GHM REPORT TO ERRC NO 60: 16/6/1999

MAY 1999 ACTIVITY REPORT OF THE GHM ROMA OFFICE

May 3: The deadline given to the municipality of Halandri in late April to provide a solution to the accommodation of the Roma who had been condemned for trespassing expired. The public prosecutor and some of the proprietors of the fields, together with their lawyers, arrived at the settlement to claim the place. The deputy mayor of Halandri, Mr. Zygogiannis, GHM representatives, Progressive Left Coalition (PLC) MP Ms. Stella Alfieri and representatives of the Panhellenic Roma Federation were also there. Mr. Zygogiannis presented a petition made by the Roma at the Country Court of Halandri on April 30. The petition advocates the recalling of the eviction order on the grounds that it had been taken in absentia. The proprietors expressed their discontent with the fact that the matter had not been settled yet and declared that they sympathize with the Roma and that they are eager to facilitate matters to the benefit of the latter. Ms. Maouni, owner of the biggest piece of land, agreed to let it for rent to the municipality for a reasonable period of time (namely six to 12 months), until a permanent solution could be worked out. PLC MP Ms. Alfieri announced that she would ask the government to finance the renting of the place and invited both the Roma and the proprietors to attend a parliamentary discussion on the subject on May 5. Interestingly, the renting of the field had been proposed as the only viable temporary solution at the first meeting of the Municipality of Halandri with the Roma, the Secretary of the Prime Minister’s Office Mr. Stamos, PLC MP Ms. Alfieri and the NGOs. At the second such meeting, however, the Municipality informed the participants that this solution had not been accepted by the proprietors.

May 5: Meeting at the Prime Minster’s Office. Participants: PM’s Office for the Quality of Life (advisor Freddy Stamou, advisor Angelos Gavalas –also chairman of the Association of Architects-, and staff associate Panayote Papadopoulos); Progressive Left Coalition Deputy Stella Alfieri and staff assistant Theodore Kollias; DROM (Thanasis Triaridis and Magda Pantazara); Doctors of the World (Yannis Boukovinas); Greek Helsinki Monitor (Panayote Dimitras). Brainstorming session on the draft bill for self-managed Roma communities as a solution to the plight of the Roma tent-dwellers. Briefing on developments in some Roma communities where such efforts are being made according to the government. Criticism by NGOs. Decision to have another meeting with firm government answers on 17 June, with the participation also of the Ministries of Interior and of Foreign Affairs. GHM introduced the problem of the Kefallonia Roma and the government committed itself to include it in its plans, after a dossier be submitted by GHM.

May 5: Deputy Minister of Public Affairs Mr. Floridis answered to the timely question (no. 978/3.5.1999) which Progressive Left Coalition MP Ms. Alfieri asked at a session of the Parliament. Ms. Alfieri referred to the high likelihood that a violent operation against the Roma of the Nea Zoi region (Municipality of Aspropyrgos) happens again at any time. The threat is so immediate due to the fact that there is no place designed for the Roma nomads, and that the Municipality of Halandri asks for the support of the State in order to deal with the housing problems of the Roma who live there. She asked the Minister of Public Affairs what the measures taken for the creation of Roma settlements were. The MP also asked whether the government would support financially the renting of the field where the Roma of Halandri had been living for many years. Mr. Floridis tried to justify the violent operation at the Roma settlement of Nea Zoi last February when municipal and police authorities entered the Roma settlement, destroyed dwellings and property and set them on fire (see GHM Roma Activity Report, February 1999). The justification was based on the fact that Roma trespass private land, which makes the owners of the fields complain. He added that the Municipality of Aspropyrgos had cleaned the settlements many times, that it had built four school rooms for the Roma at the primary school of the region, and had vaccinated the Roma children twice. He also said that the Prefecture of West Attica and the NGO Greek Institute for Solidarity and Cooperation are working on a project financed by the Minister of Public Affairs and the EU, which aims at the making of non-Roma citizens aware of Roma problems, as well as at the creation of a suitable framework to deal with them. Concerning the Roma of Halandri, Mr. Floridis replied that the Ministry of Public Affairs would certainly support the municipality to rent the field following an official request by the municipality. He added that because of the failure of the Network of the Local governments for the Roma to adequately manage the funds directed to the Roma, the government has developed a new project this year. This project funds local governments with a billion GDR in order to solve the housing and other problems of Roma.

