Athens still burning over teenager’s death

Hurriyet Daily News with wires

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Demonstrators clashed with security forces outside the country's biggest prison and a university in central Athens while police said groups of youths attacked stores in several districts or blocked main roads.

Formal homicide charges against the police officer accused of shooting 15-year-old Andreas Grigoropoulos failed to stem public anger and Greek embassies in other countries have also become a target for protests. Authorities said yesterday that at least one man was injured and hospitalized. But under fire Premier Costas Karamanlis went to a European Union summit in Brussels.

The attacks follow the worst rioting Greece has seen in decades.
At least 70 people have been injured since Saturday when the rioting broke out within hours of the killing of the Greek teen. A general strike on Wednesday brought much of the country to a standstill and badly disrupted flights in and out of Greece. A clash at Koyrdallos prison in a western Athens suburb blew up after protesters threw rocks and other missiles at police who fired tear gas to force the protesters back, a prison guard told Agence France-Presse.

Demonstrators later staged a sit down protest in front of the prison amid more confrontations with security forces. Police said there was also unrest at the Athens agriculture university, which has been occupied by students, and that rampaging youths were attacking stores in Nea Smyrni and Galatsi districts of the capital.

School students also blocked several main roads in Athens.

More than 100 schools and some 15 university campuses remain occupied by youth demonstrators in Athens and the second city of Thessaloniki, with student groups having announced a major rally for Friday.

As the demonstrators and left-wing unions have sought to focus the public anger against the right-wing government, PM Costas Karamanlis traveled to Brussels for an EU summit yesterday. Authorities have renewed appeals for calm, with influential church leaders joining in attempts to ease tension. "This tragedy cannot be resolved by burning and destroying the property of people who themselves have problems," Orthodox Church leader, Archbishop Ieronymos, said, according to the Associated Press.

Athens’ hands-off response to the rioting will damage its already low popularity ratings, polls said. But PM has ignored calls for early elections. "The most likely scenario now is that Karamanlis will call elections in two or three months' time," Georges Prevelakis, professor of geopolitics at Sorbonne University, told Reuters.