MARCH 1998 ACTIVITY REPORT OF THE GHM ROMA OFFICE

March 13. On Friday, March 13, we visited the Solidarity Centre for Children and Families in Metaxourghio (a neighbourhood at the centre of Athens) to get information about the correction of the certificates concerning the family situation of Muslim Roma, which, after the intervention of the Greek Helsinki Monitor (GHM), was undertaken by the Athens Lawyers’ Association (DSA). We should remind that on paper, some children were registered under the name of their father, some under the name of their mother and some under the name of their grandfather. The result was that certain welfare benefits, such us the one provided for families with many children, were never collected by the beneficiaries.

Mrs. Lemou told us that the Bureau of Legal Social Assistance of the University, run by students under the guidance of Mrs. Margaret Yanakopoulou, with the participation of Mrs. Mandouvalou on behalf of the Athens Lawyers’ Association, had undertaken the responsibility to register some families, a job which was actually done once a week. The Solidarity Centre provides volunteer aid to socially excluded children, the so called «street children» who are mainly Muslim Roma children from Thrace.

March 17. We spoke to Mr. Leonidas Drandakis about the situation of the Roma settlement in New Alikarnasos of Crete, especially after the assault, last November, of police looking for hashish, during which human rights were blatantly violated. On this occasion, policemen with hoods, guns and clubs attacked the settlement at night terrorizing and beating up children and women. A policewoman named Maria proceeded to body search and stripped the women naked in front of the men. Police did not find any hashish and it is possible that this act of terror was carried out in the context of the campaign of the Municipal Authorities to kick the Roma out of the area. We had similar examples of how the mayor of Ano Liosia in the Athens area had used press reports claiming that «Roma were involved in drug traffic» and that the area was «inaccessible» to police, in order to completely dismantle the settlement. The mayor of New Alikarnasos based on a decision of the Municipal Council, insists in kicking the Roma out of the area.

According to Mr. Drandakis, recently, especially after the question addressed to Parliament by the MP of Synaspismos Mr. Spyros Danelis concerning the violation of basic human rights in the settlement, the situation has somehow improved. Yet Roma are still undesirable since the Municipal Authorities refuse to register them as residents of the municipality. The Roma have had recourse to a lawyer, asking him to assist them to get registered in the municipal rolls of New Alikarnasos. However, despite the fact that the lawyer has obtained a court decision obliging the registry office to accept the applications of the Roma, this decision has not been implemented.

M. Drandakis has also denounced the beating of a Russian woman named Tatiana by the police in her house and later at the police station. The result was a broken arm. Despite her being wounded she was held at the police station and only after the intervention of Amnesty International she was transferred to the Hospital, where she was looked after (doctors put her arm in plaster). After that, she was brought back to the police station. The Lawyers’ Association intervened on that occasion and a Sworn Administrative Investigation was ordered. Following this intervention, Mrs. Tatiana has pressed charges against the policemen.

March 18. We spoke to Mr. Hristos Prevezanos, employee of the Prefectural Committee for People’s Training of Aetoloakarnania (NELE), about the Roma settlements of the area.

M. Prevezanos told us that there are many settlements in Aetoloakarnania. There are three settlement in Aetolikon lacking any infrastructure, where about 600 persons live. In two of the settlements there is water, but no toilets, electricity or sewerage, while in the third camp there is not even water. The Roma are mainly employed in agricultural works and in selling scrap. As to education, very few children go to school.

In the area Magoula of Neohorion, there is a settlement where 13 families live, nearly 100 persons. They have built their settlement on a strip of land provided by the Community and their houses are made of bricks. Here, there is water and toilets but no electricity as yet. A certain sum of money has been approved by the Ministry of Health and Welfare for electricity supply and the issue will soon be settled.

In Mesolongi there is a settlement of approximately 40-50 families living there permanently. The houses are all right and infrastructure is available. But there is a group of Roma, about 10 families, who live in shanties near the railway station. They have water and toilets which they have built themselves but no sewerage. They will be transferred in another area about 700 metres away, which will be adequately shaped by the Municipality for them to stay. This is possible because a sum of 30 million was given out by the Ministry of Health and Welfare to this end. As Mr. Prevezanos told us, in the new area, the ground will be covered with concrete on which the shanties will be raised so that mud and dust may be avoided. There will be water supply, toilets and sewerage.

Antirion. There is a Roma settlement where about 20 families live permanently, involved in trade, agricultural works, selling scrap, while many of them are musicians. This settlement will soon be transferred elsewhere (they are looking for an adequate place) because the works for the construction of the Rion-Antirion bridge are about to start there.

Agrinion. In various places of the area about 2.000 Roma live. Most of them live in houses, but there are two shanty towns with Roma residents.

Aetolikon. There are settlements in three places where about 600 persons live. They are permanent residents. There is no infrastructure whatsoever in these settlements. In two of them there is water, while in the third there is not even water. Most of the Roma here are employed in agricultural works and some of them are involved in the collection and selling of scrap. In one of the settlements of Aetolikon occupying a municipal area, 13 Roma families live who have come from Halkida 10 years ago and are only involved in trade. Since 1990, the Prefect has promised to provide infrastructure for the settlement. Until now, nothing has been done.

