[Prishtina-E] British Diplomat Gunned Down in Athens Street

[Etrit Bardhi]

I am scared to go to Greece for vacation now...

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British Diplomat Gunned Down in Athens Street

By Dina Kyriakidou

ATHENS (Reuters) - Two assassins gunned down Britain's top defense
diplomat in Athens as he drove to work on Thursday in an attack police
linked to the elusive November 17 guerrilla group.

Two men in helmets riding a motorcycle fired four shots at Brigadier
Stephen Saunders, hitting his abdomen and hands. Doctors said he suffered
severe bleeding and his vital organs failed.

The killing of the 52-year-old father of two teenage girls triggered
outrage in Greece and abroad and brought calls for Greece to hunt down the
killers.

Prime Minister Costas Simitis telephoned his British counterpart Tony
Blair and expressed his horror at the assassination.

``The Greek government will do its duty and defend with all
means...citizens' safety,'' he said in a statement.

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Simitis's government has come under attack from its Western allies for not
doing enough to combat terrorism. No November 17 guerrilla has ever been
captured or brought to justice.

Blair told a cabinet meeting in London that Saunders's death was a
tragedy.

``It was an act of terrorism, it was contemptible as it was senseless, and
will be condemned by all right minded people,'' he said.

Nato Chief Interrupts Meeting

NATO Secretary-General George Robertson interrupted a meeting in Brussels
to announce Saunders's death and attending British Defense Secretary Geoff
Hoon said his country was pressing Greece to track down the culprits.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack but police
said ballistic tests showed the spent shells from a .45 caliber automatic
pistol found on the scene came from a weapon used by November 17 in
previous attacks.

The group has killed three Greeks and an American with the same gun since
1980 and wounded a Greek parliamentary deputy, police sources said.

Saunders would be its 23rd victim. The group, named after a bloody student
uprising in 1973 against the junta then ruling Greece, came to prominence
with the murder of the CIA station chief in Athens, Richard Welch, in
1975.

It has since killed Greeks, Americans and Turks. In its last attack in
May, 1999, November 17 fired a rocket at the residence of the German
ambassador in Athens but no one was injured.

The two assailants stopped their motorcycle in the middle of the busy
Kiffisias Avenue in the northern suburb of Halandri and fired several
times at Saunders through the passenger-side window of his white Rover
car.

Police Launch Manhunt

The car had normal Greek license plates and no diplomatic insignia, a
safety precaution taken by most Western embassies in Athens, police said.

Police launched a manhunt, setting up roadblocks all over the capital and
sending out scores of plainclothes officers to search for the attackers.

The United States has often complained about Greece's failure to arrest or
convict any of the guerrillas, and Congress's National Commission on
Terrorism said in a report this week that Greece was not doing enough.

Thursday's attack also triggered criticism at home.

``After 25 years the Greek police is powerless to deal with such a
phenomenon,'' said conservative New Democracy opposition party deputy Dora
Bakoyannis, whose husband was shot dead by November 17 in 1989.

``If we don't at some stage realize that terrorism has to be tackled...we
will continue to be the only country which finds itself in this
situation,'' she said.