Des échauffourées à Athènes impliquant un groupe d’extrême-droite et des anarchistes font 14 blessés

10.05.2009

Des affrontements à Athènes entre d’une part un groupe d’extrême droite et des immigrés et d’autre part de jeunes anarchistes et la police ont fait 14 blessés samedi. Cinq immigrés ont été hospitalisés après avoir été attaqués par des membres du groupe néo-nazi Chryssi Avghi (Aube d’Or),qui voulaient les déloger d’un squat. Par ailleurs, 150 anarchistes ont bombardé la police avec divers projectiles, dont des cocktails molotov, blessant 9 agents. (SWISS TXT)

Anti-immigration clashes in Athens

Saturday 09 May 2009

Violence erupted in Athens after some 300 members of a neo-Nazi group gathered to warn against « hordes of illegal immigrants » and later clashed with a group of squatters. Elsewhere in the city leftist Anarchists clashed with police.

AFP – Clashes broke out Saturday in central Athens between far-right extremists and a group of squatters, and elsewhere in the Greek capital between left-wing anarchists and police.
Violence erupted after some 300 members of neo-Nazi group Chryssi Avghi, or Golden Dawn, gathered in Omonia square saying they wanted to liberate Athens and Greece from what they described as « hordes of illegal immigrants ».

Police cordoned off the square to prevent a counter-protest by several far-left groups and NGOs from entering.

The neo-Nazis unrolled a huge Greek flag and banners calling for the « departure of foreigners from Greece » and claiming « foreigners equal crime ».

They then headed on to Athens’ old Court of Appeal where 500 immigrants have been squatting for several weeks and are threatened with expulsion by the government.
Police allowed the protesters to rally past the building which they proceded to bombard with various projectiles and non-lethal stun grenades. « Out of Greece » and « Leave Greece for the Greeks, » they shouted as they made Nazi salutes.

Immigrants retaliated by throwing stones from the upper floors of the building and riot police were called to break up the clashes.

Further fighting then broke out between the neo-Nazis and a group of anarchists while the police struggled to separate the two sides.

Earlier Saturday some 150 young anarchists, protesting against the Omonia demonstration which they termed a « racist gathering », threw Molotov cocktails at security forces in another area of the Greek capital.

Tear gas fired by the police forced the youths to retreat to the sanctuary of their polytechnic school but not before three of them were arrested.

Rights groups on Friday denounced the deplorable conditions faced by the 500 squatting migrants holed up in the old court building where they inhabit eight floors with no electricity or running water.

They have called on the Greek government to abandon a planned police operation to expel the immigrants and suggested instead that the building is cleaned until appropriate alternative lodging can be found.

Anti-foreigner riots break out in Athens

http://www.dw-world.de

10.05.2009

Far-right Greek extremists have clashed with police, after protesters attacked an old courthouse in central Athens, where hundreds of illegal immigrants have been squatting for months.

The violence brought downtown Athens to a standstill, and erupted after some 300 members of neo-Nazi group Chryssi Avghi, or Golden Dawn, gathered for a protest. They claimed they wanted to liberate Athens and Greece from what they described as « hordes of illegal immigrants ».

They unrolled a huge Greek flag and banners calling for the « departure of foreigners from Greece » and claiming « foreigners equal crime ».

At the city’s old Court of Appeal, where 500 immigrants have been squatting for several weeks, dozens of protesters hurled rocks and firecrackers at the eight-story building which has no electricity, running water or sanitation. Others shouted « Out of Greece » and « Leave Greece for the Greeks ».

The squatters retaliated by throwing stones from the upper floors of the building and riot police were called to break up the clashes.

Counter-protest triggers further violence

Further fighting broke out between the neo-Nazis and a group of anarchists, as police struggled to separate the two sides.

In a counter-protest, the young anarchists protested against the extremists’ demonstration, which they termed a « racist gathering ». They set fire to garbage cans and cars. There were no injuries but at least two people were arrested.

The clashes followed a call from rights groups for the Greek government to abandon a planned police operation, that would see the immigrants expelled from the old courthouse. They suggested instead the building be cleaned until appropriate alternative lodging can be found.

Greece has been rocked by a wave of violence since December, when the fatal police shooting of a teenager triggered the country’s worst riots in decades.

Affrontements dans le centre d’Athènes

Leparisien.fr

9 mai 2009

De violents affrontements se sont produits samedi soir dans le centre d’Athènes entre d’une part un groupe d’extrême droite et un groupe d’immigrés retranchés dans un squat et d’autre part entre des anarchistes et la police.

Les échauffourées se sont produits à l’occasion d’un rassemblement de quelque 300 membres du groupe néo-nazi Chryssi Avghi (Aube d’Or) sur la place centrale d’Omonia «pour libérer Athènes et la Grèce des hordes des immigrés clandestins».

A l’issue du rassemblement, les participants se sont dirigés vers l’ancienne Cour d’appel d’Athènes, abandonnée depuis 2000 et squattée depuis quelques semaines par un demi-millier d’immigrés menacés d’expulsion.

Les policiers les ont laissés défiler devant le bâtiment, que les manifestants ont attaqué avec divers projectiles et en lançant des grenades assourdissantes. Ils criaient «Hors de Grèce» en faisant le salut nazi. Les immigrés épaulés par des comités de soutien grecs ont répondu en lançant des pierres depuis les étages supérieurs.

