving 34 people injured. Police detained 20.

For most of Sunday, protesters chanting "Cops, Pigs, Murderers" rained  
petrol bombs down on rows of Athens riot police, while helicopters  
hovered overhead and tear gas choked the city.

More than 30 shops and a dozen banks were torched in the capital's  
busiest commercial districts ahead of the busy Christmas period. The  
mayor of Athens postponed the launch of holiday festivities.

In Thessaloniki, more than 1,000 protesters clashed with police, set  
fire to a bank and smashed several stores. Rioters also clashed with  
police in the western city of Patras.

About 200 protesters rioted outside police headquarters in Crete's  
second city of Chania. On Corfu, protesters smashed up four cars and  
two shops, and an 18-year-old woman was injured.