Residents clash with police in Greek refuse dump row

Local resistance to open-refuse dump near Ioannina escalates to clashes after an army of 230 riot policemen charges barricades

On the 15th of October the residents of Elliniko village near the city of Ioannina, North West Greece, blockaded the construction of the open-refuse dump (XYTA) to which they have been opposed for over 18 months. The response of Athens was to send 19 battallions of riot police forces (MAT), that is about 230 policemen, to open the way for the bulldozers.

Faced with what they termed "an occupation force", local people erected barricades. Riot police resorted to tear gas and attacked the residents who responded by pelting officers with stones and molotov cocktails.

The situation remains tense, with three residents and five riot policemen in hospital as a result of the clashes, thus opening yet another front of local environmental resistance on the confrontational model set by Lefkimi in the island of Corfu.

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