• Greek Communists pelt US troops
• Greeks Demonstrate against NATO Presence in Balkans
• Greek Protesters Delay NATO Convoy
• Greek Communists Call For Anti-NATO Demonstrations
• Anti-NATO Protest in Greece
• Papoulias, Milosevic meet in Belgrade

Athens, Greece (CNSNews.com) - Thousands of Greeks
demonstrated outside the American Embassy in central
Athens Thursday night, demanding that NATO pull its
troops out of the Balkans.

Protestors, led by the Greek Communist Party and its
leader Aleka Papariga, burned U.S. flags during the
peaceful, mostly left-wing demonstration.

A large riot-trained police force kept the
demonstrators from approaching the embassy compound.

The demonstration marked the first anniversary of the
start of the 78-day NATO bombing campaign against
Yugoslavia, an event strongly opposed by a great
majority of Greeks and supported only minimally by the
socialist government.

Addressing the demonstrators, the leader of the "peace
movement" in Greece, Costas Macheras, called on Greece
not to support further NATO action in the Balkans and
to withdraw the more than 1,000 Greek troops from the
NATO-led Kosovo peacekeeping force, KFOR.

"We ask European leaders not to be dragged into
further military action by the United States and NATO
in Yugoslavia," the social democratic party DIKKI said
in a statement read out at the event. "We also call on
the Greek government not to allow NATO to use Greece
as a stepping stone for military action against our
neighbor."

Earlier this week U.S. units of about 300 men and 50
vehicles destined for NATO-led maneuvers in Kosovo
landed on a northern Greek beach, to be met by about
100 leftist demonstrators hurling rocks and insults.
Some 500 U.S. servicemen landed shortly afterward
without problems.

Troops from Argentina, the Netherlands, Poland and
Romania also passed through northern Greek borders, to
participate in the Dynamic Response 2000 exercise,
which began Thursday and ends April 10.

"The passage in northern Greece of marines from the
U.S. and other countries - even Argentina - is a
provocation for the Greek people," Papariga said.
"Greeks must rise against this."

Greek Defense Minister Akis Tsohatzopoulos, who has
expressed concern at the situation in Kosovo and
proposed the lifting of the international embargo on
Yugoslavia, said the 2,000 NATO troops who passed
through Greece were going to Kosovo to help stabilize
the region.

He said NATO and the European Union were responsible
for promoting a process aimed at "a multi-ethnic
Kosovo without changes of borders, with guarantees for
the human rights of all citizens."

Greek government spokesman Dimitris Reppas stressed
that the passage of NATO peacekeeping forces through
Greece took place in compliance with UN Security
Council resolutions, the agreement of the big powers,
and with Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic's
approval.

Commenting on the anniversary of NATO's war, Greece's
conservative daily newspapers Kathimerini said the
campaign had been a failure.

"The U.S., instead of acknowledging its errors,
pretends it has been taken aback by developments," the
newspaper wrote in an editorial. "And instead of
changing its political plan for the region, its merely
issues threats of new military attacks - stressing
that, this time, it may even turn against its former
Albanian allies."

The newspaper said the problem in Kosovo was a
political one.

"The inspiration of Washington's 'magicians' (and not
only them) has undermined the possibility of
compromise, turning the situation into an explosive
dead end.

"If there is a solution today, it is not to renew
violence and relaunch missiles. It is to courageously
reverse the West's present policies; it is to realize
the error and correct it, in order to safeguard
Serbian communities and put an end to Albanian
territorial claims."

Meanwhile, the Greek Embassy in Belgrade said it would
not holds its annual March 25 independence day
reception but would instead donate the funds earmarked
for the function to the Serb municipality of Kursumlia
near the border with Kosovo and to Serb refugees from
the province.

The Greek consulate in Podgorica, Montenegro, will
offer similar aid.

On Wednesday the Greek national carrier Olympic
Airways became the first airline in the 15-member
European Union to fly to Belgrade, marking the end of
an embargo imposed on Yugoslavia by the international
community last year to punish the Balkan country for
its human rights record in Kosovo.
 

"The clouds of war are gathering again around the Balkans..."
Democratic Social Movement Party leader Dimitris Tsovolas, minister with
the ruling PASOK party, assessed that Washington was preparing for a new
blow against Yugoslavia, and called for the Greek government not to
allow foreign troops or war material destined for Kosovo to pass through
Greece.

