ATHENS - GANGS of Greek high school students hurled stones and fire bombs at police stations in Athens suburbs on Thursday, in a sixth day of anti-government violence since the police shooting of a teenager.
Central Athens was calmer than in previous days as people returned to work after a 24-hour general strike on Wednesday called by unions opposed to pension reforms and privatisations.
The shooting provided the spark for an explosion of popular anger over corruption scandals and economic hardship, triggering Greece's worst unrest since the end of military rule in the 1970s. Violence has hit at least 10 cities and caused property damage worth hundreds of millions of euros.
Trouble flared before dawn in Athens when students occupying the university clashed with police. By mid-morning, it spread to 15 police stations, from upmarket neighbourhoods of north Athens to the working-class west. Leftist groups planned another protest rally in the evening.
Data released on Thursday showed that economic hardship is hitting more Greeks. Unemployment, especially high among young people and women, rose to 7.4 per cent in September from 7.1 in August, reversing four years of decline, and economists said it would keep climbing as the global crisis reached Greece.
'Our priority is to help social groups that are most in need and protect jobs,' Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis said in Brussels, where he is attending an EU summit.
The police killing of 15-year-old Alexandros Grigoropoulos on Saturday ignited public anger at police brutality and economic difficulties aggravated by the global downturn.
Many students carried banners reading 'Why?' in Athens and around 500 people besieged the central police station in the northern city of Thessaloniki, while crowds gathered in the western port of Patras and the northern city of Ioannina.
More protests were announced for Friday and Monday, and many Greeks asked how much longer the government could remain in power.
'The government has shown it cannot handle this. If police start imposing the law everyone will say the military junta is back,' said Yannis Kalaitzakis, 49, an electrician. 'The government is stuck between a rock and a hard place.'
Spreads widen In bond markets, the spread between Greek debt and German benchmark bonds - a measure of perceived risk - reached its widest point this decade, nearly 190 basis points, amid fears of further upheaval. 'We ... do not expect investors to forget this situation quickly,' said Mr David Keeble, head of fixed income research at Calyon Bank.
Many Greeks were angry that the 37-year-old policeman charged with murdering the teenager did not express remorse to investigators on Wednesday. He said he fired warning shots in self-defence which ricocheted to kill the youth.
'Pouring petrol on the flames,' said Ethnos newspaper.
Epaminondas Korkoneas and his work partner, who is charged as an accomplice, were sent to jail pending trial by a prosecutor on Wednesday. Cases often take months to reach court.
Opposition leader George Papandreou appealed for an end to the violence.
Greeks also protested in Paris, Berlin, London, Rome, The Hague, Moscow, New York, Italy and Cyprus. Attacks on a police station and bank by Spanish youths in Madrid and Barcelona also fuelled concern about copy-cat protests.
While the Greek government, which has a one-seat majority in parliament, appeared to have weathered the immediate storm, its hands-off response to the rioting will damage its already low popularity ratings, pollsters said. The opposition socialist party, which leads in the polls, has called for an election.
'The most likely scenario now is that Karamanlis will call elections in two or three months' time,' Prof Georges Prevelakis, professor of geopolitics at Sorbonne University in Paris, said.
On Wednesday, hundreds of thousands of Greeks walked off the job. Unions say privatisations, tax rises and pension reform have worsened conditions, especially for the fifth of Greeks who live below the poverty line, just as the global downturn is hurting the 240 billion euro (S$468 billion) economy.
The Greek Commerce Confederation said damage to businesses in Athens alone was worth about 200 million euros, with 565 shops seriously damaged.
Mr Karamanlis, who swept to power during the euphoria of the 2004 Athens Olympics, announced subsidies and tax relief measures for those affected, but shopkeepers were indignant.
'I don't care if and when they are going to give me money, l care about getting the shop running again,' said clothing shop owner, Mr Michael Bernelos. 'I don't want mercy or handouts.'
In four years of conservative rule, a series of scandals, devastating forest fires and unsuccessful economic measures have erased the optimistic mood of 2004. -- REUTERS
