(GHM/IFEX) – On 9 June 2000, journalist Panos Lambrou of the weekly “Epochi” was verbally and physically harassed by a mob led by municipal council members in Nea Kios (Argolida, Peloponese), while police stood by. Lambrou was participating in a visit by forty members of an antiracist group, members of parties and other organisations, who […]
(GHM/IFEX) – On 9 June 2000, journalist Panos Lambrou of the weekly “Epochi” was verbally and physically harassed by a mob led by municipal council members in Nea Kios (Argolida, Peloponese), while police stood by.
Lambrou was participating in a visit by forty members of an antiracist group, members of parties and other organisations, who came from Athens to Nea Kios, in solidarity with the local Roma community, which has been facing racist attacks by local citizens and authorities. The visitors were declared undesirable by the local municipal authority “for lack of good intentions”. Without any police interference, local citizens impeded the group’s movement and harassed the journalist in front of the city hall.
Background Information
On 20 May 2000, the municipality of Nea Kios, led by the mayor (of the Panhellenic Socialist Movement party, PASOK) and the president of the municipal council (of the Progressive Left Coalition party, Syn), declared all Roma in the region undesirable, invoking high criminality rates, a charge denied by the police authority. The decision created an explosive atmosphere, acknowledged by the police, with its constant presence in the Roma settlement as a security measure. Moreover, on 9 June, in the course of the evening, the hut of a Rom, Panayote Demetropoulos, was set on fire by “a group of men with wild intentions” who were also “running after women and children who were trying to escape” (as reported by Mimi Fyrogenis in “Epochi”‘s 11 June edition).
On 11 June, GHM and Minority Rights Group-Greece denounced the setting on fire of the Roma hut in Nea Kios. The two organisations held the town’s municipal authority responsible for instigating this crime. The organisations denounced “the town’s extremely racist decisions”, accusing municipal leaders of having created an explosive atmosphere bound to lead to such excesses.
Taking into account the unanimous character of the decisions by the municipal council and the absence of any outspoken denunciation of the racist behavior of the municipal counsellors by their parties, PASOK, New Democracy, Communist Party of Greece (KKE) and Syn, the latter are sharing responsibility for a fact which exposes Greece internationally, “reminiscent of ‘the American south’ of another era”, according to the organisations. In addition, GHM and Minority Rights Group-Greece denounced the verbal and physical harassment of the journalist. Finally, the organisations called upon the minister of justice to immediately introduce proceedings against all those responsible for these racist and criminal acts, as prescribed by Greek law and by the international covenants. “Otherwise, the Greek state will be considered an accomplice because of inaction”, declared the two groups.
Recommended Action
Send appeals to authorities:
– denouncing the harassment of the journalist and the police inactivity
– denouncing the racist attacks against the Roma population of Nea Kios by local authorities
– calling for a swift and full investigation of the incidents and the bringing of charges against instigators and perpetrators of racist attacks against the Roma and the harassment of journalist Lambrou
– recalling that as a party to the United Nations’ International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (UN ICERD), Greece has an obligation to prosecute all forms of racist violence
Appeals To
APPEALS TO:George Papandreou
Foreign Minister
Athens, Greece
Fax: +30 1 36 81 433Dimitris Reppas
Minister of Press and Information
Athens, Greece
Fax: +30 1 36 06 969Professor Mihalis Stathopoulos
Minister of Justice
Athens, Greece
Fax: +30 1 77 55 835Please copy appeals to the source if possible.
