GHM REPORT TO ERRC NO 30: 30/3/1998
JANUARY 1998 ACTIVITY REPORT OF THE GHM ROMA OFFICE
7 January 1998
On Wednesday 7 January, representatives of the Greek-Helsinki Monitor
(GHM), along with Doctors of the World, visited the Kurdish refugee settlement in the
children’s campsite at Pendeli. Doctors of the World hold a medical office there every
day for children and adults, in total about 200 persons. Apart from medical care, they
have undertaken to feed and clothe the residents of the settlement by relying on donations
and offers of help. The people here live in tents, and now, during the winter, they are
having a particular problem, because of the cold weather. From time to time, whenever a TV
station broadcasts their plight, a lot of people and philanthropic organizations visit
them, and they provide the children with food, shoes, clothing and toys. Whatever is left
over, the Doctors of the World give to the Roma settlements.
Apart from that settlement of 200 persons, there is another one, in a
neighboring area, under the responsibility of the Municipality of Athens. More than 500
people live here who have just been abandoned, without the Municipality taking care of
their food or health. Doctors of the World offer their health care on a daily basis. They
also live in tents and depend on people’s charity as well.
7 January. The GHM, with Doctors of the World, visited the Roma
settlement at Agia Paraskevi in Pefkakia. Our aim consisted in the registration of the
population there, and in the vaccination of the children. 42 people live there. 19 out of
them are children, 9 of whom enrolled in the school at the beginning of January. We
vaccinated 10 of the children who were at the settlement at the time, and we delivered
toys, clothes and food to the children.
9 January - We arranged a meeting between Mr. Hatzioannidis from
the cultural group ‘Arts, Letters, Culture’, and the Pan-Hellenic Roma Union of Agia
Varvara .and we discussed about the participation of the Romani chorus in cultural events
that they are organizing for February. Other cultural groups will also be invited to take
part.
15 January - We visited the American Embassy where we had been
invited to inform a committee from Congress and a team from the Helsinki Commission about
the situation of the Roma in Greece and violations of their rights. The Pan-Hellenic Roma
Union from Agia Varvara was also invited in the meeting.
18 January - On Sunday 18 January, representatives of GHM,
Sophia Nikolaidou, Vassilis Sakellariou and Grigoris Vallianatos visited the Roma
settlements in the western suburbs of Ano Liosia and Zefyri, as well as two of the three
settlements in the area of Aspropyrgos. We are now concentrating on the three
settlements at Aspropyrgos, and the reason for this is that lately, especially when the
Roma deprived of any access to the rubbish tip, which they used for their living , they
left the central settlement (next to the dump), in order to go to different sites in the
provinces trying to find other employment (e.g., gathering olives etc.) Some of those who
remained went to other areas of Aspropyrgos, where some of them had relatives living, and
thus there are now two new settlements with about 20 families in each. Naturally, they
have no water (they buy it for 80 Drs. per flask), there are no toilets, no electricity
nor any kind of hygienic conditions. Now we must carry out the registration of these
inhabitants who live there, so that the children could take part in educational and
vaccination programs.
In one of the new settlements we met Mrs. Panayiota Panayiotopoulou,
the daughter of Mr. Yannis Panayiotopoulos, and she asked our help to get her child, who
has her name, and which her former husband has taken from her after beating her and
burning her shack with all her belongings in it. Although the child should go immediately
to hospital, because it suffers from a type of meningitis, he is keeping her in the
settlement. In spite of the fact that since last August there has been a district
attorney’s order saying that she is entitled to take the child from him, along with the
police, the order has not been carried out (by the police), with the excuse that they
don’t have anyone to send. GHM’s legal advisor Nassos Theodoridis, contacted the
Director of the Aspropyrgos police station, Mr. Hatzis, who said that Mrs. Panayiotopoulou
should go and see him in person. When she went, they told her to wait again, without any
results. Mrs. Panayiotopoulou is afraid to go again, because on Sunday 28 January her
former mother-in-law went to her home and beat her up, threatening her that if she takes
the child they will kill her.
19 January - We received a telephone call from the ELAIS
company, and they told us that they are giving away oil and vegetable butter to the Roma.
They said that they were sorry that they didn’t have time to get involved with the
matter at Christmas when we had addressed them a request. They will contact us again.
30 January - We visited the Town Council at Sofades and had a
conversation with the mayor’s private secretary, Ms Maria Tsekoura, in order to find out
about the Roma settlement in their area. 500 families live in Sofades (2,500 persons),
most of whom are employed in agricultural work. Very few of them, 30 - 40 families, are
involved in trade. Lately, their situation has worsened, because the farmers prefer to
hire Albanians, since they are paid less. As Ms Tsekoura told us, the head of the 12-place
school, Mr. Sotiris Demetrakopoulos, made a research concerning the feeding of the
children in the settlement, and concluded that 70% of the children eat nothing up to
lunch-time, 20% drink a cup of tea and 10%, a glass of milk. Mr. Demetrakopoulos, in order
to persuade the children to attend school, is looking for a sponsor to offer food for the
mornings at school for 250-300 children. If the sponsors correspond, Mr. Demetrakopoulos
believes that all the children will attend the school. Of course, the goodwill of the
teacher is not enough. Up to the present, he has received declarations of support and
promises of help from the Vice- minister of Health and Welfare, Mr. Kotsonis, and from
food manufacturers in Thessalia, with no results so far. He is also supported by the
council and the committee «A Child’s Smile».
The mayor’s secretary Ms Tsekoura asked us if we could help, so that
the program can go ahead at once and not when the school is about to close for holidays.
We asked about health care in the settlement, and she told us that the council, in
cooperation with the area’s Health Center, have vaccinated the children.
2 February 1998
Sophia Nikolaidou