General strike paralyses Greece

Athens: Protesters threw fire bombs at police outside parliament on Wednesday during a general strike which paralysed Greece and piled pressure on a conservative government reeling from the worst riots in decades.

"Government murderers!" demonstrators shouted, furious at the shooting of a teenager by police on Saturday which has sparked four days of violence fuelled by simmering public anger at political scandals, rising unemployment and poverty.

Witnesses said the officer who fired the shot took deliberate aim, but his lawyer said yesterday that a ballistics report showed the boy was killed by an accidental ricochet.

"The investigation shows it was a ricochet... In the end, this was an accident," lawyer Alexis Kougias told Reuters. The ballistics report has not yet been officially published.

Riots have raged in at least 10 cities and the cost of damage to shops and businesses in Athens alone is estimated at about 200 million euros (Dh955.1 million), the Greek Commerce Confederation said.

"In Athens, we had 565 shops suffering serious damage or being completely destroyed," said Vassilis Krokidis, vice president of the federation.

Thousands marched on parliament yesterday in a union rally at economic and social policy, which quickly turned violent. Police fired teargas and protesters responded with stones, bottles and sticks, a Reuters witness said.

Standstill

The opposition socialist party has said the government, which has a one-seat majority and trails in opinion polls, has lost the trust of the people and has called for elections.

"Participation in the strike is total, the country has come to a standstill," said Stathis Anestis, spokesman for the GSEE union federation which called the 24-hour stoppage.

Foreign and domestic flights were grounded, banks and schools were shut, and hospitals ran on emergency services as hundreds of thousands of disgruntled Greeks walked off the job.

Unions say privatisation, tax rises and pension reform have worsened conditions, especially for the one-fifth of Greeks who live below the poverty line, precisely at a time when the global downturn is hurting the 240 billion euro economy.

"There is demand for change: social, economic and political change," said Odysseas Korakidis, 25, who works two jobs.

"It's not unusual here to hold down two jobs to get just 800 or 1,000 euros a month. In other countries, that's inconceivable!"

Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis appealed to political leaders for unity and urged unions to cancel Wednesday's rally.

But his requests were flatly rejected by the opposition.

"He and his government are responsible for the widespread crisis that the country, that Greek society is experiencing," said socialist party spokesman George Papakonstantinou.