Greece: Racist Government Answers to Racism on the Rise
AIM Athens, 1.08.1999
"In times of acute economic crisis and increased unemployment, the members of the minority, the migrants, the foreigners become sacrificial lambs, held responsible for the crisis in the labor market, criminality, marginalization. Xenophobic tendencies emerge," said in February 1997 Costas Simitis, Prime Minister of Greece ("Avghi" 18/7/99). Was he the same Costas Simitis who said two years later that "criminality is related with the wave of economic migrants, it is a source of insecurity treated by citizens as a threat to Greek society; (...) the government has reacted decisively to this situation" ("Avghi" 17/7/99)? Did he head the same government whose spokesperson Dimitris Reppas also said that "unemployment in Greece has been recently fed by the large wave of economic migrants" ("Avghi" 9/7) and that "immigrants have been linked with the rising criminality in recent years" ("Avghi" 7/7)?
How come then that George Papandreou, Foreign Minister in the same government, stated that "most people do not know that Albanians' criminality is no different and no greater than general criminality" and that "a large part of Greek economic development is to be attributed to the migrants" ("Klik" August 1999)? Or, Michalis Chrysohoidis, Minister of Public Order of that same government can declare that "the criminality of foreigners has not risen as much as it is believed" ("Avghi" 7/7)?
What appears as schizophrenia is simply the result of populist petty politics. Simitis' socialist party PASOK lagged behind conservative New Democracy (ND) by 3% in the June 1999 elections for the European Parliament. Analysts argued that the loss was due to the feeling of insecurity that the simple Greek has, which was intensified by a highjacking of a bus by an Albanian two weeks before election day. So, "Simitis was convinced by the appeals of his advisors, like the newly appointed one Lefteris Kousoulis, to 'crack down on criminality lest you lose the elections'" ("Kathimerini" 17/7).
It was not therefore far fetched to state that "Simitis' position on economic migrants and criminality is racist and hence dangerous, and shows we have to deal with a government with a mentality reminiscent of Le Pen" (Communist Party of Greece - KKE statement, "Rizospastis" 17/7). Or to ask like Progressive Left Coalition deputy Stella Alfieri "is the government's official policy racism and xenophobia"? ("Eleftherotypia" 8/7).
Such strong but not unfair statements were also inspired by the government's "decisive reaction." On 3 July started a large "operation - broom," aptly named by some "a pogrom" ("Kathimerini" 8/7): all foreigners found in the streets were being rounded up by the police and, even if holders of legal residence documents, brought to police stations. There, they all had their fingerprints taken for possible match against pending criminal cases. If illegal, they were expelled from the country.
However, there was a new element: police was rounding up these hundreds of foreigners in large stadiums and was inviting the television cameras to film the procedure. So, public opinion was shown that police was indeed "decisively" taking care of the problem of criminality. Never mind the humiliation of all these human beings who were being held even temporarily as suspects of crimes only because they were, or more precisely looked like, foreigners. Chrysohoidis spoke euphemistically of "a few hours of inconvenience" ("Avghi" 7/7) they had to go through, when there were press reports that they were being left in the stadiums for hours without even a cup of water ("Avghi" 7/7).
The whole operation was a violation of countless international human rights conventions Greece has signed and rose the wrath of the leftist parties and press as well as of over 300 intellectuals who signed a protest petition within 24 hours, that was released on 6 July. Leftist groups even organized a protest rally on 22 July, but their extremist leftist slogans did not help bring many people to the streets.
It was not that reaction which brought "Albanians' expulsion back to ... normal levels" ("To Vima" 24/7), but a serious populist reaction to the government's populist attitude. "Farmers: tractors in favor of Albanians" announced the press ("Eleftherotypia" 22/7), after everyone was asking in the Pella farming area west of Salonica "who will pick up the peaches?" Rather than face a new farmers' march to Athens, the government returned to old practices and migrants dared coming out of their slums to offer again their low-paid services.
