GREECE, BURNING!

As Greece burns, the Greeks say in one loud thundering voice, "we cannot have this anymore"! It took just a single bullet bought by the Greek, fired through a gun bought with Greek tax-payers money, by a Greek policeman paid by the Greek to protect the Greek, that rather killed a Greek! The Greek rose in unison to denounce this atrocity and rightly so, telling their police, their government and the whole listening world that the Greek bullet, the Greek gun and the Greek police is to be used in defense of the Greek and not to mow them down! The result, the cradle of civilization is burning! But what would Socrates, Aristotle, Pluto etc have said or done? Would they have said to the Greeks, this is not the way to react or send across your displeasure or that this is not the civilized way to do such things? Most likely, they would have found the so far four-day national siege unacceptable and would rather, a more communicative way is deployed to send the message across to the powers that is.

Icheoku says, hell knows no fury like the Greeks, enraged at the fatal police-shooting of a Greek schoolboy, 15 year old named Alexis Grigoropoulos; (pictured left) who was shot on Saturday, December 6th, 2008. The late Grigoropoulos was among some youths who allegedly threw stones at a passing police car, following which one of the two officers alighted from the now stopped police vehicle to fire three times at the teenager, hitting him on the chest. Grigoropoulos was later confirmed dead in a nearby hospital. The officer accused of the shooting tried to lie his way out of the mayhem by claiming that he fired warning shots to scare off a gang of youths and that the bullet ricocheted off the pavement, but witnesses disavowed his tale as baloney, stating that the officer, deliberately took aim at the boy. The shooting of Alexandros Grigoropoulos was the much needed tinder which ignited the ever smouldering inferno caused by years of frustration over high youth unemployment, the rising cost of living, stalled pension reform and a widening gap between rich and poor.

The Greek police have since the arrested two officers involved in the fatal shooting of the teenager, who was shot and killed in the Athens district of Exarchia on Saturday. Officer Epaminondas Korkoneas, 37, who allegedly fired the shots, was detained on suspicion of homicide while his partner Officer Vassilis Saraliotis, 31, was arrested as an accessory to homicide. Exarchia is a bohemian neighbourhood near central Athens that is considered an anarchist stronghold and as such is rarely patrolled by uniformed police. In 1985 another 15-year-old pupil, Michalis Kaltezas, was shot by a police officer, triggering violent clashes with the police in Exarchia. Exarchia was also the scene of major student protests in 1973, which led to the fall of the country's military dictatorship in 1974.

Today they entered into the fourth day of rioting across Greece to protest this murder. Although the Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis has vowed to bring the unrest under control, but he seems not to be succeeding do far. His threatening words that all the dangerous and unacceptable events that occurred because of the emotions that followed the tragic incident cannot and will not be tolerated any longer appear to have fallen on deaf Greek ears. From Athens to Salonika, Greece's second largest city, to Rhodes, to Patras, to Chania, to Crete, to Trikala and the Aristotelio University in northern Thessaloniki, Greek youths took over the streets to protest what they see as police high-handed and reckless killing of an unarmed 15 year old Greek. In Athens alone, firefighters were called to 24 banks, 35 stores, 24 cars, 12 homes and a district office of the ruling New Democracy party hit by a small bomb. Athens Polytechnic university was not spared either! Greek youths were yelling "Cops! Pigs! Murderers!" at the police.

Icheoku commends the Greek authorities for deploying minimal force in fighting this Greek riots, mainly using tear-gas and batons. Unlike in some other countries where the weapon of choice to quell mere citizen protest is usually AK47 firing live-ammunition to kill her citizens. Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria once, almost killed off entire communities of Odi and Zaki Ibiam for daring to protest? Icheoku calls on the protesting Greek youth to now, down their tools as their message, that the police paid to protect should not be the agent of killing, has been heard by the world and possibly their government in Athens. Protests of this nature is an acceptable manner of getting a message across, although Icheoku would have preferred they were less destructive, just like the most recent Thailand example. Non-violent protest is the more civilized, modern way of sending messages of discontent out and Icheoku believes that this would have been the preferred choice of those Greek's great minds of yore!