NOVEMBER 1998 ACTIVITY REPORT OF THE GHM ROMA OFFICE

November 3: GHM’s affiliate Minority Rights Group - Greece, through its Spokesperson Nafsika Papanikolatos, made a presentation on Roma Rights in Greece, during the session on Roma and Sinti of the OSCE Implementation Review Meeting. The Greek delegation responded with a surprisingly constructive but also apologetic statement. Both are attached in the end of this report.

November 10: After a GHM initiated visit to the Roma settlement in the Gallikos River, near Salonica, Liam McDowall, Executive Director of the Center for Democracy in Southeast Europe stated: "As a former correspondent who has spent virtually all the decade living and working in war zones, I have seen worse [camps than the Gallikos River Roma settlement] during conflicts, but in peacetime this ranks high on any list of European disgraces."

November 17: GHM’s Nafiska Papanikolatos and Open Society Institute grant officer, Emily Martinez, visited the offices of the center for "Social and Educational Action," a unique center in Greece for street children in Athens, mainly Roma and mostly Muslim children. They spoke with the center's founder and coordinator, Ms. Myrto Lemou, about its objectives and its problems, particularly economic ones, that limit its capacity to provide the required services to the Roma community living nearby. The center tries to provide both social and educational services to Roma children who are working on the streets and most of whom have never gone to school. The center also tries to reach their families, particularly the mothers, in order to develop interest and trust for its activities and services. Ms. Martinez was informed of the economic difficulties that the center has, since it mainly functions through small and uncertain donations and minimum support from the government. This is why it has no full time employees and its services are based mainly on the goodwill of voluntary service provided by social workers, particularly those still studying and trying to do internship in the center.

November 18: The infrastructure works in the Gonou military camp was the subject of a conference held by the Prefecture of Salonica , with the participation of Roma and NGOs. The Prefecture accepted 13 propositions made by both the Roma and the NGOs, among which GHM. The propositions concern measures that should be taken in order not to create another Roma ghetto, but rather a self-administered settlement which would provide the Roma with the necessary conditions for a better future. The Prefecture declared that the infrastructure works would start in the next days and that they would have been accomplished by the end of spring 1998.

November 22: The president of the Progressive Coalition Party of the Left (SYN), Nikos Konstantopoulos, christened a Roma child on behalf of NGOs, among which GHM and MRG-G. Instead of a church, the christening took place in the shack of the family of the child, the Frangoulis family, at the temporary settlement in the drained bed of the Gallikos river. The activity was meant on one hand to show solidarity towards the Roma families of the Gallikos river, who are literally under persecution, and on the other hand to draw the attention of the media and the public opinion to the sordid conditions of the settlement.

The NGO "DROM Network for the Roma’s Social Rights" issued a memo concerning the living conditions at the Gallikos river. The memo pointed out the dangers which threat the life of the Roma and asked from the Greek Government to commit itself on the beginning and the accomplishment of the infrastructure works at the Gonou military barrack, the resettlement of the Roma there, as well as the acceptance of the 13 propositions adopted by Roma, NGOs and the Prefecture of Salonica in a meeting held on November 18 (see above).

November 24: As the "DROM Network for the Roma’s Social Rights" reports, the drained bed of the Gallikos river was flooded due to an extensive rainfall in Central and West Macedonia. The water went up to 2,5 meters depth, just 50 centimeters below the Roma settlement. The Roma left their shacks and found resort to an adjacent hill. A Roma child lost his eye when he was hit by a rusty nail of a beam eradicated by the strong wind. In a conference held the same night, DROM and Doctors of the World - Department of Northern Greece concluded that living at the Gallikos river is extremely dangerous, as the rainfalls are expected to last until May.