Les forces anti-émeutes les ont ensuite dispersés en utilisant des gaz lacrymogènes.

Auparavant, un groupe de 150 jeunes anarchistes qui protestaient contre «le rassemblement raciste» ont attaqué les forces de l’ordre à coup de cocktails Molotov dans le quartier proche de l’école Polytechnique.

Les policiers ont repoussé à l’aide de gaz lacrymogènes les jeunes qui se sont réfugiés dans l’école. Trois jeunes ont été interpellés, selon une source policière

Multiple clashes erupt between neo-Nazis, leftists and police

9 May 2009

There have been violent clashes in the Greek capital between far-right protesters and the police.

Demonstrators hurled fire bombs and set fire to bins and at least one car in Athens, while attacking a building where illegal immigrants were living.

Riot police responded with tear gas and have arrested at least two people.

The clashes happened at the same time as a protest was held over illegal immigration.

Clashes at Athens building taken over by migrants

9 mai 2009

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Far-right protesters tried to storm an old courthouse in central Athens Saturday where hundreds of illegal immigrants have lived for months amid piles of fetid rubbish and human waste without electricity, running water or sanitation.

The group of several dozen people hurled rocks and firecrackers at the eight-story building from the street and nearby buildings, while those living inside threw back slabs of masonry and bricks. At least three people were hurt in the clashes, two of them with head injuries.

Police fired tear gas and stun grenades, and a tense standoff followed. Some immigrants accused the police of ailing to protect them and said they would stand guard around the building throughout the night because of fears of further attacks.

The attack followed an anti-immigrant demonstration by the far-right Chrisi Avgi, or Golden Dawn group. Scores of protesters waved banners reading « foreigners means crime » and « we have become foreigners in our own country. »

« We didn’t do anything. Why do they treat us like this? » questioned Fouad, a 33-year-old Moroccan immigrant living in the building. « The police did nothing. … Here in Greece, human rights don’t exist. »

Left-wing and immigrants’ rights groups staged a counter-demonstration nearby, and riot police kept the two sides apart.

Greece is on a main smuggling route for immigrants heading to Europe, with tens of thousands entering the country every year. Authorities say the Greece needs help to cope because it stands on Europe’s eastern frontier.

Thousands of the new arrivals head to the cities in search of work. But with the global financial crisis beginning to bite in Greece, both immigrants and aid groups say jobs are becoming scarcer, leaving many unable to pay for even basic necessities. Although Greece has not yet faced major layoffs, the economy is slowing and unemployment jumped to 9.4 percent in January.

Aid workers said Saturday that conditions at the courthouse had been allowed to spiral out of control and turn into a public health hazard. The building is owned by an insurance fund and has been vacant since 2000.

« It’s a lot worst now, » said Maurice, a 22-year-old Algerian living among the estimated 500 squatters, mostly men from Morocco and Algeria, inside the old Appeals Court building. « We live in misery. »

He, like all the other squatters willing to speak, would only give his first name for fear of trouble from the authorities.

« It is an epidemiological time bomb in the center of Athens, » said Nikitas Kanakis, head of the Greek section of the medical aid group Medecins du Monde (Doctors of the World), which set up a mobile medical unit outside the building Friday.

The immigrants live amid piles of rubbish and human waste in former judges’ offices. Several men share a room, with most using cardboard covered with the occasional blanket to sleep on.

With no sanitation, they use empty offices, the roof and even the corridors as toilets. But the stench emanating from the building is so strong that it wafts across the street, a few hundred yards (meters) away from tourist hotels.

The immigrants began cleaning up the worst of the rotting garbage in the building this week, removing dozens of bags of trash.

It is unclear when the first immigrants broke in, but many say they have been there for months, even a year. Medecins du Monde said the situation came to their attention in the last few days. They believe diseases such as hepatitis are rife, while many of those seeking their help were suffering from skin complaints such as scabies.

« It’s clear that we don’t have the means to cover the massive health issues that this place has, » said Yiannis Mouzalas of Medecins du Monde. He said authorities must help to sanitize and clean the building, and that they had been irresponsible in allowing the situation to become so severe.

« We consider it’s not possible for this situation to have been created without (their) knowledge, » he said. « We are afraid that they have chosen irresponsibility so that the problem is solved by the police and through racism. »

Athens Deputy Mayor Eleftherios Skiadas told media that City Hall has no jurisdiction over abandoned private buildings.

Greek police clash with youths

Greek riot police fired teargas to disperse groups of stone-throwing protesters in central Athens after they hurled fire bombs and set cars ablaze.

Greece has been rocked by a wave of violence since December, when the fatal police shooting of a teenager triggered the worst riots in decades, shaking the fragile conservative government.

The youths, who police described as anarchists, set fire to garbage cans and cars. There were no injuries but at least two arrests in the clashes that started after about 200 people protested against a rally by far rightists.

Police said the Golden Dawn ultra nationalist group gathered in the city’s Omonia square and attacked immigrants.

« There were reports by immigrants that they were attacked and beaten by far rightists, » said a police spokesman who requested anonymity. « Three were taken to hospital. »

Thousands of illegal immigrants have crossed into Greece, hoping to find their way into the European Union. Most have no jobs and live in squalid conditions.

visitors location counter

~ par Alain Bertho sur 10 Mai 2009.

Publié dans émeutes, riots