Greeks protest after pensioner's suicide
Source: ABC News
Greeks protest after pensioner's suicide
By correspondent Lisa Millar, wires
Updated April 06, 2012 09:56:06
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More protests against austerity measures are being planned in Greece following the suicide of a pensioner who said he could no longer afford to live.
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http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-04-06/more-protests-planned-after-pensioner27s-suicide/3936622
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Flowers laid for Greek pensioner
Posted April 06, 2012 08:45:16
People light candles and lay flowers where the pensioner shot himself in Athens.
AFP: Louisa Gouliamaki
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A Greek worker shouts slogans during an anti-austerity protest in front of the Bank of Greece in Athens on April 6, 2012.
[size=150]Greek police fire teargas at workers in Athens[/size]
Fri Apr 6, 2012 9:53PM GMT
Greek police have clashed with workers outside the central bank of Greece and the labor ministry in Athens during a protest over a debt swap deal between the Greek government and private bondholders.
On Friday, police fired teargas at hundreds of Greek workers who had staged a rally outside the Bank of Greece and the Ministry of Labor and Social Security to protest against losing their savings as a result of the country's bailout deal.
The demonstrators chanted slogans such as "Thieves!" and "Take the austerity package and get out!"
“They lowered our pensions. We can’t take anymore. We should all commit suicide,” Secretary of the Union of Dockworkers Fotis Siakaras said during the protest, referring to the retired elderly who shot himself in the head over financial problems outside the parliament on Wednesday. The suicide incident has sparked violent anti-austerity protest rallies in Athens.
Greece has been in a financial crisis since 2010 and has relied on international bailout loans ever since.
In order to secure a EUR 130 billion bailout package funded mostly by eurozone member states and the International Monetary Fund, the country had to adopt harsh austerity measures including massive cuts to its private and public sector wages, pensions, health and defense spending, which have worsened the economic recession, leading to thousands of job losses.
According to Eurostat, the European Union statistics office, unemployment rate in the country was 21 percent as of December 2011.
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http://www.presstv.ir/detail/234947.html
Read more: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-04-06/more-protests-planned-after-pensioner27s-suicide/3936622
= new reply since forum marked as read
[size=150] A Political Suicide: Thousands Attend Christoulas’ Funeral[/size]
Relatives, friends, members of left political parties and civic movements, common people who didn’t know him… Some two thousand mourners, they all gathered at the First Cemetery in Athens on Saturday afternoon to say farewell to Dimitris Christoulas. The retired pharmacist who committed suicide just a few meters away from the Greek parliament.
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http://www.keeptalkinggreece.com/2012/04/07/a-political-suicide-thousands-attend-christoulas-funeral/
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[size=150]Athens: Protesters Beat Policeman, Set Uniform Jacket Alight[/size]
Posted by keeptalkinggreece in Society
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Protesters attacked one policeman at Syntagma Square, near the spot where Dimitris Christoulas, 77, committed suicide on Wednesday morning. According to Greek media reports, mourners had marched to Syntagma Square after having attended the funeral of the retired pharmacist. It looks as if there was also a march by anti-authoritarian protesters. News portal Zougla.gr reports that some of the protesters attacked the policeman, grabbed his mobile and stripped him off his jacket and they beat him with punches, breaking his nose.
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First they hung his mobile and jacket at the tree where Christoulas committed suicide.
Later they took the jacket down and set it on fire.
There are reports, that some protesters helped the policeman get into a car and transferred to a nearby hospital.
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Protesters outside the parliament after Christoulas funeral
Sources from the Greek Police EL.AS. told Zougla.gr, the policeman was a special guard exiting the metro station.
Other news portals claim that the protesters took also his gun.
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PHOTOS AT LINK-
http://www.keeptalkinggreece.com/2012/04/07/athens-protesters-beat-policeman-set-uniform-jacket-alight/
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[size=150]IMF Claims, it is “Depply Saddened” by the Suicide of Christoulas[/size]
Posted by keeptalkinggreece in Economy, Society
The bloodsuckers of International Monetary Fund claim to be “deeply saddened” about retired pharmacist Dimitris Christoulas, 77, committing suicide a few meters away from the Greek Parliament. One could ask the IMF to define why it was saddened:
Because…
a) Christoulas did not put an end to his life alone at home, as did more than 1,000 Greeks since the beginning of the IMF-austerity but turn it into a political suicide?
b) Christoulas did not quitely starve to death as many Greeks do?
“ The International Monetary Fund on Thursday said it was “deeply saddened” by the dramatic suicide of Greek retiree who reportedly blamed the government’s austerity measures.
The 77-year-old man, a retired pharmacist, shot himself dead yesterday in front of the Greek parliament in Athens, touching off protests against the government’s economic policies under an IMF-European Union bailout package.
“What I’d like to say is we’re deeply saddened to learn of any death in these circumstances, and just to express our sympathies,” IMF spokesman Gerry Rice said at a regularly scheduled news briefing.
Rice provided no other comment on the suicide that has shaken Greece.
The suicide took place in Syntagma Square, which for two years has been the main rallying point for protests against austerity measures designed to haul Greece from its fiscal crisis.
According to media reports, the pensioner left a suicide note saying government austerity cuts had “wiped out” his pension and left him in poverty.
Asked whether Greek legislative elections in May could spell uncertainty for the bailout program, the IMF spokesman said it was an opportunity for voters to throw their weight behind reforms.
“This type of uncertainty is always present when countries hold elections,” Rice said. “The elections are an important opportunity to gain a mandate.” (AFP)
PS I don’t dare even to imagine, that future IMF’s programmes and austerity measures would forbid elections in countries receiving IMF loans.
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http://www.keeptalkinggreece.com/2012/04/07/imf-claims-it-is-depply-saddened-by-the-suicide-of-christoulas/