1.
GVs & SVs Anti-United States protestors marching with banners and placards through Athens. (6 SHOTS)
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2.
CU PULL BACK TO SV Plaque at base of statue to former US President Harry Truman.
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3.
SV PULL BACK TO GV Protestors marching, statue of Truman in foreground.
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4.
GVs & SVs Police trying to restrain protestors from climbing onto statue. (3 SHOTS)
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5.
GVs & SVs Demonstrators surrounding statue which has been partially covered by protestors, police looking on. (3 SHOTS)
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Initials MLE/JRS





Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: Hundreds of Greeks marched through Athens on October 21 to demand that a statue to the late United States President Harry Truman should be knocked down. The protest culminated with a rally at the base of the statue in Truman Square. Demonstrators surrounded the statue and later, despite efforts by police to prevent them, boxed it in with placards. The statue was erected by Greeks in recognition of Truman's services to the country in the post-war years. But a campaign led by the Communist Party who say Truman was a war-monger has called for its removal. Relations between Greece and the United States are strained, since Athens feels the Reagan Administration is favouring Turkey as an ally. The Greek Premier Andreas Papandreou has said that this was jeopardising Greek/US relations and was undermining Greek sovereign rights in the Aegean.