Rioting across Greece over teen shooting

8 Dec 2008, 7:34 am   -   Source: AAP
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The fatal police shooting of a teenager has set off Greece's worst rioting in years, with hooded youths rampaging through Athens and Thessaloniki.

The fatal police shooting of a teenager has set off Greece's worst rioting in years, with hooded youths rampaging through Athens and the northern city of Thessaloniki over the weekend.

Gangs smashed shops, torched cars and erected burning barricades in the streets of the Greek capital and the country's second largest city in a dramatic eruption of a long-tolerated self-styled anarchist movement.

Rioting began in several cities within hours of the death of a 15-year-old who was shot on Saturday night in Exarchia, a downtown Athens district of bars, music clubs and restaurants that is seen as the anarchists' home base. Soon dozens of stores, banks and cars were ablaze. Police said 24 policemen were injured, and one remained in hospital on Sunday morning.

The violence was the most severe since rioting in 1999 during a visit to Greece of then US president Bill Clinton. The last time a teenager was killed in a police shooting - during a demonstration in 1985 - it sparked weeks of frequent rioting.

The circumstances surrounding Saturday's shooting were unclear, and Interior Minister Prokopis Pavlopoulos has promised a thorough investigation and the punishment of anyone found responsible.

"It is inconceivable for there not to be punishment when a person loses their life, particularly when it is a child," he said. "The taking of life is something that is not excusable in a democracy."

Police said the two officers involved claimed they were attacked by a group of youths, and that three gunshots and a stun grenade were fired in response.

The two officers have been suspended, arrested and charged, one with premeditated manslaughter and the illegal use of a weapon, and the other as an accomplice. They are to appear before a court on Wednesday. The Exarchia precinct police chief has been suspended.

A blurry video shot by a bystander from a nearby balcony that purportedly shows the incident has been shown on local television and posted on the Internet. Two sounds that could be gunshots can be heard, but the image is too blurry and distant to show the sequence of events clearly.

Pavlopoulos and Deputy Interior Minister Panagiotis Chinofotis submitted their resignations after Saturday's rioting, but they were not accepted by the prime minister.

The violence died down on Sunday morning, only to begin again as afternoon demonstrations in Athens and Thessaloniki to protest the boy's death degenerated into running battles between Molotov cocktail-throwing youths and riot police firing tear gas.

In Thessaloniki, protesters attacked City Hall, two police precincts, several shops and a bank, as well as Greek television channel vehicles.

Dozens of stores in central Athens went up in flames or saw their storefronts smashed. At least two buildings were destroyed by fire, as was a Ford car dealership. Streets were littered with jagged chunks of paving stones and rocks thrown at riot police, as well as shattered glass from storefronts and banks.

"I understand the anger (for the teenager's death) and the right to demonstrate it," Pavlopoulos said on Sunday night. "What is inconceivable is the raw violence that undermines social peace and turns against the property of innocent people."

As darkness fell, groups of youths, some masked and others wearing motorcycle helmets, used trash cans and overturned cars to erect burning barricades in the streets around the Athens Polytechnic. Clouds of tear gas hung in the air, sending passers-by rushing for cover. Other curious onlookers peeped out from street corners, using mobile phones to snap pictures.

Local media reported several people sought treatment for breathing problems, but no serious injuries were reported.

Greece has seen frequent and sometimes violent demonstrations in recent months against the increasingly unpopular conservative government of Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis and his economic reforms. Karamanlis has also seen his popularity plummet due to a land scandal that has put the opposition Socialists consistently ahead in opinion polls.

Violence often breaks out during demonstrations in Greece between riot police and anarchists, who also attack banks, high-end shops, diplomatic vehicles and foreign car dealerships in late-night fire-bombings that rarely cause injuries.

The self-styled anarchist movement partly has its roots in the resistance to the military dictatorship that ruled Greece from 1967 to 1974. The youths often take refuge inside university buildings or campuses, from which police are barred under Greek law.

The youths, who often march in demonstrations under the red and black anarchist banner, espouse general anti-capitalist and anti-establishment principles, and have long-running animosity toward the police as well as the media.

Full details of how much damage was caused in the two days of rioting were not immediately available.

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