The Associated Press 22. January 2007

ATHENS, Greece: Greek law enforcement leaders, alarmed by renewed outbreaks of anarchist violence, met Monday seeking ways to end increasingly frequent firebombings and vandalism in the country's two largest cities.
The country's police chief met with the head of the Supreme Court after a prosecutor last Friday ordered an investigation into the violence and why police had failed to make any arrests.
The meeting followed further attacks in Thessaloniki, with assailants early Monday throwing firebombs at a bank and outside a university building. Nobody was hurt.
Although the firebombings rarely cause injuries, the almost nightly hit-and-run attacks against banks, government offices and other targets come at a time of increased concern over the possible return of domestic terrorism. On Jan. 12, assailants fired a rocketed propelled grenade into the U.S. Embassy building, in the boldest attack in Greece by suspected farleft militants in years.
Police Chief Anastasios Dimoshakis, who met with the head of the Supreme Court and its chief prosecutor, denied his force was using heavy-handed tactics.
"The Greek police have no vendetta against the citizens ... the police are not part of the problem, they are part of the solution," he said.
He added that last year, some 140 anarchists had been arrested and another 650 detained in Athens and Thessaloniki after violent incidents.
Jarred by the demonstrations and violence, the conservative government has twice delayed action on its long-touted university reform to permit private universities in Greece, even though the main Socialist opposition supports the changes, which require a constitutional amendment.
The sight of youths on foot, their faces obscured by masks, prowling the streets in unruly packs and wreaking nightly havoc is menacing but also familiar. Self-styled anarchists have been around in Athens and Thessaloniki for more than 20 years and now have reappeared with a vengeance.
Thanos Veremis, head of the national council for education, an advisory body, said these individuals were taking advantage of anti-government protests to cause trouble.
"(It's) a predictable reaction of the minority that would rather not see any changes," he said in an interview.
The extremists "have nothing to do with university, but fall in with the demonstrations and usually make the entire affair more dramatic, at the expense of shopkeepers and policemen."
Two anarchists awaiting trial in prison near Athens have been on hunger strike for more than a month over allegedly forced police confessions last May. Last fall, a Cypriot student in Thessaloniki was hospitalized after a police beating that was shown on national television. The government, up for re-election next year, wants to avoid accusations of tolerating excessive policing.
Government spokesman Evangelos Antonaros on Monday said anarchist violence faced determined political opposition. "There is no doubt that the parliamentary parties condemn ... these acts of violence, which are not compatible with the workings of our democracy."