November 24: GHM member Panayote Dimitras visited Messolongi to observe the trial of two Roma 17-year-old L. Bekos and 18-year-old E. Kotropoulos, for petty theft. Caught in the act, on 8 May 1998, the two Roma had been ill-treated by police officers during their detention in the police station of the city of Messolongi. The trial was postponed for some time in 1999. The lawyer Joanna Kourtovik and P. Dimitras interviewed two local lawyers who confirmed their reluctance to take up the case of the two Roma against the police. In the meantime, the Deputy Prosecutor Ms. Efstathia Salma informed confidentailly the lawyer that she was going tpo press charges against the policemen involved. She too had opened a preliminary investigation on the case, on her own initiative, following press articles based on GHM’s public letter to the Minister of Public Order (case A98/1310). The complaint of the two Roma (A98/1871) filed after she had opened her case was simply attached to the former case. GHM was concerned that the Roma’s parents, under serious police pressure, were contemplating to convince their children to drop the case. The latter were very pleased when handed the ERRC newsletter issues which referred to their case and had their picture, as well as a dossier with all the statements and related documents GHM had compiled.

November 25/26: "DROM Network for the Roma’s Social Rights", "Doctors of the World" and the Roma themselves released statements asking for the immediate resettlement of the Roma at a gravelled place next to the one (about 50 acres) where the infrastructure works should begin. They also ask for the immediate beginning of the infrastructure works, which have been unofficially put up for more than 16 months.

November 27: GHM member Dimitris Angelidis accompanied a team of Doctors of the World in their regular visit to Roma settlements at the region of Attica. For more than a year the organization is carrying out a very active program of registering the medical background of each Roma family in the region and providing them with medical help (vaccination, medicine, medical exams). GHM financially supported the program last year by donating 1,000,000 drs for the purchase of vaccines. Most Roma live in an unhealthy environment with very poor sanitary arrangements, thus the state of their health is considered very bad. Diseases reported include very high rates of Hepatitis A, but also Hepatitis B and C, as well as measles, mumps, rubella and skin diseases. Scabies is also widespread among the settlements.

A visible improvement at the Roma camping which is near the rubbish dump at the region of Aspropyrgos has been made, if one can speak of "improvement" in a settlement where people still live in shacks made of cardboard, glass, used fertilizer sacks and tin. When we visited the settlement in September, along with the President of The Body Shop International chain-stores, Ms. Anita Roddick, the place was clearly in a mess, despite the promises given by the mayor earlier this year to clear the place: there was rubbish everywhere and clouds of dust polluted the air whenever a car passed by. This time however the place had been cleaned up and gravel, even cement, had been spread in front of some shacks. The impression given was that of a somewhat arranged place and life there seemed more organized. The people themselves seemed happier and hospitable, while the other time were enraged and furious.

We should note, however, that the Roma in the settlement are separated in two groups, one comprised with those recently arrived and the other with the old dwellers. No communication seems to take place between the two groups. The members of the one group even refused to visit the infirmary, unless it had moved to the second entrance 100 meters away.

November 30: We contacted the representative of the NGO "DROM Network for the Roma’s Social Rights" Thanasis Triaridis to ask information on the progress made in the Gallikos river case. The Prefecture of Salonica doesn’t accept the temporary resettlement of the Roma at a place adjacent to the one which has been officially given to them, but which is still under construction. On the contrary, it proposes their resettlement at the region of Asprovalta, 100 km away, a proposition rejected by the Roma. The Prefect asks from the Roma to be patient until the infrastructure works will be accomplished next spring -although human lives are in extreme danger because of the rainfalls expected in the meantime! Moreover, the mine disposal at the former military barrack of Gonou, first step of the necessary infrastructure work, is going on in a very slow pace, even if according to Army Officers 24 hours is enough time for the mine disposal of 250 acres! Mr. Triaridis denounces that the Prefecture of Salonica claims that it waits for an order by the greek government concerning the matter, while on the same time the Government claims that it waits for an official request by the Prefecture. The unacceptable attitudes of both Government and the Prefecture opens the question whether the official statement of the Greek State at the OSCE Meeting (see above) was sincere or it was just another case of sweetening the pill.

