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Riot-hit Athens shopkeepers face Christmas ruin
AFP - Wednesday, December 10
ATHENS (AFP) - - With only weeks to go before Christmas the riots in Athens could hardly have come at a worse time for the capital's shopkeepers, who desperately hope for government compensation to ease the financial pain.
On Sunday, after two days of clashes between angry youths and police, the store owners felt they had weathered the storm.
However, a fresh protest the following day over the police shooting of 15-year-old Alexis Grigoropoulos degenerated into one of worst scenes of vandalism and pillage the city has ever witnessed.
Hooded youths rained havoc on a wide swathe of the city centre stretching from stores in the gritty Omonia district to the boutiques of plush Kolonaki, home to several embassies and the offices of diplomats and politicians.
The looters, many of them migrants, were making off with anything they could lay their hands on, from clothes and jewellery to display weapons, even slabs of meat and cat food.
"The damage is incalculable, it's a disaster," Athens deputy mayor George Dimopoulos told private Flash Radio.
"The city has sent out all available crews from the early hours of the morning to clean the major road arteries that were devastated... we fear the consequences on Athens' image," Dimopoulos said.
Athens Mayor Nikitas Kaklamanis said that after three nights of riots, the city faced "international defamation" ahead of the Christmas season.
"At a time when we should be reorganising in view of the international financial crisis, self-destruction has been let loose in our city," he said.
In a bid to ease the pain, Kaklamanis said he was offering a one-year municipal tax waiver for dozens of stricken businesses.
Across the city centre, store owners were despondent.
"I've never seen anything like it in four decades, it was a massive outpouring of rage," said a kiosk owner in central Athens.
"We've suffered considerable damage," said Elena Fyroyeni, the manager of an Oxette chain jewellery store that was broken into and looted.
"We'll try to repair the damage, we can afford to do that because we're a large chain, but what will happen to small store owners who lack the money?" she wondered.
Fending off claims of incompetence and calls for heads, the government has pledged to help stricken businesses.
Finance Minister George Alogoskoufis met Tuesday with Labour Minister Fani Palli-Petralia to hammer out what kind of compensation could be offered to store owners and staff.
No statements were made after the meeting and no compensation estimates were immediately available.
"The measures are necessary, even tax breaks will help," said financial analyst Manos Hatzidakis.
"The Christmas season is a life or death situation for these traders given the global financial crisis... though the effect of the measures also depends on whether consumers will overcome the shock from the riot," he told AFP.
The country's leading lender National Bank said it would support stricken merchants by halting loan instalment payments for a year and supply extra loans for repairs and stock resupply.
In the northern Greek city of Salonika, where at least 69 shops were broken into and 14 suffered fire damage, the chamber of commerce set up a hotline for damage claims.
"The state should guard the property of its citizens which were acquired with sweat and toil, just as it is obliged to ensure that Greek youths have a better tomorrow," chamber of commerce chairman Michalis Zorpidis said.
The slain boy was part of a group of youths that had allegedly thrown stones at a squad car. The police officer who killed him and his partner have been arrested.
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A riot police officer is surrounded by flames during a night of riots in Athens. With only weeks to go before Christmas the riots in Athens could hardly have come at a worse time for the capital's shopkeepers, who desperately hope for government compensation to ease the financial pain.
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