THESSALONIKI, Greece (AP) -- Left-wing demonstrators
stopped a convoy of NATO military trucks early Tuesday
as they tried to head to Kosovo, spray painting
slogans on the vehicles and smashing one window,
authorities said.

A group of about 80 protesters rushed the British,
French and Italian vehicles as they were leaving this
northern Greek city's main port and heading to Kosovo
to resupply the NATO-led peacekeeping force there.

The incident, which delayed the convoy for about 2{
hours, reflected deep opposition in Greece to the NATO
air campaign against Yugoslavia.

The demonstrators clambered over the 65-vehicle
convoy, which mainly carried supply containers, and
smashed the windshield of an Italian vehicle with a
rock. No injuries were reported.

A first group of 25 vehicles, all French, managed to
leave the port before the protesters gathered, said
Maj. Stamatis Lazarou, a Greek army spokesman.

The vast majority of Greeks vehemently opposed NATO's
78-day airstrikes against fellow Christian Orthodox
Serbs last year, and held almost daily protest
rallies, some of which turned violent.

Communist-led protesters have frequently disrupted
military convoys in Thessaloniki, a major resupply
point on the route to peacekeepers in Kosovo.

Demonstrators often block the exits to the port from
where the troops and vehicles depart, and have also
blocked rail lines and roads and attacked vehicles.

ATHENS, Mar 17, 2000 -- (Reuters) Greece's Communist
Party (KKE) leader on Thursday called on left-wing
groups to demonstrate against NATO forces passing
through northern Greece this weekend ahead of a
military exercise in Kosovo.

Speaking at a rally ahead of general elections on
April 9, KKE General-Secretary Aleka Papariga also
called for Greek troops serving in Kosovo as part of
NATO's peacekeeping force to be recalled.

She said the Greek troops had become "occupying forces
engaged in ethnic cleansing against the Serbs".

Papariga called for demonstrations against U.S.
Marines when they pass through the northern Greek port
city of Thessaloniki en route to the military exercise
in the Yugoslav province.

A Greek defense ministry official told Reuters the
NATO military exercise, between March 19 and April 10,
was planned more than a year ago. It was likely to
involve about 1,600 troops from a number of NATO
countries, including an estimated 1,200 Americans.

THESSALONIKI, Greece -- About 300 people chanting "Clinton Killer"
rallied Saturday against NATO plans to land 2,000 troops in this
northern port city on their way to Kosovo for a military exercise.
The protests, backed by Greece's small but defiant Communist Party, were
expected to swell Sunday, when 1,100 U.S. troops and about 900 from
Argentina, The Netherlands, Poland and Romania were scheduled to arrive.
The soldiers are to travel overland to neighboring Macedonia and into
Kosovo to take part in the exercise, nicknamed Dynamic Response 2000.
"This invasion by American ... marines is a provocation for the Greek
people," Communist Party leader Aleka Papariga said.
The Communists led rowdy rallies across Greece last year, during NATO's
78-day bombing of Yugoslavia. They also held protests during President
Clinton's visit to Athens in November.
Although Greece is a NATO member, many Greeks condemned the bombing,
appearing suspicious of the motives of the U.S.-led intervention and
sympathizing with the fellow Orthodox Serbs.
More anti-NATO protests were planned in Athens and other cities for next
week to mark the anniversary of the start of the bombing. The
demonstrations could place renewed pressure on Greece's Socialist
government ahead of general elections April 9.

BELGRADE (AFP) - EU governments' "blind obedience" to the Clinton
administration has caused "enormous harm" to Europe and the Balkans,
state news agency Tanjug quoted Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic as
saying yesterday.
"Blind obedience by the EU governments towards an order of the U.S.
administration has brought harm to the whole of Europe, especially the
Balkans," Milosevic said during a meeting in Belgrade with former
foreign minister Carolos Papoulias, chairman of the Greek Parliament's
foreign policy and defense committee.
"It would be reasonable that the European countries should take account
primarily of the interests of their people, and not the U.S.
administration and its crazy ideas of ruling the whole world," Milosevic
said.
Papoulias expressed the support of the Greek people for Milosevic and
issued congratulations for "the successes that the Yugoslav people have
made in the reconstruction of the country following NATO's aggression"
last year.
He met Serbian President Milan Milutinovic on Thursday.

THE ANTI-COLONIALISM SITERING!