MINORITY RIGHTS GROUP - GREECE

P.O. Box 51393, GR-14510 Kifisia, Greece

Tel. 30-1-620.01.20; Fax: 30-1-807.57.67;

E-mail: nafsika@greekhelsinki.gr http://www.greekhelsinki.gr

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29 October 1998

Introduction

Greece’s Roma minority is estimated at some 350,000 people. About one half of that community appears to be integrated in a rather satisfactory way. However, the other half of the Roma are the most marginalized social group in Greece, subject to discrimination in education, employment and housing and to police abuse. An ambitious government plan to help improve their situation, announced in mid-1996, remained a dead letter. So, one half of the Roma continue to have no decent settlement: they live in at least thirty slums throughout the country with some of the worst living conditions in Europe.

Observers Describe the Horror

Speaking to state television station ET-3 (24/10/1998) a Greek "Doctor of the World" Yannis Boukovinas said about the largest Roma settlement near Salonica, near the Gallikos river:

"It is worse than the refugee camps I have visited with our organization in occupied Palestine or war torn Irak ."

After a visit to the largest Roma settlement near Athens, in Aspropyrgos, well-known human rights activist and founder of Body Shop International Anita Roddick said (Eleftherotypia, 11/9/1998):

"The Greek government should be ashamed to allow this settlement to exist."

The "European Roma Rights Center"’s Executive Director Dimitrina Petrova, who visited, along with Minority Rights Group - Greece and Greek Helsinki Monitor, a score of Roma settlements in May 1998, spoke to the French News Agency (12/5/1998). The article, which also gives a very good summary of the situation, follows:

ATHENS, May 12 (AFP) - A European body for Gypsies’ rights on Tuesday slammed Greece for treating its Gypsies in an inhuman and degrading manner, particularly regarding their education.

Dimitrina Petrova, director of the European Center for Romany Rights, told AFP at the end of a 10-day mission to Greece that the gypsies "are not treated and do not live like humans, they exist outside society, their situation is totally unacceptable." Non-governmental organizations (NGO) estimate that there are over 300,000 Gypsies in Greece, many of whom are itinerant.

Education for Greek Gypsies, of whom 80 percent are illiterate according to local NGOs, is at the root of many of their problems, Petrova noted. "In this field, Greece is the worst country in East and Central Europe," she said.

Petrova described as "stupefying" the poverty in which many Gypsies exist and the level of police violence to which they are subjected. "In many regions, it seems routine to badly treat and subject arrested Gypsies to brutality," Petrova said, adding that these incidents were never taken up by the authorities.

Petrova, who is of Bulgarian descent, attacked local authorities which expelled Gypsies or drive them into insalubrious areas. They often refuse to register the Gypsies, depriving them of their civic rights.

Her report, due to be published in three months, will urge the Greek government to improve the status of Romanies in Greece.

The government in 1996 announced an ambitious plan for the social integration of Greek Gypsies. The plan, which was to implement schooling and health programs, has remained a dead letter.

Expulsions

In Ano Liosia, in 1997, Roma were forced out of a state property they had lived in for ten years and moved in a settlement surrounded by a wire fence. All infrastructure promised to them in exchange for the move was never carried out. On the contrary, the local authorities have from time to time expelled some Roma families from that settlement.

Throughout 1998, Roma were expelled or threatened with expulsion from many other sites by the municipal authorities and sometimes by the courts, while the often announced plan to find appropriate living quarters for them had not been implemented.

Most dramatic, and characteristic of Greek attitudes towards Roma, was the multiple expulsions in August 1998 of the largest destitute Roma community, made up of 3,500 people who had lived in Evosmos, near Salonica, for over thirty years. First, on 2/6/1998, four -at the time- mayors (three supported by the government party PASOK and one by the main opposition party New Democracy) threatened to prevent both these Roma from resettling in a former military barrack allocated a year earlier by the state as well as the public contractor appointed by the authorities to carry out the necessary infrastructure works therein. As a result, this resettlement did not take place, neither did the infrastructure work in the camp.

