Asylum Seekers Riot in AthensDAILY EXPRESS:
Hundreds of migrants waiting to submit asylum applications rioted in central Athens, setting fire to rubbish bins and attacking passing cars.Protesters said the riot began when one man fell into a nearby canal after authorities told the crowd that no more applications could be submitted. Only a small number of applications can be submitted each week.
It was not immediately clear how the man fell into the canal. Police said he was injured and was taken by ambulance to a hospital. They said they were investigating the incident.
Outraged asylum-seekers began setting fire to rubbish bins and throwing them into the street, and ripped branches off trees to set them alight. A smaller group threw rocks at passing cars, stopping some vehicles and banging on them with their hands. There were no reports of any passers-by being injured.
The riot lasted for about an hour, and riot police who were on standby nearby did not intervene. A fire truck extinguished the blazes.
>>> | December 6, 2008
NZZ Online:
Schwere Krawalle in Griechenland: Tod eines Jugendlichen löst Protestwelle ausDer Tod eines 15-Jährigen durch Schüsse der Polizei hat in mehreren griechischen Städten schwere Krawalle ausgelöst. In Athen und Thessaloniki sowie auf Kreta protestierten mehrere hundert Jugendliche gewaltsam gegen die Polizei.(sda/ap) Der 16-jährige Athener war am Samstagabend bei gewalttätigen Zusammenstössen zwischen Polizisten und linksextremen Gruppen in Athen getötet worden. Die Gruppe von Jugendlichen hatte nach Angaben von Augenzeugen am Samstagabend einen Streifenwagen attackiert. Ein Polizist gab drei Schüsse auf die Gruppe ab und traf den Jugendlichen in der Brust.
>>> | 7. Dezember 2008
BBC:
Fresh Riots Erupt in Greek CitiesBBC:
Thousands of protesters have attacked banks and shops in Athens and Greece's northern city of Thessaloniki, angered by the police's killing of a teenager.Demonstrators threw petrol bombs, rocks and other objects at the buildings and at police, who responded with tear gas.
Greek Interior Minister Prokopis Pavlopoulos has appealed for restraint.
The streets of the capital were already strewn with glass and rubble after a night of rioting sparked by Saturday's shooting, in the Exarchia district.
Police said Saturday's riots had left 24 police officers injured, one seriously, and 31 shops, nine banks and 25 cars damaged or burned.
Six people were arrested, one of them for carrying a weapon.
Alex Hadjisavvas, the owner of a shop on Patission Avenue in central Athens, told the BBC that many nearby businesses had been looted.
"The window was smashed, the shop front damaged and a large quantity of stock taken from inside has been used by the rioters as material to start street fires," he said.
The unrest, the worst in the country in several years, later spread to Thessaloniki and the southern island of Crete.
>>> | December 7, 2008
Watch BBC video: Rioters throw stones and petrol bombs at police, who respond with tear gas >>>THE TELEGRAPH:
Third Day of Rioting in Greek CitiesGreek rioters have fought police in Thessaloniki and Trikala in a third day of violence sparked by the death of a 15-year-old boy shot by Athens police on Saturday night.In Athens, protesters continued to occupy two university campuses and block main road and rail systems, with the rioters promising fresh demonstrations in five cities on Monday night.
About 15 protesters also occupied the Greek consulate in Berlin, taking down its flag and raising a banner that read: "Murderer state".
About 300 students in Thessaloniki, the country's second-largest city, were reportedly battling riot police on Monday morning, setting alight rubbish bins and attacking cars and shop fronts.
At the same time a policeman in Trikala, a small town in central Greece, was injured in fighting.
The authorities in the capital were preparing for a mass rally by the Communist party, still a powerful force in the east Mediterranean state.
On Saturday night and throughout Sunday, Greek cities endured the worst street violence seen for years as youths fought police.
The clashes erupted after police shot dead 15-year-old Alexandros Grigoropoulos in Exarchia, a neighbourhood of central Athens.
>>> | December 8, 2008
WELT ONLINE:
Chaos in Griechenland, Konsulat in Berlin besetztGriechenland kommt nach dem Tod eines 15-Jährigen nicht zur Ruhe. Am dritten Tag in Folge gab es teils gewaltsame Proteste von Jugendlichen. Vermummte Demonstranten und die Bereitschaftspolizisten lieferten sich in Thessaloniki heftige Straßenschlachten. In Berlin besetzen Demonstranten das griechische Konsulat.Griechenland versinkt im Chaos. In Thessaloniki, der zweitgrößten Stadt des Landes, setzten am Montagvormittag etwa 300 Demonstranten in der Nähe eines Polizeikommissariats Autos in Brand und schlugen Schaufensterscheiben ein.
Die von Studierenden besetzte Universität Thessaloniki wurde auf Anordnung des Rektorats bis mindestens Dienstag geschlossen. Auch in Athen und anderen Städten ruhte der Lehrbetrieb in mehreren Universitäten und Hochschulen. In der Stadt Trikala wurde am Montag ein Polizist bei Auseinandersetzungen mit Demonstranten verletzt. Auch dort wurde eine Bahnverbindung blockiert.
Linksgerichtete Gruppen kündigten für den Nachmittag weitere Demonstrationen in mehreren Städten an. Die Kommunistische Partei Griechenlands (KKE) veranstaltete eine Protestkundgebung am zentralen Athener Omonia-Platz, das Bündnis der radikalen Linken (SYRIZA) wollte vor dem Universitätsgebäude im Stadtzentrum demonstrieren. Innenminister Prokopis Pavlopoulos und sein Stellvertreter boten ihren Rücktritt an, Ministerpräsident Konstantinos Karamanlis lehnte jedoch ab.
>>> AFP/AP/dpa/fsl | 8. Dezember 2008
SPIEGELONLINE INTERNATIONAL:
Demonstrators Occupy Greek Consulate in Berlin A group of 30 demonstrators has occupied the Greek consulate in Berlin to protest the killing of a teenager by police in Athens on Saturday night. The Berlin protesters are behaving peacefully.A group of demonstrators occupied the Greek consulate in Berlin on Monday morning in protest over the fatal shooting of a 15-year-old boy by Athens police on Saturday that triggered the worst rioting Greece has seen in 25 years.
Some 30 people pushed their way into the lobby of the consulate at Wittenbergplatz in western Berlin at around 9.40 a.m. local time, said SPIEGEL TV reporter Martin Heller, who is on the scene.
Around 120 German police cordoned off the area outside the consulate and negotiations are underway with the demonstrators, who were behaving peacefully and had made no demands, police said. At around 11 a.m., 10 people wearing hats and scarves to mask their faces appeared on the balcony of the consulate and shouted: "Police Assassins" and "Alexandros, That Was Murder!"
>>> cro -- with wire reports | December 8, 2008
NZZ Online:
Griechenlands Regierung verspricht Aufklärung: Nach Tod eines 15-Jährigen durch Polizeikugel - Wieder UnruhenDer griechische Ministerpräsident Kostas Karamanlis will nach dem Tod eines 15-jährigen Schülers durch eine Polizeikugel die Verantwortlichen zur Rechenschaft ziehen.(sda/dpa/ap) «Wir werden alles tun, damit diese Tragödie sich nicht wiederholt», sagte Karamanlis in einer Fernsehansprache. Für die schweren Ausschreitungen am Wochenende machte er «extreme Elemente» verantwortlich. «Deren einziges Motiv ist die Gewalt und die Zerstörung», sagte der konservative Regierungschef: «Wir werden das nicht dulden.»
>>> | 8. Dezember 2008
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