Athens 28/2: Law & Order lost control for few hours
May be 500.000 people followed calls from leftist, communist, anarchist groups, student collectives, the relatives of the Tempi victims, the calls for general strike from unions, the calls from organized football hooligans, to join a gathering at Syntagma Square in the center of Athens. see one of the many calls https://athens.indymedia.org/post/1634333/ Biggest gathering since long time. The crowd took over the surrounding avenues from 9 o clock in the morning until early evening. Also participating, voters of ND government, nationalists and few nazis, which got beaten up in between.
The conflict escalated in the last weeks between survivors, relatives of Tempi masscre and the Government about the reasons for the explosion of the commercial train, which collided with the passenger train, two years ago. Allready a month ago, Syntagma saw a huge gathering and exchange of hostility with MAT.
Society is demanding truth and justice, the State offers stupid attempts to cover up the responsibilities. It was anounced to deploy 5.000 police officers for 28. february in Athens to controll the situation, but authorities failed to mobilize them. Because all other cities had demonstrations the same day.
Immediately after the speeches by the relatives had concluded, some hundred people found themselves together and attacked police forces, which guarded the parliament. Some dozens of people decided to seek shelter behind the police forces - after shouting 2 hours "Murderers, Murderers" to them. Other people did not agree with the riots. Many people joined the riots. When the media again calls us provocateurs, the reality on Friday was different. The rioters were part of society. People from all kind of age, gender and "nationality" participated.
The marble steps of the Grande Bretagne Luxury hotel were broken with hammers to pelt stones at the riot police, which were positioned on the grounds of Parliament. After half an hour, more MAT forces managed to clear Syntagma for a while, many people went home. But still big crowds moved in the center, building barricades around Omonia and clashing with police.
Ministry of Citizen Protection said the hooded individuals were members of an active group in the anarchist/anti-authoritarian space, which in previous days had been calling for an “insurrection” on the occasion of Friday’s general strike and rally. Regime media says "other groups of protesters on Syntagma Square began to participate in the rioting, resulting in a momentary loss of control on the part of the police."
A bigger group of the demonstration was resisting on Syngrou Avenue against the water canons, using marble stones from ancient monuments and attacking the police forces, which guarded the HQ of Hellenic Train. Earlier this morning 25 members of Rouvikonas got arrested on the roof of this building for a bannder drop.
At afternoon people returned to Syntagma for the next round of confrontations. Even if a majority was demonstrating peacefull, the State is loosing ground, if 15% of the metropolis population takes to the streets. Police subsequently said that they made 66 arrests during the day and that 29 officers were injured.
Creative Commons by-sa: Weitergabe unter gleichen Bedingungen