However, in early August 1998, this Roma community was told to leave Evosmos immediately lest large fines be imposed on them for squatting in private land (for 30 years…). The Roma gave in to the threats and had to wander from place to place in the outskirts of Salonica. First, they went to Neo Rysio, but were told to leave. Then they went to Peraia, to face the same reaction. Third "stop," an area behind the Evosmos cemetery: from there, too, authorities ordered them to leave. Finally, they settled near the Gallikos river: a NGO mobilization helped force the authorities to promise they would not be expelled from there until the former barracks be prepared for the final resettlement.

In the meantime, no action was taken against the obviously racist mayors who continued to enjoy the support of their parties in the following elections, despite a public NGO request to the three party leaders concerned that their party’s support be withdrawn… .

Police Brutality

Amidst repeated allegations of excessive police violence against Roma, two cases backed by forensic evidence of a murder of one Rom in April and of torture of two others in May had not led, by late October 1998, to any disciplinary action against the police officers involved. This, despite repeated NGO denunciations, and court indictment in one case. The Ministry had simply launched inconclusive "sworn administrative investigation."

On 1 April 1998, Angelos Celal, a 28-year-old Rom, was killed by policemen in Partheni (near Salonica). Reportedly, he was there with two friends. There were too some policemen, hiding in a barn and waiting in ambush for the driver of a stolen car parked nearby. These policemen opened fire at the three Roma friends, who, in a state of panic, went back to their car to escape police control. A. Celal was the driver. The policemen did not stop shooting at them. One bullet went into Celal’s back and a second one in his head, killing him. The rear window of the car was broken and two more bullets were shot at the car. On 2 April, the forensic Professor Dimitris Psaroulis of the University of Salonica certified that Celal died of a head wound caused by a shot from a firearm he had received in the back of his head; he also reported that he had another wound in the back. On 6 April, Angelos Celal’s father, Panayote Celal, pressed charges against the police. On 24 June, the Prosecutor informed the police he had indicted three police officers for murder, conspiracy to commit murder and other charges. These policemen have not been suspended.

On 8-9 May 1998 Lazaros Bekos and Eleftherios Kotropoulos (17 and 18 years old respectively) were ill-treated by police officers during their detention at the police station of the town of Mesolongi (Western Greece). The two Roma claimed that during their detention at the police station they were physically abused and threatened by police officers. The latter did not allow them even to call home and let their families know their whereabouts. Dr. Orfeas Peridis, the forensic on duty on 10 May, the day the youth were released, confirmed that the two Roma had been beaten up the previous day. More specifically, the doctor certified the presence of "medium bodily injuries, inflicted with a broken instrument 24 hours ago," i.e. during the time of the young people’s detention at the police station of Mesolongi. On 1 July, the two Roma pressed charges against the police. Since then, they have from time to time be harassed by the policemen who tortured them in an effort to make them retract their statements. As recently as 23/10/1998, Bekos reported that the very officer who mistreated him once again put pressure on him to withdraw his statement. Here, too, the police officers who are responsible for the torture not only were not suspended but they continue to serve in Mesolongi!

Minority Rights Group - Greece and Greek Helsinki Monitor have written many times to Minister of Public Order George Romaios about the cases and the unnecessarily long and purported inconclusive "internal investigations", as well as the pressures of the policemen in Mesolongi, but to no avail: in all answers of the Ministry, the NGOs were informed that the allegations were being investigated and that they will be eventually informed of the outcome of the internal investigations.

Likewise, Amnesty International, with whom Minority Rights Group - Greece and Greek Helsinki Monitor cooperate, wrote to the Greek government on both cases (on 19/6/1998 for the Bekos-Kotropoulos case and on 14/10/1998 for the Celal case), adding that Celal’s family should receive adequate compensation. No response was received by the end of October 1998.

