Wearing white T-shirts and holding flowers, small groups of Greeks gathered in central Athens yesterday to honour a teenager whose killing by police a week earlier triggered Greece's worst rioting in decades.
Former schoolmates of 15-year old Alexandros Grigoropoulos and ordinary families converged in the main square outside parliament after seven days of violence in the city of around four million people.
"We decided to come here to pay our respects to Alexandros," said 37year-old TV technician Chryssoula Kapsali, standing in Syntagma square with around 200 people. Clad in a long-sleeved white T-shirt, she was accompanied by her husband and eight-year-old son, who was carrying a red rose.
Police said similar peaceful rallies were being held elsewhere in Athens and at least two other cities. The boy's fatal shooting on December 6 unleashed a wave of riots by students and anarchist protesters, tapping into anger over political scandals and a slowing economy made worse by a fast-spreading global recession.
Thousands of rioters went on a rampage in the capital and other cities, smashing and burning shops, banks and cars, pelting police with missiles and piling pressure on the fragile conservative government. More protests are planned next week.
The unrest has caused €200 million of damage in Athens alone. Police have detained 432 people.
Yesterday, the city centre was calm, with shops open as usual. Shopkeepers could be seen fixing broken windows. Townhall workers repaired Christmas decorations damaged by protesters.
The people gathering outside parliament voiced anger at the police, whom they accused of unnecessary heavy-handedness. But some said they were tired of violent protests.
The policeman charged with killing the teenager has been jailed along with a colleague pending trial. He says he fired warning shots in self-defence after being attacked by a group of youngsters and that one bullet ricocheted.
"We're here to show our grief and sorrow because no one understands us. They are killing children for no reason," said Irini, 16, a pupil in the school Grigoropoulos attended.
A 20-year-old university student at the same rally, Elias Alkides, said he did not condemn the rioters but wanted to show a different kind of protest was possible.
"We are wearing white to show that we are different from the violent ones," he said, holding a bunch of daisies.
Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis, attending a EU summit in Brussels, has pledged to guarantee the safety of his people, rebuffing opposition calls to resign and hold early elections.
A poll conducted before the violence and published yesterday in Ethnos newspaper said his New Democracy government, which has a one-seat majority in parliament, was losing support to the Socialist opposition as well as other parties.