Keratea is a small town with a population of 7.500 people. It is located in the south region of Attica, 40 km from Athens.
The people of this small town are under siege by the repression forces and clash every day, since December 11th, with the riot police forces. These clashes are particularly violent and the police forces are attacking against older people or youth mercilessly and indiscreetly.
The region of Keratea was chosen to become a city damp along with two other areas (in Attica also) in 2003 by the then social-democrat government with the financing of the European Union. No matter how they are named they are actually city damps quite close or inside residential districts that will destroy the environment and seriously degrade the every day life of the people, their health, and their activities without solving the problem of garbage. Meanwhile there are tens of thousands lay offs in the municipalities (that allegedly manage the garbage in Greece) and major cut offs according the directives of the Memorandum, the European Union, the IMF and the European Central Bank that aggravate the situation. These projects benefit only the big contractors and the planning of the government. Therefore the attempt to implement these projects is met with the justified and mass protests of the people in the area.
The people of Keratea and other areas have every right to defend their region from devastation and nothing can oblige them to solve themselves the problem of garbage. Had the governments wanted to solve the problem in a way that would serve the interests and the needs of the people they would have done it long ago, since there are so many studies and experience from other countries regarding solutions to the interest of the city residents and the environment.
The government and the municipalities, by and large, chose solutions that serve the interests of big contractors in a way that there will be profit either for them or the municipalities through town dues.
A whole army of riot police forces – more than 1.500 men - accompanied the machinery of the contractors at 04.00 am on Saturday, 11 of December 2010. It is about a particularly beautiful area with archeological sites. Still the residents of Keratea were not surprised and after alarming the church bells and tooting their claxons assembled to defend their home town. Ever since then, the attacks by the riot police forces are constant day in – day out despite the court decisions in favor of the residents. The government considers the so called legitimacy – in the cases that it is in favor of the residents, as in the case of Keratea – as well as the laws and the Constitution simple waste.
Solidarity to the people of Keratea
Their struggle is ours as well
Some enlightening photos and videos
http://antixyta.blogspot.com/2010/12/blog-post_3397.htm
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