Anti-NATO demonstration holds up train with NATO tanks
Story Filed: Thursday, April 29, 1999 4:14 AM EST
ATHENS, April 29 (Itar-Tass) - Railway workers and participants in the
anti-NATO demonstration held up a train
running from Salonika to Macedonia on Wednesday night. The train was
carrying NATO troops, 30 tanks and other
logistics supplies. The protesters barricaded the railway and stopped the
train which left the sea port of Thessaloniki
with the cargo on board brought by the British ship "Sea Centurion". This
ship has brought to the Greek sea port 200
armoured carriers and tanks, and also machinery for bridge construction and
other equipment.
The protesters chanted slogans against NATO bombardments of Yugoslavia,
hurled stones at the train and painted
Nazi swastika on British tanks mounted on platforms.
In the long run, the train with logistics supplies for NATO troops had to
return to the sea port. Protesters still remain
outside exits from the port in order to prevent transfer of other NATO
military hardware to neighboring Macedonia.
Earlier, the protesting Greek population had already stopped trains and
truckloads carrying NATO equipment which
was later delivered to its destination heavily guarded by police forces.
The Salonika sea port and its airport are considered to be key transit
routes for transfer of NATO troops, logistics
supplies and military hardware to Macedonia for the "peacekeepers" and is
regarded as a stronghold from which
NATO ground operations against Yugoslavia might be launched. According to
statement made by NATO
representatives around 4,000 British and German soldiers are expected to
pass through Saloniki and be subsequently
deployed on the territory of Skopje airport and in Kumanovo.
Copyright © 1999, ITAR/TASS News Agency, all rights reserved.
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Protesters halt Salonica
train with tanks for Nato
Athens News
April 29, 1999
A LARGE crowd of Greek Railways (OSE) personnel and Communist Party (ΚΚ*)
supporters converged on the
tracks just north of the Thessaloniki railway station yesterday morning,
halting a train carrying war materiel to a Nato
front-line base.
The train was ferrying some 30 light-armoured tanks - just unloaded in the
northern capital's harbour by the British
freighter Sea Centurion - northwards to strengthen Nato forces in the
neighbouring Former Yugoslav Republic of
Macedonia (FYROM) when the action took place.
The Athens News Agency reported in a dispatch yesterday that the
demonstrators blocked the tracks passing through
Thessaloniki's old railway station, massing on them and shouting slogans
against the Nato bombing in Yugoslavia while
raining a hail of stones on the freight cars.
The train was forced to return to the railway station and by late yesterday
it had still not been learnt how and when the
tanks would be transported to FYROM.
The ΑΝΑ dispatch noted that the frequent demonstrations against the use of
Thessaloniki's harbour and airport for the
transport northwards of military supplies had angered Nato officials, as the
latter hold Greece formally responsible for
the secure delivery of operations-related supplies.
An OSE personnel union representative told Mega television news that if OSE
trains continued to be used to transport
Nato equipment or troops to FYROM the union would consider calling a strike.
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Corfu airport Nato role
sparks violent incidents
Athens News
April 29, 1999
VIOLENT incidents erupted at Corfu international airport early yesterday
morning when an estimated 2,000
demonstrators clashed with police in protest at the use of the facility for
military purposes in the framework of Nato's
ongoing bombing campaign against the regime of Yugoslav President Slobodan
Milosevic.
Six special forces riot policemen were injured, one seriously, and seven
arrests were made.
The skirmishes came after an anti-war demonstration, attended by several
thousand, including the active participation
of the mayor and many prominent artists, applauded a resolution demanding
that the island's airport facilities be
restricted to the service of civil aviation flight timetables.
Police reported that some 2,000 demonstrators later converged on the
airport, protesting the presence on the tarmac
outside the terminal buildings of a military aircraft carrying war materiel,
and a running battle with special forces police
followed.
In the ensuing incidents, the protesters tried unsuccessfully to smash
through metal railings to gain access to the aircraft
parking lot, pelting the police with coins, eggs, stones and a variety of
other projectiles, while the police responded with
teargas and smoke grenades to disperse the rioters.
In the course of the clashes one policeman was injured seriously enough to
require his transferral to Ioannina where he
was being treated in hospital yesterday.
The seven persons arrested were later released.
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