Violence flares at Greek marches

(AFP) – Nov. 17, 2009

ATHENS — Greek police fired tear gas and detained more than 200 people as clashes broke out with stone-throwing protesters at a march to honour a 1973 anti-junta student revolt in Athens on Tuesday.

Three police officers were injured as violence flared at the end of the demonstration.

Tens of thousands of demonstrators including students and adolescents marched through Athens city centre, chanting slogans against capitalism and NATO and in favour of migrants' legalisation.

Around 6,500 officers were deployed across Athens for the annual march to the US embassy which is often marred by clashes between anarchists and riot police.

Tensions were particularly high this year as the event came nearly 12 months after the fatal shooting of teenager Alexis Grigoropoulos by a policeman, which sparked riots across Greece.

Protestors chanted: "Police traitors, murderers, torturers" and "Americans out" while some carried a placard reading "Remember December, the 6th December" in English -- referring to the date of the Grigoropoulos shooting.

Uniformed soldiers and sailors from the Greek military trade union marched behind a banner which read: "No soldiers beyond our borders. Dissolve NATO".

The march began late afternoon at the Athens Polytechnic, where at least 44 people were killed in the 1973 student uprising.

The annual demonstration often takes on an anti-American tone because of Washington's support for the military regime that ruled Greece from 1967 to 1974.

One youth was arrested at the start of Tuesday's demonstration after police found a bottle of gasoline and a gas mask in his backpack.

The new socialist government that came to power last month has pledged a crackdown on heavy-handed policing that was a regular feature under the previous conservative administration.

The police presence around the march was reduced by around 1,500 officers to avoid provoking protesters, a police source said.

In addition to policing the march itself, the authorities boosted security around embassies, ministry buildings and the offices of foreign companies, which have in the past been the target of firebomb attacks.

Another demonstration in Greece's second city Thessaloniki also produced clashes between youths and riot police, while rival student groups clashed at the city's Aristotelio University before the march even began.

The student wing of conservative New Democracy party said 10 of its members were hospitalised with bruises after being attacked by leftists.