The violent operation against the Roma of Nea Zoi was also the subject of another question (no. 7077/24-2-99) made by Progressive Left Coalition MP Ms. Maria Damanaki to the Ministers of Public Affairs and of Public Order in February [Both the question and the answers were given to the GHM in May. That is why we include them in this month’s report]. Ms. Damanaki asked about the position of the government towards the operation. She also asked what measures would be taken in order to avoid the repetition of similar cases. Deputy Minister of Public Affairs Mr. Floridis answered (no. 10231/19-3-1999) that the municipality of Aspropyrgos had asked the local Urban Planning Service and the local police department to destroy the Roma shacks, because they were built on private land and the proprietors were complaining. He added that the Roma had previously been asked to leave the place. When they denied, the Municipality removed them peacefully and demolished the shacks. He added that after the demolition, the cleaning services of the municipality «took remnants away and burnt them and cleaned the place of the garbage!!!» Minister of Public Order Mr. Chrysostomidis answered (no. 6004/15/457 - 19/3/1999) that the police were there in order to protect the groups of the municipality and of the Urban Planning Service and that the policemen acted according to the law.

It should be noted that the statements by Mr. Floridis and by the Municipality of Aspropyrgos are strongly contradicted by a declaration of the Deputy Mayor of Aspropyrgos Mr. Tsigos, who was present during the operation. Mr. Tsigos said to the Eleftherotypia newspaper a day after the operation that «unfortunately the Roma told us that they would build the shacks again, so we had to burn them down» (Eleftherotypia, 17/2/1999). Witnesses of the events, photos taken some hours after the operation and an on-the-spot investigation made by the GHM all point out to the fact that the municipality services did not carry away and burn remnants, in order to «clean up» the place. It was a carefully planned violent operation for the terrorization of the Roma. That is why the municipality representatives had reportedly shouted at the Roma «we are going to come back.» In addition, one should be more careful before adopting the points justifying an act against which a lawsuit is pending and for which Greece has been internationally accused of violating treaties and conventions to which it is a signatory. It should also be noted that in spite of promises made by the municipality in the pre-electoral period, conditions at the settlement remain totally unacceptable (no water supply, no sewage system, no electricity, etc). We should also add that the vaccinations mentioned by Mr. Floridis were made three years ago and according to local residents and to the Roma themselves those were badly planned and disorganized. The only vaccinations that have taken place regularly in the last year and a half are those organized by the NGO Doctors of the World. Finally, the school rooms which the municipality is proud of having built are not meant for the Roma pupils alone but for the non-Roma ones as well.

(For a complete report on the Nea Zoi - Aspropyrgos case, see the GHM Roma Activity Report, February 1999)

May 6: In a letter addressed to the municipal council of Halandri, Progressive Left Coalition MP Ms. Alfieri, the Progressive Left Coalition Party, the Doctors of the World, the Drom Network for Roma Social Rights and the GHM recognize the positive attitude of the municipal authorities towards Roma and refer to the commitment made by the Deputy Minister of Public Affairs in Parliament on May 5 that the government would support financially the renting of the field for a year, provided the municipal council officially asks for it.

On the same day we received an angry call from deputy mayor Ms. Syrmopoulou who accused Ms. Alfieri and the NGOs of trying to ‘boss around’ the municipality. We replied that the letter was in fact praising the municipality for its efforts on the subject and was meant to support a future decision for renting the field. Later on the same day, the municipality issued a press release referring to its positive initiatives and its will to solve the problem, as well as to a previous decision of the municipal council to support financially the Roma, who find a place to live in on their own. Oddly enough, the commitment of the government to support the municipality to rent the field, reached upon after discussions between Roma, NGOs and the government, was not included in the press release.

May 10: We received information that two Roma families were evicted from the place where they had been living for some time with two other Roma families in Ioannina. The deputy mayor of Ioannina has allegedly expressed racist points supporting the expulsion of the Roma from the municipality for the better development of tourism in the region. The municipality also threatened that the 30 Roma families, most of them of South-Albanian origin, would be ousted from the settlement in the region of Paralimni, where they had been living for seven years. Following the attack from local human rights activists and participants in the Educational Project for the Roma, organized by the University of Ioannina, the municipality provided a small period of time in order to examine alternatives for the housing of the Roma. The families were subsequently moved to a nearby field where some other Roma had already settled by paying 10,000 GDR to the owner. Although the Roma there do not face the threat of eviction, it should be noted that the settlement has no water supply, sewage system, electricity, sanitary conditions and other basic facilities.