When we asked whether the children of the above settlements go to school, or whether they have a transport card for pupils, Mr. Prevezanos told us that very few of them go to school and as far as he knew no transport card has ever been used by them. Most probably the Roma don’t even know of the existence of such a facility. Let’s also note that the Roma don’t enjoy any special assistance on the part of the Local Authorities and this is obvious as there is no trace of infrastructure in their places of residence.

The persons responsible of the Prefectural Committee for People’s Training do everything possible. In collaboration with the Health Centre of the area they carry out vaccinations for children and together with the social workers they try to take care of the social incorporation of the Roma.

March 19. On Thursday, March 19, the GHM participated at a meeting organised by the non governmental organization SOS Racism to present honorary antiracist awards to people distinguished last year for defending Human Rights. Those awarded were:

Yanis Tzanetakos, director of the Greek Radio, for his initiatives which succeeded in that the state radio started for the first time emitting programmes in the Turkish and Roma languages, news broadcasts for the migrants and special programmes concerning the issue of human rights. He has promised that from the beginning of April there will be a national news broadcast every Sunday in all migrants’ languages. He stressed the necessity to fight against the «racist discourse» heard in all Mass Media.

The second person awarded was Mr. Andonis Karas, vice director of the Social Security Institution, because he was the only political person who dealt with and is still dealing with the problems of the Kurdish refugees in Greece. As he was absent abroad, the Kurd Mr. Rizgar Kadir with whom Mr. Karas is closely collaborating received the award on his behalf.

The third person awarded was the social worker Mrs. Myrto Lemou who has established the Solidarity Centre for Children and Families taking care of the «street children» in the most downgraded areas of Attica. Mrs. Lemou in her speech stressed that «these socially excluded children who help their parents earn a living, by cleaning car windows at street lights, by selling paper tissues or flowers, who feel they don’t have the same opportunities as the other children, are the ones to whom we should show that they are worthwhile and whom we should prepare for school». She asked the Government to take care of these children. She also stressed that volunteers are needed for her centre.

The fourth person awarded was Mr. Nikos Petasis, president of the Community of Kato Horio of Ierapetra, Crete, who, an antiracist in practice, publicly reacted when some youth of his village attacked Albanian migrants. «About 40-50 families of migrants, mainly Albanians come every year to our village, who work to gather the olives, help us with the early vegetables, work in the greenhouses and perform all sorts of agricultural tasks. Even the Albanian women care for the elderly who in their majority live on their own away from their children. The people of the village are quiet and hospitable and they have never created problems for the migrants. When 3-4 young persons attacked the homes of two Albanian families under the effect of alcohol, they smashed their furniture and beat them up, we called the police. We spoke to them and to their parents and they have promised that this will never happen again». Let us note that even after the events in the village, 20 families are still working there and their children attend the nursery school and the primary school.

March 27, Aspropyrgos. Children of a lesser god, the Roma of Aspropyrgos. The serious storm inthe night of 25^th to 26^th of March hit the northwestern and more downgraded areas of Attica and devastated the Roma settlement. Members of the 20 families who were there that night not only saw their shanties being brought down, but some of them were also wounded by the falling pieces. The so-called Welfare State, despite the fact that many TV broadcasts centered on the disaster, did not hurry to assist the inhabitants of the settlement. When we asked Mr. Tsingos, vice mayor of Aspropyrgos, what did the Municipality do to assist our fellow citizens, he said he knew nothing about it. He said that the municipality issued a statement asking all those who had either their houses or their gardens damaged to go and declare the damages, in order to be compensated. We replied that the Roma don’t have a TV, don’t read any papers because they are illiterate and that he should go there himself and inform them about the decision of the municipality. We also asked him what he was going to do now, after he heard about the disaster and when we could call him back to get informed of the results of his intervention. He said we could call him back on Wednesday April 1.

We should note that apart from the GHM, the Doctors of the World were the only ones who stood by the Roma. They offered blankets, clothes, food and medical care. Every Friday they set up an infirmary and examine the persons in the settlement who are in need.

Ano Liosia, Limni area. For the second time (the first was in 1994) this area was flooded because the government never constructed the necessary flood-preventing works and the people have suffered severely. The houses were invaded by the mud and the waters and all their goods and chattels were destroyed. Some Roma families also live here. The Municipality transferred temporarily some residents to hotels and certain others were accommodated in the houses of relatives who live in other areas. Food and blankets were offered to them.

Zefyri. The Roma shanties did not suffer serious damages there. This means they were not destroyed, but in most of them all the belongings of their residents soaked in the water. Here as well the Doctors of the World provided medical care for all those in need.

March 20, Kato Souli. We communicated with the social department of the Patras Municipality and with the Welfare Services’ Director Mrs. Hronopoulou to get information about the situation of the Roma settlements in the area of Kato Souli hit by the disaster of the 25^th and 26^th of March. The shanties of 11 families living in this settlement were swept along by the strong winds and the rain and were destroyed. The welfare services transferred the residents in various hotels of the area where they were accommodated until the end of the storm. Then they moved to houses of relatives, in order to stay there until they are able to built their shanties again. As Mrs. Hronopoulou told us, 11 families with the help of the social worker who had registered them went to the Welfare Service and made applications declaring the damages they suffered. The Social Welfare will give them financial assistance to rebuild their shanties.

Sofia Nikolaidou