Greek police fought a pitched battle on Thursday with around 100 young protesters which saw the center of Athens shut down for several hours amid a hail of stones and heavy clouds of tear gas.
Forty people were detained during the clashes in front of the parliament building that broke out on the sidelines of a student demonstration against higher education reforms, as deputies inside debated a new university law.
The youths, most wearing hoods or masks to avoid identification, burned down a guard post near parliament, destroyed two bank cash dispensers and threw stones at the Grande Bretagne, one of Athens' top hotels.
Police responded with tear gas and made 11 arrests among the 40 people detained.
Ten officers were slightly injured, the police said, and Greek media reported that at least 12 protesters were also hurt.
The clashes spread to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, forcing two presidential guards that normally mount a 24-hour vigil over the monument to flee.
"Every democratic citizen condemns the sacrilege that occurred today at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier," government spokesman Theodoros Roussopoulos said.
The protesters also fired slingshots, breaking windows at the parliament building, state television reported.
A left-wing youth group that co-organized the demonstration accused police of "blind violence."
"This is a black day in the history of our country, when the center of Athens ran red with the blood of protesters ... defending their right for an education that serves real needs," the Left Coalition youth wing said.
The incidents occurred at the end of a protest march involving thousands of university students, the latest of a weekly series of demonstrations against the government's higher education reforms.
Another protest was held in Salonika, Greece's second-largest city. The students, backed by labor unions, left-wing parties and the union of university teachers Posdep, are demanding the withdrawal of a government bill tightening the academic and fiscal management of public universities.
The government's parliamentary majority approved the controversial university bill on Thursday.
"We will not back down, and even if this bill passes into law these reforms will not be applied," 23-year-old protest organizer Dimitris Fakalis said.
The students say the bill, coupled with plans to permit the operation of private universities -- a measure requiring constitutional amendment -- threatened to undermine public higher education. Under the current constitution, higher education is exclusively public and free tuition is guaranteed to all Greek citizens. The students say the changes introduce private-sector standards and would make higher education prohibitively expensive for poorer families.
More than 200 university faculties have been occupied by students for over two months, leading to concern the academic year will be lost.
also see story:
Greek Cypriots dismantle wall dividing capital
‘NO SECURITY RISK’: The Railway Bureau reassured the public that the technicians’ activities were limited to technical guidance and did not involve sensitive systems The Railway Bureau yesterday said it had invited eight Chinese technicians to assist with an airport MRT construction project. The bureau issued the confirmation after an Internet user said Chinese nationals had entered the construction zone of Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport’s Terminal 3 project. They asked why “individuals from an enemy state” were allowed access to such a major national infrastructure project, which raised serious concerns over Taiwan’s industrial safety, sensitive systems and information security. The bureau’s Northern Region Engineering Branch Office said subcontractor Taiwan Handle Industrial Co (台灣手把工業) of the Taoyuan airport MRT’s “Contract No. CU05 Project A14 Station Civil, MEP &
The National Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology yesterday showcased its locally developed variants of the Vision 60 robotic patrol dog, which it plans to deploy on the nation’s outlying territories in the South China Sea. The variants were produced under the Joint Lab project — created by the institute and domestic companies — and assembled with domestically produced motors, lenses and artificial intelligence (AI) systems alongside licensed tech from the US, Missile and Rocket Systems Research Division deputy director Jen Kuo-kang (任國光) told the media event at a military base in Taipei’s Dazhi (大直) area. Taiwan has built up its strengths
TIT-FOR-TAT: The US allegedly revoked the visa of a Chinese national working at Xinhua News Agency in the US in response to Beijing’s expulsion of Vivian Wang The Presidential Office yesterday condemned China for expelling a New York Times correspondent from Beijing following the newspaper’s interview with President William Lai (賴清德), saying the move highlighted Beijing’s suppression of press freedom and its threat to international news media. Taiwan has noted a series of recent incidents in which Beijing used similar tactics to “threaten and pressure international media outlets and journalists,” Presidential Office spokeswoman Karen Kuo (郭雅慧) said in a statement. “This concerns not only press freedom and freedom of expression, but also the safety of journalists, and Taiwan and relevant partners are paying close attention to the situation,” she
NOT IMMEDIATE: Taiwan has a chance to appeal the proposed 10 percent tariff before it starts, while other countries face a 12.5 percent tariff from the trade office Taiwan is among 60 economies determined by the US to have failed to impose or enforce a ban on the importation of goods produced with forced labor, according to a notice released on Tuesday by the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR), which proposed imposing an additional 10 percent or more tariff on them. The USTR in a statement said that following an investigation, it had determined under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 that the failure of the 60 economies to impose and effectively enforce a prohibition on the importation of goods produced with forced labor is
RSS