May 13: The appeal of the Halandri Roma at the Country Court for the recalling of the decision on their eviction was postponed because not all of the alleged owners of the field were found.

May 19-21: Mission to the Roma camp of Kefallonia: Panayote Dimitras (GHM) and Nafsika Papanikolatos (MRG-G), along with Progressive Left Coalition deputy Stella Alfieri, visited the Roma camp of Kefallonia, a few kilometers outside Argostoli (the capital of the island) and had discussions with the mayor and with the deputy mayor of Kefallonia, as well as with a social worker working with the Roma of this island.

Since 1996 the Roma of Kefallonia have been living in a camp very close to the slaughterhouses of the island. During our visit to the camp last year, the smell from the slaughterhouses and the dirt in the camp were unbearable. This year, since the town hall has taken over the management of the slaughterhouses, the smell has almost disappeared. Within the camp itself, there are visible signs of efforts to improve the living conditions, although they are still far from satisfactory. Ten families live in the camp. They can be divided into three major groups: the ones with serious health problems, unable to take care of themselves; the delinquents and the ones who cooperate with the municipal authorities and make relative efforts to take advantage of the small help provided by the municipality. One can speak of approximately a 100 people living in 10 barracks in about 1,000 square feet. Besides the problems related to the limited space available, there is great tension between the three groups.

In the meeting with the municipal representatives GHM was told that, in spite of the positive intentions of the mayor, there is little hope that a new site could be found on the island which would be able to provide for the needs of the whole Roma community in Kefallonia. Such lands are available only far away from the downtown areas, so Roma are cut off from work opportunities. The deputy mayor and the social worker working with the Roma said that in their efforts to resolve the problems arising within the community, they have realized that these Roma should not be put all together in one place, in sort of a ghetto. On the contrary, they should be divided and sent to live in Argostoli according to every family’s needs. It was clear that there is an urgent necessity to take special care of the two families who are suffering from serious physical and mental illnesses and whose cohabitation with the rest of the community has become almost impossible, giving rise to aggressive attacks.

Besides problems with their residence, the Roma of Kefallonia are faced with the lack of a serious educational program accommodating the needs of their children, as well as the needs of adults, almost 99% of whom are illiterate. Moreover, there is no health education project which teaches, women in particular, how to protect themselves. As shocking as it may sound, in Kefallonia we were confronted with family intermarriages, which had led to the birth of children with serious health problems and disabilities.

The social worker promised to send a report in which she would present the situation of the Roma in Kefallonia as well as proposals which the municipal authorities feel can resolve some of the problems. Once the report received, it will be sent to the Prime Minister’s office, to the section involved with Roma affairs. Ms. Alfieri will also pursue the matter with the administration.

May 21-23: Representatives of Roma groups from all over the country participated in a three-day congress organized by the Panhellenic Roma Federation in Athens, which ended in the election of the new Council of the Federation. The participants listened to the electoral speeches of the 26 candidates, as well as to the greeting speeches of the guests. It should be noted that representatives of most political parties and of the government were present at the Congress, while NGOs which have repeatedly stood by the nomad Roma in settlements throughout Greece (e.g. the GHM and the DROM Network for the Social Rights of the Roma) were not invited. In the next few days the 11 members of the new Council held a meeting to vote for the presiding board. Mr. Randis, former deputy mayor of Aghia Varvara (a municipality with a large Roma population) was elected President; Mr. Kalamiotis, representative of the Roma of Nea Alikarnassos - Irakleio, the only representative of the nomad Roma at the Council and also the one who came first in the elections, was elected Deputy President; Mr. Lamprou, ex-President of the Federation, was elected General Secretary. After a few days, however, it was announced that Mr. Randis resigned his position unexpectedly due to personal and professional reasons. At a new meeting, the Council decided its new composition as follows: President: Mr. Lamprou (Aghia Varvara); Deputy President: Mr. Georgiadis (Thessaloniki), Mr. Liapis (Komotini), Mr. Kalamiotis (Hrakleio) (each for a year, in order for the three regions outside Athens to be equally represented); Secretary General: Ms. Halilopoulou (Ilion); Treasurer: Mr. L. Dimitriou (Aghia Varvara); Curator: Mr. Vasileiou (Aghia Varvara); Special Secretary: Mr. Kitsou (Zephyri); Members: Mr. Randis (Aghia Varvara), Mr. Panayotopoulos (Ilion), Mr. Dimitriou (Aghia Varvara), Mr. Georgiadis (Thessaloniki), Mr. Liapis (Kimmeria Xanthis), Mr. Kalamiotis (Irakleio) (the last three for two years each).

