APRIL 1998 ACTIVITY REPORT OF THE GHM ROMA OFFICE

April 1. Vasilis Sakellariou and Sofia Nikolaidou, members of the Greek Helsinki Monitor, visited the Aspropyrgos, Ano Liosia and Zefyri Roma settlements to inspect the damages suffered after the storm of March 25 and 26 and the present situation.

Aspropyrgos. In the Aspropyrgos settlements the situation is very serious as all the shacks were brought down by the strong winds and the rain and moreover two children were seriously injured, one was hit on the head and the other had a broken leg. Their parents invited us in their shacks to see for ourselves. The Roma now try to rebuilt their shacks on the mud. The women have hung out in the sun all their clothes to dry. The state welfare services never showed up. Only the Doctors of the World visited the settlements and brought blankets and clothes for the children. On Monday March 30 we spoke to the deputy mayor of Aspropyrgos M. Isidoros Tsingos and asked him what assistance the Municipality was planning to offer to the Roma of their area, hit by the storm. He said he knew nothing about it, and added that the Municipality had issued a statement informing anyone who had suffered damages to go and report them in order to get a compensation. We arranged to call him back on Wednesday April 1 to be informed about the actions taken for the Roma. We phoned him from the settlement but did not find him. Of course he had done nothing. So we had to go from shack to shack and inform the Roma ourselves that they had to go to the town hall to report the damages. One of the inhabitants of the settlement which is raised near the rubbish dump, undertook the task to collect all the names and take them to the town hall on Thursday morning.

The Roma were very angry against the indifference of the State. «They have thrown us here like dogs in the mud» they started shouting when they saw us. «We ask the municipality to bring a bulldozer and clear the place up because we will get infected. Once this is done we will take care and keep the place clean ourselves». They asked us to speak to the deputy mayor and demand that he send equipment to clear the place up. When we raised the issue M. Tsingos told us on the telephone that the Roma who live there are not permanent inhabitants of the municipality. He told us we must arrange a meeting with the mayor himself to discuss the matter. He also said that the area the Roma are occupying may well be the property of the municipality, yet if the municipality decides to build a worksite there the Roma will have to be removed. We must point out here that in the past all our efforts to arrange a meeting with the mayor were proven fruitless. Now we will have to try again.

Ano Liosia. Here too the situation is tragic. The so-called «prefabs» which were already in a very bad condition, were flooded after the storm and it made no difference whether one stood inside or outside. They were almost brought down. When we reached the settlements we found the women near the water tabs trying to wash the muddy blankets and carpets with cold water. As there is no special place for washing, they dug a pool, covered it with nylon, filled it with water and used it for washing. Some women showed us their feet. Scratches they got were infected and their feet became swollen. Most of the inhabitants were sick because of the cold and the rain. Here too no state service showed up to offer assistance. We told them to go to the town hall and to the welfare service and report the damages.

Zefyri. Here the situation is somehow better. The shacks here were not destroyed, yet the strong winds ripped off the pieces of nylon with which they are covered and the inhabitants are now trying to put up new ones. The women have hung up all their blankets and carpets in the sun to dry. In all three settlements the complaints of the inhabitants are also addressed to the Mass Media. TV channels have avoided to show the drama they are living. «Whenever there is a campaign against drugs, they always show the Roma settlements in order to accuse us of being drug dealers» Dimitris from Zefyri told us «but when we suffer damages no channel wishes to show anything».

April 8. We spoke to M. Haralambos Karadimas representative of the Ecologists’Association who had recently visited the Aspropyrgos settlement (the Roma gave us his telephone number) in order to co-operate with him. He proposed we should be present along with the Doctors of the World and the Roma singer Vasilis Paiteris at the arranged meeting with the mayor of Aspropyrgos, M. Giorgos Liakos, to promote solutions for the Romas of the area.

April 9. On Thursday a delegation of the Greek Helsinki Monitor together with the Doctors of the World, a representative of the Ecologists’ Association and the Roma singer Vasilis Paiteris met the mayor of Aspropyrgos M. Giorgos Liakos in the Town Hall to discuss matters concerning the Roma of the area.

