GREEK COMMUNIST LEADER HANGS HIMSELF IN PRISON CELL

Grey River Argus, 22 February 1949, Page 5

GREEK COMMUNIST LEADER HANGS HIMSELF IN PRISON CELL

ATHENS, February 20. The Communist leader, Demetrius Paparigas, was found hanged in his prison cell. He had used the tape of his pyjamas to hang himselt Iron, the window bars. . Paparigas was awaiting trial on charges of being the “moral instigator of criminal actions, including the murder of the Justice Minister, M. Ladas, last May. HAS MARKOS COME TO THIS? ATHENS, February 19. General Markos, whose resignation from the Greek guerrilla leadership was announced on February 8, is a prisoner in the Loubianka gaol, in Moscow, according to the Athens radio, which quotes ‘ reliable sources” for the report. The radio added that General Markos was lured to the town of Stolnik, in Bulgarian Macedonia, on the pretext of a conference. The Buigarian police seized him and handed him over to the Soviet authorities in Sofia. i THE GREEK REBELS

ATHENS, February 21. The Greek guerrilla radio claimed that guerrillas had shot down an aeroplane in which two United Nations observers, one British and one American, were killed on February 17, in the Florina battle area. The broadcast said that anti-aircraft guns brought the aeroplane down after it had bombed and machine-gunned a village. „ . . ~ (The United Nations Special Conemission on the Balkans identified the occupants as observers going to reinforce the United Nations observation team in the Florina area). , The guerrilla radio also claimed

that British and American officers were in one of five “military buildings” which guerrillas had destroyed Ul /Special tax imposed on the rich to help the light against the Greek Communists has been approved by the Greek Government’s co-ordina-tion committee. A parliamentary act fixing the contributions will be announced on Monday. The tax rises from a minimum of £lOO to a maximum of £18,750. Cyprus Demand for Union with Greece NICOSIA, Feb. 20. Hundreds of people Routing, We wan> union with Greece, P c * through the streets of all the townand villages as the Akel (Communis Party) and trade unions organiser political rallies throughout Cyprus Left-wing speakers invited all the Right-wing Greeks to join forces and nrfsent a solid front in the demand that Cyprus be united with Greece.