May 22-23: We accompanied the Special Advisor to the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities Ms. Diane F. Orentlicher during a tour of Roma settlements in Athens and Thessaloniki.

In the morning of the 22nd, we visited Ms. Myrto Laimou, director of the Center for the Rehabilitation of Street Children. Ms. Laimou organizes preparatory afternoon classes to help street children study and prepare for their lessons at school. According to her the public educational system is unprepared to deal with street children, most of whom are Roma. Due to their particular social and cultural background, Roma children need additional attention and care, which most teachers do not make the effort to give. Even though there are excellent pupils among them, they are treated with distrust and, moreover, they are subject to discrimination in the classroom. With time, Ms. Laimou has succeeded to make more and more parents trust her and convinced them about the necessity of education. She also pointed out that the State is antagonistic to her efforts. Even though the Center is characterized as successful and necessary, it is not supported adequately. The government has promised money for the acquisition of infrastructure, which Ms. Laimou says is of secondary importance, while this same government denies supporting financially the teachers, who work there on a completely voluntary basis.

Next we visited the Open Polyclinic of the Doctors of the World and had discussions with Mr. Agis Terzidis. Mr. Terzidis explained that Roma do not trust the public health system and rarely go to the public hospitals for check ups and for the necessary vaccinations. This is due to various reasons: because Roma are mistreated by the personnel, because they cannot afford to take time off their work, since they are paid by the hour, or because they are afraid to expose themselves to non-Roma who are seen as unfriendly. Mr. Terzidis added that the State should take into consideration the real problems and organize mobile health units to visit the Roma camps, instead of deluding itself by waiting for the Roma to go to the hospital. Doctors of the World have been visiting Roma camps in Athens and Thessaloniki regularly for the last one and a half years giving vaccinations and medical exams. Mr. Terzidis remarked that the disease rate of the Roma population is extremely high and absolutely unacceptable in a modern society. This is due to the very bad sanitary conditions in the settlements, most of which are close to dusting rumps and have no water supply and sewage systems. The results of the medical exams for Hepatitis are indicative: 99% of the Roma population showed Hepatitis A positive, 18% are carriers of Hepatitis B, while 50% have been exposed to it.

In the afternoon, we visited Ms. Matina Vavouli, Director of the Fourth Primary School of Aspropyrgos, which is adjacent to the Nea Zoi Roma camp and which has many Roma pupils together with Greek, Pontic and Albanian ones. The non-Greek pupils need particular educational treatment because of their being bilingual. For them Greek is a foreign language, which is not spoken at home. Ms. Vavouli characterized the existent educational infrastructure and material as insufficient and inappropriate to face the specificity of teaching such pupils. According to her, there is only one schoolbook suitable to teach Greek as a foreign language. This book is very difficult to find at the moment, because the Ministry of Education has stopped its publication in order to publish a new one. Apart from this, the Roma pupils face the problem of irregular school attendance. On the one hand, this is due to the fact that most Roma families go to the country to do seasonal agricultural jobs and, on the other, that Roma girls have to take care of their little brothers and sisters and help in the housework. It is indicative that attendance is steadier in September and October, when agricultural jobs are not that demanding. Besides, the Student Card Project has not been successful. According to the Project, Roma pupils are provided with a card which shows their results from the first semester, as well as the courses they have attended. When they go to another town for work, the kids have the right to attend the school in the new area. The card is to be completed with the new results and returned to the old school when the family returns from the country. Most Roma kids, however, either declare that they have lost the card, or return it blank. Ms. Vavouli added that the percentage of the Roma who actually finish school decreases dramatically, not due to their inability to pass into a higher grade but because they are interested in acquiring the basic knowledge only (i.e. writing, reading and counting). This is all they need to be able to communicate and work, so after the first four years of primary school they tend to leave and look for jobs. Ms. Vavouli added that the co-existence between Roma and non-Roma pupils is usually pretty good. Still, there have been cases of big quarrels, sometimes continuing even outside school. During such quarrels, children stand by their own ethnic groups. Finally, Ms. Vavouli added that the special seminars on intercultural education, organized by the Ministry of Education and addressed to the teachers, are unsuccessful because they are confined to discussions on the values of multiculturalism and do not address practical ways of teaching in the classroom.

