Protestors condemn govt over Greek fires

ATHENS (AFP) — More than a thousand people demonstrated in Athens Tuesday against the government's management of Greece's deadly forest fires, hours after firefighters scrambled to put out the latest outbreak.

The demonstration, 12 days ahead of legislative elections, was organized by the Greek Social Forum and the Confederation of Greek Workers (GSEE) against the conservative government of Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis.

Demonstrators carried banners with slogans including "Firefighters burned alive" and "Spend money on firefighters, not weapons!"

Earlier Tuesday, Greek firemen scrambled to snuff out a fire on Mount Parnon in the southern Peloponnese peninsula that has been raging for 12 days.

The blaze is part of a broader inferno in the peninsula south of Athens which killed dozens and destroyed swathes of forest and farmland, homes, farms and storehouses before being largely extinguished on Monday.

At least 65 people have been killed by fires around Greece since August 24, and 200,000 hectares (500,000 acres) of forest and other land destroyed. The body of a man was found Tuesday in the Peloponnese.

A large force of nearly 700 firefighters and more than 100 fire engines remained in the region as a precautionary measure Tuesday.

Nearly 100 fires erupted every day on an average last week, amid widespread anger that the government had not intervened rapidly and at the scale required.

The opposition Socialists (PASOK) have roundly attacked the government's handling of the fires with elections set for September 16. Before the tragedy, Karamanlis had appeared set for an easy electoral win.

The prime minister has blamed arson for at least some of the fires, saying action would be taken against those responsible.

The Greek economy ministry estimates the fires caused damage of around 1.6 billion euros (2.2 billion dollars). The European Commission has said the EU could pay up to 600 million euros in aid this year to help Greece recover.

Additional funds could be mobilized beyond the EU solidarity fund, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said Saturday after flying over the affected areas.

In Strasbourg meanwhile, European parliamentarians called for an EU rapid-reaction force to tackle natural disasters, echoing a proposal put forward by Athens.

The Eurodeputies, who approved the proposal through a show of hands, called on the European Commission to come up with "concrete proposals."

A man walks through the ruins of the village of Rafti in the western Peloponnese in Greece, which was almost entirely destroyed by fire. More than a thousand people demonstrated in Athens Tuesday against the government's management of Greece's deadly forest fires, hours after firefighters scrambled to put out the latest outbreak.

Greeks Crowd Into Banks, Seeking Cash After Fires

By REUTERS

PYRGOS, Greece, Aug. 30 (Reuters) — Thousands of Greeks besieged banks on Thursday, clamoring for state compensation for damage caused by the country’s worst wildfires, a few of which still burned one week into the crisis.

People were taking advantage of a program granting them an instant $4,000 by showing identification and signing a form at banks in affected areas, a simple procedure the government says shows that it is reacting quickly to the fires, which have killed 63 people.

Critics who condemned the center-right government for what they called its initial inability to prevent or extinguish the fires said its compensation system, instituted less than three weeks ahead of parliamentary elections, was open to widespread fraud.

“Who are all these people?” asked Ourania Fotopoulou, as at least 400 people lined up outside a bank here, a provincial capital in the stricken Peloponnesian peninsula. “I don’t recognize a single one of them and I have lived here all my life.”

Many people in the lines spoke with accents from outside the region, and some admitted that they had come from as far away as Athens and Thessaloniki, which is about 370 miles to the north.

A government spokesman said that the forms would be checked later and that anyone committing fraud would be punished. On Wednesday alone, banks handed over more than $33 million.

Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis said the simplified system was the right thing. “The order is ‘move fast,’ without any delay,” he said at a news briefing. “We’re removing bureaucratic hurdles. Nothing should stand in the way of us doing our duty.”

The government’s handling of the crisis has become a central issue for Mr. Karamanlis’s campaign as the Sept. 16 election approaches. Kathimerini, a center-right newspaper, said he needed to recover from initial impotence in the face of the fires.

“The first round, that is the fight against the fires, was lost because of the poor performance of the state apparatus,” it said. “The second round, that of reconstruction, has only just begun. It will be an uphill struggle within a tight time frame.” A cartoon in the newspaper showed a helicopter flying over scorched countryside dropping bank notes from a water bucket while the pilot says, “Yes, Prime Minister, as agreed, we’re dropping 100-euro bills so the land will turn green again.”

Vast areas of countryside burned, and more than 500 homes were destroyed by the fires, Europe’s most extensive in a decade, according to the European Space Agency.

On Thursday, some fires raged on, one in the western Peloponnesian peninsula, another on the island of Euboea, north of Athens.

The fires will cost Greece at least $1.6 billion, according to a government minister, and Athens plans to use emergency aid from the European Union. Private citizens have already donated almost $52 million to a disaster relief fund.

This information was gathered from:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/0...

Seven charged over Greek fires

Greek authorities have charged seven people with starting a number of forest fires that have so far claimed 63 lives.

Anti-terrorist authorities said they were joining the investigation, and it is thought one possible motive could be that unscrupulous property developers were hoping to move in on the areas where forest has been destroyed.

This comes as firefighters backed by an international force battled the flames for a fifth day.

Meanwhile, Greek opposition MPs have attacked the government's response to the devastating fires.

In the capital, Athens, hundreds of people took to the streets in protest, many blaming the government.

Information gathered from: http://www.rte.ie/news/2007/0828/greece.html