Minority Rights Group - Greece, in anticipation of the presentation of this report to the 1998 OSCE Implementation Meeting, has submitted a complimentary copy to the Greek Foreign Ministry on 30 October 1998.

MINORITY RIGHTS GROUP - GREECE

P.O. Box 51393, GR-14510 Kifisia, Greece

Tel. 30-1-620.01.20; Fax: 30-1-807.57.67;

E-mail: nafsika@greekhelsinki.gr http://www.greekhelsinki.gr

_____________________________________________________________________

Minority Rights Group - Greece was created as the Greek affiliate of Minority Rights Group International in January 1992. The members’ broad human rights concerns led them to also create Greek Helsinki Monitor (GHM) in late 1992, which became member of the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights.

The first major campaign of MRG-G was to alert international public opinion on the considerable number of trials of dissident intellectuals and human or minority rights activists for their opposition to the official Greek policy towards Macedonia and the Macedonian minority in Greece, which took place in 1992-1993. On a related, most recent trial, MRG-G, along with GHM, published, both in Greek and in English, Greece Against its Macedonian Minority: the Rainbow Trial (ETEPE, 1998).

MRG-G focused mostly on the studies of minorities, in Greece and in the Balkans. Its first project aimed at preparing detailed reports on all national, ethnolinguistic and major religious minority communities in Greece (Macedonians and Turks; Arvanites, Pomaks, and Vlachs; Catholics, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Protestants, and New Religious Movements), as well as the Greek minorities in Albania and Turkey, and the Albanian immigrants in Greece.

In 1997, MRG-G along with GHM in cooperation with the European Roma Rights Center started a Roma Office which has issued reports on both the problems of the Roma and their coverage by the major Greek print media. The three NGOs have jointly made, in May 1998, a fact-finding mission to some 40 Roma settlements in Greece and are preparing the first ever comprehensive report on the situation of the country’s major minority (estimated population 350,000). That office has also followed cases of police violence against Roma, including offering the victims legal advice and continuous support.

In 1998, MRG-G along with GHM, the Institute on South East Europe (ISEE) of the Central European University and the Center of Documentation and Information on Minorities in Europe (CEDIME) based in Montpellier (France) launched a Balkan-wide project to create a web site to cover human rights issues in the region and include comprehensive and comparable presentations of all minorities in the region.

All the reports mentioned here, the statements (co-)issued by MRG-G, as well as the articles and books published by its members can be found in the web site http://www.greekhelsinki.gr.

GREEK DELEGATION

3 November 1998

This is in response to the statement by the NGO Minority Rights Group – Greece on the situation of Roma in Greece.

I wish to state in all honesty that I cannot, and will not attempt to, justify the unjustifiable. Even allowing for some degree of exaggeration in the picture painted by the NGO in its statement, we do recognize that the situation of the Roma in Greece is still far from satisfactory. It is indeed unacceptable. And in our efforts to remedy the situation we have a long way to go.

The Greek Government has repeatedly expressed its will to take all appropriate measures to improve the state of Roma and bring their standard of living at the same level as that of other Greek citizens. What has been hindering the efforts by the central Government is the persistent mentality of prejudice at the level of local administration and some members of the police. Of particular concern, and of course more difficult to control by the central Government, are some elected local authorities.

Five years ago, in an effort to decentralize the program aiming at the improvement of the situation of Roma in the country, a City Municipality Network for Gypsy Citizens was created in Greece, with the participation of some 33 cities and municipalities. However, the system of allowing the local government to deal with the question has been found to be really ineffective.

Recognizing that, the Government introduced in 1996 a Program of Social Integration of Greek Gypsies, in terms of which the central Government would exercise more control over the way the program is implemented at the local level.

It is also hoped that the recently established office of Ombudsman in Greece will prove helpful, especially in fighting cases of discrimination and incidents of police brutality against Roma.