Next we visited the main Roma settlements of Attica. The Roma of Nea Zoi, Aspropyrgos municipality, described once again the violent operation, which the municipality and the police department of Aspropyrgos launched against them last February. They said that even though a lot of time had passed, they had not gotten any compensation for the suffering. Next we visited the settlement close to the dusting rump of Nea Liosia. The settlement used to be the biggest and the most problematic one in Athens. Due to an incident of murder last April, the Roma left the place and dispersed either to other nearby settlements or to the countryside to find seasonal jobs in agriculture (see the GHM Roma Activity Report, April 1999). Only two families were left behind, because, as they alleged to us, they occupied themselves with the gathering of old things from the dusting rump and did not want to leave the place.

Our next stop was the settlement known as «the Nea Liosia Ghetto.» The 50 families who live there used to be part of a large settlement some kilometers away. In 1996 the government decided to evict the Roma on the grounds that they were trespassing public land. The Roma were convinced to move to the place where they live now, after promises that the new place would be supplied with water, electricity and even housing facilities. Three years after the promise, the living conditions in the settlement remain absolutely unacceptable. The government had put five prefabricated houses which used to provide shelter to the earthquake victims of Kalamata in 1986 and were out of use at the moment. The five prefabs were not enough for the population of the settlement. Moreover, they soon proved to be useless, because they were so badly reconstructed that the sewage system broke down soon and the floor started cracking down too. In addition, the street lamps put in the settlement died out in a few months. In addition, the settlement has no water supply, electricity and regular garbage collection. Our last stop was the Halandri settlement where the Roma asked us to support them to find a solution to their housing problem after the eviction order of the Court (see above).

On the next day we joined the Drom Network for Roma Social Rights and the Doctors of the World - Department of Thessaloniki and visited the Roma settlements of the country’s second largest city. Our first stop was the Gallikos river settlement, one of the biggest settlements in Greece with a population of more than 1,500 Roma. They explained to us how they chose to come here last fall after having been evicted from Evosmos. They had been living in that area for 30 years, but had to leave and wander around Thessaloniki where they were considered «unwanted.» They also described the difficult time they had when the river overflowed in the winter and their lives were put in serious danger. Volunteers of the Drom Network visit the place regularly and teach the children the history of their race, as well as reading and writing in their mother tongue. Some Roma, joined by volunteers from the Drom Network and from the Doctors of the World have built a scratch infirmary in one corner of the settlement, where the Doctors of the World operate medical exams, vaccinations and first aid medical treatment. Even though the Roma feared being examined in the beginning, they soon started trusting the organization. They even allowed their daughters to undergo gynecological exams.

We then visited the former military barracks of Gonou, where the government has promised to construct a model Roma settlement with enough space for every family, a small medical center, water supply, sewage system, electricity, a sports field and other facilities. After a serious delay during the winter on the grounds that the place had to be checked first for mines, the government promised that the settlement would be ready by the summer. However, our on-the-spot investigation showed that the only work done up to now was that some holes had been dug in parts of the field.

Our last stop was the settlement of Menemeni. The Roma were resettled there after promises that the place would be reconstructed and provided with all the necessary facilities. In 1996 a big amount of money was spent by the government to put this project into practice. The project, which aimed at finding ways for reconstruction, finished in a few months and previewed some very impressive changes. However, none of them was ever implemented and the Roma were obliged to build their shacks and reconstruct the place themselves.

May 27: The Roma of Halandri lost the case of stay of the eviction order in absentia, because their lawyer was late for the court hearing.