Thu, May 06, 2010 page1

• Three people die in firebombing at Athens bank

  • AP
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  Three people died when a bank went up in flames yesterday as tens of thousands of Greeks took to the streets to protest harsh spending cuts aimed at saving the country from bankruptcy.

  Rioters hurled paving stones and gasoline bombs at police, who responded with heavy use of tear gas.

  The fire brigade said the bodies were found in the wreckage of a Marfin Bank branch, on the route of the march in the city center.

  

  Riot policemen are engulfed in flames as they are hit with a gasoline bomb near the Greek parliament in Athens during a nationwide strike in Greece yesterday.

  PHOTO: REUTERS

  An estimated 100,000 people took to the streets during nationwide strikes to protest austerity measures imposed as a condition of bailout loans from the IMF and other eurozone governments to keep heavily indebted Greece from defaulting on its debts.

  At least two buildings were on fire, while hundreds of people were involved in the clashes as others marched peacefully.

  Protesters chanting “thieves, thieves” attempted to break past a police cordon guarding parliament and chased the ceremonial guards away from the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in front of the building.

  Union reaction until now had been relatively muted by Greece's volatile standards, although the country has been hit by a series of strikes. However, anger has mounted after the announcement of new austerity measures, which were essential to unlock the loans.

  Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou on Sunday announced cuts in salaries and pensions for civil servants, and another round of consumer tax increases, as a condition of the bailout.

  The loans are aimed at preventing Athens' debt troubles from becoming a wider crisis for the euro by engulfing other financially troubled countries such as Spain and Portugal.

  Violence also broke out in the northern city of Thessaloniki, where 20,000 people marched through the city center, with youths smashing windows of stores and fast food restaurants.

  The outpouring of anger appeared much more spontaneous than the frequent set piece battles between police and anarchist youths who often spark violence during Greek demonstrations.

  The marches came amid a 24-hour nationwide general strike that grounded all flights to and from Greece, shut down ports, schools and government services and left hospitals working with emergency medical staff. The Acropolis and all other ancient sites were closed, while journalists also walked off the job, suspending television and radio news broadcasts.

  Greek unions concede that the cash-strapped government was forced to increase consumer taxes and slash spending, including cutting salaries and pensions for civil servants, but they said low-income Greeks would suffer disproportionately from the measures.

  “These people are losing their rights, they are losing their future,” said Yiannis Panagopoulos, head of GSEE, one of the two largest union organizations. “The country cannot surrender without a fight.”

  IMF head Dominique Strauss-Kahn warned that the Greek crisis could spread to other countries.

  “Everyone must remain extremely vigilant,” to this risk, Strauss-Kahn said in an interview with Le Parisien yesterday.

  “I completely understand the Greek population's anger, its incomprehension at the size of the economic catastrophe,” Strauss-Kahn said, but added that Greeks must understand that without these measures, “the situation would be infinitely more serious.”
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