GREECE:

RACIALLY MOTIVATED ARSON ON A ROMA HUT IN NEA KIOS

On 11 June, the Greek Helsinki Monitor and Minority Rights Group-Greece denounced the arson attack on a Roma hut in Nea Kios (Argolida, Peloponese) that had been carried out two days earlier. The hut of Panayote Demetropoulos was set on fire by a group of men who also chased women and children trying to escape. The two organizations said that they hold the town municipal authority responsible for instigating the crime because of its racist decisions that created an atmosphere bound to lead to excesses such as the arson.

On 20 May, the municipality of Nea Kios declared all Roma in the region to be undesirable, invoking high criminality rates, a charge that was denied by the police authority. The decision created an explosive atmosphere and constant police presence in order to guard the Roma settlement. On 8 June, the municipal authority also declared, "for lack of good intentions," the presence of an anti-racist group of 40 people from Athens in the region to be undesirable. Local citizens - without any police interference - impeded their movement, while Panos Lambrou, journalist of the weekly "Epochi, was harassed.

Greek Helsinki Monitor and Minority Rights Group-Greece said that they also hold the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK), New Democracy, the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) and the Progressive Left Coalition (Syn) responsible for the incident due to their failure to denounce the decisions taken by their municipal counselors in Nea Kios. The organizations said that the incident exposed Greece internationally as being reminiscent of the "American South" of another era. In addition, they called upon the minister of justice to introduce immediate proceedings against all those responsible for the racially motivated criminal act.

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Source: Greek Helsinki Monitor and Minority Rights Group-Greece

For more information please contact Greek Helsinki Monitor/Minority Rights Group-Greece, tel. 30-1-347 2259, e-mail office@greekhelsinki.gr

COUNCIL OF EUROPE FINDS RACISM IN GREECE

Minorities in Greece are subjected to racism, discrimination and intolerance by society, despite recent positive developments taken by the State to combat racism.

This was the main finding of a 12-page report released yesterday by the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI), the Council of Europe's expert body on combating racism. The report on Greece was among a total of five reports released by the commission examining racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia, anti-Semitism and intolerance in countries such as France, Norway, Poland and Slovakia.

Although the ECRI recognizes that in all five countries positive developments have occurred since its last visit, the report also details the commission's continuing grounds for concern. In the case of Greece, ECRI notes that "problems of racism, intolerance, discrimination and exclusion affect particularly the Roma/Gypsy population, Albanians and other immigrants, as well as members of the Muslim minority." The commission underlines that "these problems are connected to the generally low level of recognition within Greek society of its multicultural reality, an acknowledgement which is all the more urgent given the new patterns of migration to Greece in recent years."

ECRI reporters visited Greece on October 19-21, 1999, when they also met with representatives of various ministries and public administrations responsible for issues relating the ECRI's mandate.

In its report, ECRI acknowledges that Greece has implemented a number of its proposals that were filed with its last report, including the ratification in 1997 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and its first Optional Protocol, the enactment of criminal law provisions aimed at combating racism and intolerance, the establishment of an Ombudsman's Office for Citizen's Rights in 1997, as well as the establishment in 1998 of National Human Rights Committee comprising government officials, representatives of nongovernmental organizations, trade unions, political parties, scholars and Supreme Court justices.

At the same time, ECRI charges that certain "vulnerable groups" such as religious groups, Jewish communities and "Macedonians," "may be particularly vulnerable to problems of racism, discrimination and intolerance."

Reporting on the current situation in the Jewish communities, the ECRI notes that "although there are no reports of problems in the exercise of freedom by the Jewish communities in Greece, anti-Semitic material often appears in the extreme right-wing media." In regard to "Macedonians," the "Greek citizens wishing to express and promote their ethnic Macedonian identity," ECRI notes that, in July 1998, the European Court of Human Rights found Greece in violation of the right to freedom of association, based on its refusal to register an association aimed at promoting "Macedonian" culture. The commission declares in the report that there are "cases where the right to freedom of expression of this group has not been respected."

Having repeatedly noted in several pages of the report the transition of Greece to a new reality of a "multicultural society," the commission devoted a separate section to address the issues of racism, discrimination and intolerance against specific minority groups such as the Roma/Gypsies, Albanians and the Muslim minority in western Thrace.

"As noted by ECRI in its first report, the Roma/Gypsy population of Greece is particularly vulnerable to disadvantage, exclusion and discrimination in many fields," the commission says.

Estimated by the state to number between 150,000 and 200,000, almost half of the Roma/Gypsies are permanently settled in the Athens area, while a large number moves around the country.

ECRI reports that "some municipal authorities have expelled communities of Roma/Gypsies from their permanent camps... without providing alternative accommodation," and they are "excluded from many normal citizenship rights and benefits."

Albanian immigrants, making up about half of the immigrant population of Greece – no precise figures are available since a large number are illegal - are subjected to prejudice and intolerant attitudes, the commission notes.

"ECRI is concerned at the significant amount of anti-foreigner sentiment directed particularly, although not exclusively, toward Albanians," the commission says, while noting that "the migration flows between Albania and Greece during the 1990s have been matched by manifestations of hostility and fear within Greek public opinion."

As concerns the Muslim minority in western Thrace, the commission stressed that "although positive steps have been taken by the Greek government... there is still room for further improvement." ECRI declares that "Muslims of western Thrace experience some restrictions of their freedom of expression," such as the right to call themselves "Turks," and restrictions concerning "the administration of private charitable foundations used to support education, social welfare and minority activities." The commission, however, also acknowledges and is "pleased to note that the Greek authorities have recently accepted a number of Turkish-language schoolbooks for the use of Muslim students in Thrace," and other developments such as the intention to "gradually introduce Turkish-language classes and the teaching of the Koran in pilot secondary public schools." The report, which is the second on Greece and aims at examining the implementation of proposals made to the government in the previous report, covers the situation as of December 10, 1999, meaning that any development subsequent to this date is not covered in the analysis, conclusions or proposals.

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Article by Miron Varouhakis, published in "Kathimerini" English Edition

For more information please contact Greek Helsinki Monitor / Minority Rights Group - Greece tel. 30-1-347 2259, e-mail office@greekhelsinki.gr