We raised the problem of the settlement near the rubbish dump and asked him to supply the settlement with water, toilets, cisterns for the washing of the clothes and electricity. We also asked him to send equipment to clear and level up the place, to prepare a street-plan and spread out gravel so that the Roma shacks destroyed by the flood may be built again. The mayor undertook to contact the Athens mayor M. Avramopoulos and ask for his permission to supply water to the settlement, as the main water pipe is under his jurisdiction. The mayor undertook to have a study ready by the end of April, in order to meet our demands as soon as possible. The private company LOBBE TZILALIS undertook to install big rubbish bins in the settlement and the mayor will issue a certificate which will enable the company to enter the rubbish dump and empty the bins. We raised the issue that the Roma are marginalized and asked him how he thought they could be incorporated in the local society. He told us that the Roma know very well how to drive, and this is why the state must provide them with driving licences after just a visual examination, as they are illiterate. This will enable them to find a job.

Afterwards we visited the school of Aspropyrgos in the area of Nea Zoi which is near the settlements and we met its director Mrs Matina Vavouli. She told us that 35 Roma children approximately attend the school presently and that she herself tries to persuade more parents to send their children to school. She also told us that despite the fact the Organization of Urban Transport (OASA) has agreed to send a special bus to get the children to school the service is not yet operating.

April 13. On Monday April 13 at 8 o’clock at night Greek Helsinki Monitor was present at the inauguration of the Polyclinic of the Doctors of the World. In the last 15 months of the Clinic’s operation, 6.500 homeless, migrants, refugees, Roma and street-lamp children found relief and medical care here. Yet increased needs could not be met anymore because there was no space, that is why they have rented one more floor to accommodate two dentist offices, two examination rooms and a room for the psychologists. Many people were present at the inauguration, mainly youth as well as human rights organizations. Apart from the Greek Helsinki Monitor, the «Citizens’ Movement against Racism» was there the «Ecologists’ Association» and representatives of the «Homeless Hostel». The Doctors of the World have issued a special brochure in nine languages for the migrants’ information.

April 14. On Tuesday April 14, we met the mayor of Aspropyrgos M. Giorgos Liakos, to exert pressure for the removal of rubbish from the Roma settlement of Aspropyrgos and for ensuring water supply. Present in the meeting were Mrs Sofia Nikolaidou from the Greek Helsinki Monitor and M. Fredy Stamou from the Prime Minister’s office working on social issues, as well as the Roma singer M. Vasilis Paiteris. The mayor reaffirmed his position that by the end of April he will have the study concerning the settlement ready. He promised that on Tuesday April 21 the cleaning of the settlement would start, with the use of equipment sent by the Municipality and that some cement bases would be constructed so that the Roma may raise their shacks on them. Then he will proceed to the installation of water and toilets.

M. Paiteris asked the mayor if he could find some food for the Roma, to enable them to celebrate Easter. The mayor proposed to M. Paiteris to contact the company DIDAGEP (it belongs to the Ministry of Agriculture) which, after his intervention, has given out meat, cheese, rice etc for the Association of the Pontians of the area. The condition is that the Roma themselves ask food through their association. If they do this then the mayor will back their demand. M. Paiteris will get in touch with the company to make sure it will respond.

Then we visited the settlement. An army bulldozer was already working (after the mayor’s request) to clear the rubbish. It was planned to carry on working the next day until the place was clear. M. Paiteris spoke to the Roma and told them that once the place is cleared they must keep it clean themselves.

April 20. We got in touch with Mrs Nitsa Mazaraki, working in the office of the welfare service of Thessaloniki about the Evosmos settlement and she informed us that on April 30 the Doctors of the World were going to vaccinate the children again polio.

April 28. We spoke with M. Vapas, representative of OASA, about the bus agreed to transport the Roma children of the Aspropyrgos settlement to the school of Nea Zoi. M. Vapas told us that the bus service is not yet operating because the street is inadequate and the Municipality has to carry out works to improve it. We tried to find the mayor and confirm this information but we were unable to reach him. We shall further investigate the matter.