Greek president in heart op on day 10 of protests

December 15, 2008 2:00 pm ET

ATHENS (AFP) —

Greece's president was fitted with a pacemaker Monday on the 10th day of civil unrest by Athens protesters as a landswap scandal returned to haunt its troubled right-wing government.

Karolos Papoulias, 79, underwent his operation as riot squads ringed Athens police headquarters following demonstrations marking appearances before magistrates for six militants among 86 arrested over weekend violence.

An ex-socialist foreign minister and track athlete in his youth, Papoulias was said by doctors to be "in perfect condition," according to a hospital statement carried by the Athens News Agency.

While evening rallies got underway, and week-long protests were announced, demonstrators admitted a fear of their mobilisation "deflating" for the first time since the police killing of a teenager triggered widespread unrest.

Greek tourism leaders, meanwhile, said a strike over wages by staff at the Acropolis was more damaging to their industry -- with the global economic downturn posing the greatest threat for sales of summer packages.

"Let's be clear, the country is not in the grip of terrorists -- so far there has been neither victims nor violence against people," Argyro Philli, the head of the Greek travel agents association, told AFP.

Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis -- who holds the real power -- went to Cyprus for a funeral as more than 1,000 youths descended on police headquarters with traffic, public buildings and state radio disrupted in several cities.

Few clashes involved firebombing and tear gas -- the cocktail of choice for Athens radicals -- the main one coming outside the prison where two officers await trial over the December 6 killing of Alexis Grigoropoulos, 15.

In Larissa, youths were met with tear gas as they hurled stones at the central city's main police station after four protesters were bound over facing fire-raising charges. The group retreated to the occupied medical school.

After one Sunday poll showed majority public support for a "popular uprising" against Karamanlis' administration, protests were also mounted in Thessaloniki, Patras, Ioannina and on the island of Lesbos.

Greece's education system remains beset by student occupations and mass truancy with just a handful of teaching days left before Christmas, while in a sign of enduring anger, banks were targeted in the central town of Volos.

"There's real class hate around, particularly when you see people carrying five bags of shopping, not caring about others who starve," said 29-year-old protester Zachi as well-to-do Athenians exited nearby boutiques.

But as the sprawling mound of candles, football scarves, cigarettes and other mementoes rose up at the shrine where Grigoropoulos fell, protesters also injected a note of black humour into their movement.

AFP witnessed demonstrators shoving a water pistol into the face of a riot policeman or -- in the case of one passing elderly woman -- sheltering from a hail of tangerines and tomatoes aimed at security forces, under an umbrella.

Meanwhile, initial findings from ongoing parliamentary inquiries into shady deals with an Orthodox monastery found fault with government conduct going back 10 years to the previous socialist administration.

Two members of Karamanlis's government quit over the disposal of valuable state land that lost Greek taxpayers millions of euros (dollars). Opposition groupings did not endorse the findings, with their recommendations to follow.

Despite the troubles at home, Karamanlis -- who has steadfastly rejected calls to quit -- went ahead with a planned visit for the funeral of former Cypriot president Tassos Papadopoulos, who died of cancer Friday.

After a day of quiet, riots resume in Athens

The Associated Press Published: December 15, 2008

Athens:

Youths protested outside the main police headquarters of the capital Monday, pelting riot police officers with flour and other objects to protest the shooting death of a teenager. Riot forces responded with tear gas.

An estimated 2,000 youths at the rally blocked one of the main avenues of Athens, chanted slogans and set fire to trash bins before dispersing. Two demonstrators were arrested.

Students also staged peaceful blockades of several other busy roads Monday in the capital and protested at the main court complex, where five people arrested during riots last week were to appear before an examining magistrate. Riot police officers guarded the complex and no disturbances were reported.

Greece has experienced the worst riots in decades after a 15-year-old boy died Dec. 6 in a police shooting. The riots quickly spread from Athens to more than a dozen cities. For a week, youths smashed and burned stores and cars, and hurled gasoline bombs and rocks at riot forces, who responded with stun grenades and large amounts of tear gas.

Dozens of people were hurt in the rioting, while hundreds of shops were damaged or looted and more than 200 people arrested. The policeman accused of killing the teenager has been charged with murder and is being held pending trial.

But the protests are widening focus from anger at the police to a general show of anger at the increasingly unpopular conservative government and the economic hardships faced by many Greeks.

The opposition Socialist leader, George Papandreou, on Monday repeated calls for early elections.

"The government cannot deal with this crisis," he said. "It cannot protect people - their rights or property - and it cannot identify with the anxiety felt by the younger generation."

Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis, whose party has only a single-seat majority in Parliament, has repeatedly rejected demands that he resign and call early elections, saying the country needs a steady hand in a time of crisis.

Sunday was the first trouble-free day since the killing of the teenager, but some groups, mostly leftist students, have vowed to keep up the protests until the government addresses their concerns.

Protesters have called for riot police officers to be removed from the streets, for the police to be disarmed and for growing social inequality to be resolved.