Constitution square and its vicinity were soon blanketed by a thick pall of still unidentified chemical gases that drove unprotected people to extreme distress and medical emergency. In an eerie replay of World War I trench warfare gas attacks, these chemical gases quickly descended into the underground Metro station, where hundreds of people had sought refuge from the onslaught, and where volunteer doctors and medics were frantically trying to aid scores of casualties, their numbers swelling by every passing moment.
Video captures caught riot police throwing gas grenades down the stairs of the station and causing panic among the mass of people seeking sanctuary in the main concourse.
Calls to the police by, among others, the head of the Athens Medical Association, to allow paramedics to access the station and open a corridor so that ambulances could begin ferrying the wounded to hospitals, were rejected by police commanders.
The police rampage lasted well into the night with the assistance of the usual group of hooded provocateurs, who have become a fixture in demonstrations for years -- and as the Papandreou regime, alone in its complete political, social, and moral isolation, pushed through parliament a horror of an austerity bill, demanded by the Eurocrats and IMFers on penalty of death, that guarantees the complete disintegration of Greece into permanent economic (and, eventually, national) oblivion.
That a prosecutor’s investigation has been ordered into the June 29 police riot is little, if any, comfort to those who tasted the “democratic methods” of the Papandreou regime first hand.
Press reports speak of a deliberate decision by senior police to deploy the gases in such a brazen act of mass suppression, which bordered on an act of war by the authorities on the people of Greece. And what needs to be determined immediately is who precisely in the Papandreou regime gave the political order for this attack to come.
(This unprecedented mass use of unidentified chemical agents by the Greek police can easily be classified as a Class One Chemical Warfare Event that should have normally triggered a decontamination operation. Even days after the rampage, the atmosphere surrounding the scene of the attack continues to cause discomfort to passers-by and contaminated surfaces and spaces remain untreated).
The events of June 29 glaringly highlighted that the situation in Greece is deteriorating fast and in the direction of even worse days to come. Such is the growing concern abroad that the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights has seen fit to warn that austerity in Greece is threatening human rights, an unprecedented “honor” for a member country of the European “union.” And the early warning l by Hans-Werner Sinn, head of the prestigious IFO Institute in Munich, that austerity could push Greece into civil war remains as current as ever.
(Dr Sinn said: “This tragedy does not have a solution... The policy of forced ‘internal devaluation’, deflation, and depression could risk driving Greece to the edge of a civil war. It is impossible to cut wages and prices by 30pc without major riots.” [Emphasis is ours]. Dr. Sinn has repeated his warning several times since.)
Belatedly, even the European “union” is becoming concerned that Greece may in fact expire completely thanks to the “bailouts” and “fiscal consolidation” as “... the strictures being imposed on Greece, including 28 billion euros of austerity measures between now and 2015, are too harsh and may inflict fatal damage on its ailing economy.”
It is obvious that the “bailouts” do not give Greece any hope of an even borderline decent recovery and it is also obvious that the Papandreou regime has become extremely hazardous to Greece’s already deeply compromised democratic, constitutional, economic, and social health.
Greece is in need of a radical change of tack that must include “telling the bankers ‘to drop dead’” and pushing for a new beginning that won’t be easy but, certainly, not worse than the bankruptcy which the entire analytic and market community has already factored in, with the European “union” sticking to disaster-bearing “bailouts” in its own lone race for reasons that have been already exposed in detail and found to guarantee disaster for Greece anyway.
And this new beginning must not and cannot include the Papandreou regime, unless Greece wants to implement a death wish and jump into the abyss without protest.
The Greek Constitution (Article 120, paragraph 4) reads as follows:
“Observance of the Constitution shall be committed to the patriotism of the Greeks who shall have the right and the obligation to resist by any means anybody who tries to subvert it violently.”
On June 29, the current Greek “government” clearly crossed the ultimate line and the above constitutional provision has come into urgent prominence.
The rest remains to be seen.
PS: This page has been consistently supportive of the Greek security services and the need for better funding, training, and equipping for all those who undertake the often unforgiving, and even impossible, job of protecting internal peace and security.
This commitment, however, is not unconditional and hinges on the appointed guardians observing basic requirements of decency and a commitment to avoiding completely acts of wanton barbarity like the ones we witnessed in excess on June 29. We are entirely aware of the pressures the police have been under in recent months. The Papandreou regime has spawned unprecedented fear and loathing in Greek society and continues to demolish the future of all Greeks. It is imperative, therefore, for all those in the front line of defending bare bones law and order to realize the size of popular rage boiling to the surface at this time -- as well as the harsh reality of their own individual position as equal victims of the policies that are destroying Greece’s social fabric.
Going on a rampage against defenseless civilians is just another escalation of a situation already pregnant with the extreme risks of a major conflagration. Greece has been down that road before. We must all remember that and make sure we refresh our re-reading of history so that we re-acquaint ourselves with the unbearable costs of barbarity, brutality, and political terror. Orders, irrespective of how high they come from, do not acquit those who choose, personally and individually, to display behaviors beyond the pale and abuse non-threatening, unarmed citizens. This is something to remember as Greece continues to toy on the verge of severe instability. What goes around comes around.