[ALBSA-Info] Greeks in anti-Nato protest

[Iris Pilika]

THE TIMES (London)
March 20 2000

Greeks in anti-Nato protest

FROM JAMES PRINGLE IN ATHENS

GREEK leftwingers staged protests yesterday as an advance
contingent of 2,000 Nato troops and their allies landed near the
Greek city of Salonika bound for Kosovo to join a military exercise
named "Dynamic Response".

Hundreds of Greek Communist Party (KKE) followers, who are
opposed to international peacekeepers in Kosovo, gathered at
the city's port, shouting slogans against the increase in Nato's
presence in the Balkans for the exercise which is due to run until
April 10, carrying it over the first anniversary period of Nato's
bombing of Yugoslavia which began on March 24 last year.

However, only a handful of protesters were on hand at Litohoro
beach near the port when about 40 military vehicles rolled ashore
and headed north for Kosovo, a Kosovo Force (Kfor) spokesman
said.

They were easily held in check by about 200 policemen,
eye-witnesses said. Besides 1,000 US Marines, the troops include
900 soldiers from The Netherlands, Poland, Romania and
Argentina.

The protests came just three weeks before Greek general elections
on April 9, and any trouble or violence could have been
embarrassing for the Greek Government.

Though Athens supports Nato's presence in Kosovo and has
contributed its own contingent to Kfor, a majority of Greeks, who
have ties to their fellow Orthodox Christian Serbs, were strongly
opposed to Nato's bombing campaign against Yugoslavia and the
intervention in Kosovo.