Clashes at Athens building taken over by migrants
By Elena Becatoros
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.
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Anti-foreigner riots break out in Athens
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.
~ Deutsche Welle ~
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