What, though, legitimizes one to speak of Lepenist methods is the fact that, contrary to the Prime Minister's and his spokesperson's statements, foreigners are not the main culprits of crimes in Greece nor has crime, or the foreigners' share in it, risen this year. Official statistics showed that, in the first quarter of 1999, 73% of alleged criminals are Greeks vs. 27% who are foreigners. Among the latter, 15% are Albanians, a percentage that reaches 25% for violent crimes and thefts or robberies ("Avghi" 11/7). Certainly, there is ample evidence that the foreigners' share has risen in the last two years (coincidentally or not following the 1997 unrest in Albania and the ensuing "release" of thousands of weapons). University of Athens Professor of Criminology N. Kourakis said: "in 1993 one registered theft or robbery committed by a foreigner corresponded to seven thefts or robberies by Greeks, whereas in 1998 the ratio was one to two" ("Avghi" 18/7/1999).
However, police itself contributed to heavily inflate the figures so as to misrepresent reality. Incredible as it may sound for a supposed democratic country, a leading policeman Dimitris Gogolos, President of the Policemen Union of Attica, could with impunity write such lies as: "we have recently witnessed an unprecedented effusion of criminal activity (...) a statistical analysis by the police agencies shows that Albanian criminal elements hold the first place in thefts, robberies, etc. in the first semester of 1999, reaching almost 50% of the total criminality. This is why there is a strong sentiment of frustration in the Greek police for the presence of illegal immigrants and especially Albanians in Greece." ("Ta Nea" 15/7). He was in fact admitting that there was a profound element of xenophobia and in particular Albanophobia in the police force. Such an attitude made most allegations of police abuse of Albanians during the expulsions, reported in the Albanian media, sound credible.
More than police though one can hold responsible Greek media. As the director of the state radio ERA, Yannis Tzannetakos, wrote: "the world's most wretched media, with commercial television in a leading role, use an important or unimportant incident, which sometimes may turn out later to be a non-incident, and spin racism and fascism or at least an extreme right tendency to take the law into one's hands among the public" ("Eleftherotypia" 10/7). If, though, the crime is allegedly committed by a Greek against a foreigner, then hardly anyone will report it, however serious it may be. Columnist Pantelis Boukalas pointed out ("Kathimerini" 7/7) that "a Greek robbed two Albanians of 130,000 drs. two days ago under gun threat and then under the same threat he raped an under-age Albanian." No one, not even his newspaper, bothered to write anything more than a few lines, whereas if the roles were reversed the story would have made headlines and reality-show-like coverage in the main television newscasts.
Indeed, a few days later, media exaggeration was given another opportunity. An Albanian, the second one in 45 days, hijacked a public bus, took Greek hostages and attempted to force the bus to flee to Albania while asking for a ransom. The next day (15/7) the headlines of most papers were Albanophobic: "Greece, a country hostage of Albanian criminals" ("Ta Nea"); "The country taken hostage by terror" ("Kathimerini"); "Terror bus" ("Eleftherotypia"); "Albanian Mafia destroys the country" ("Vradyni"); "Enough with Albanians" ("Ethnos"); "Albanian wild West" ("Eleftheros Typos").
The hijacker was eventually neutralized the next day: "each of his hands was tightly held by four hands," said the special policeman who had managed to get on the bus ("Ethnos" 18/7). Nevertheless, he was shot dead by a Greek police sharpshooter. Doubts were raised about the reason for such an execution after the hijacker had been disarmed and become harmless. Given he had claimed to have been harassed by police a few days before his criminal hijacking, a few critical minds in Greece were left wondering. Just as in the case of the previous Albanian who was again shot dead by Albanian special forces near Elbasan after he had managed to take there the Greek public bus he had hijacked outside Salonica. Seeing eye to eye on that issue, neither the Greek nor the Albanian governments investigated the circumstances of these executions, another serious human rights shortcoming.
Despite the "successful" end of the second operation (no hostage was harmed unlike during the first one when one hostage was also shot dead by the Albanians), police sources through "leaks" to the media were keen to demonize him and Albanians at large. "Links with Albanian Mafia and extreme right groups shows the Albanian's mobile phone: 10 suspects are the target of EYP -the Greek CIA" ("Ethnos" 18/7); "He had obtained a white card using a false name" ("Kathimerini" 17/7). Both stories were false, as it was later reported, but in small print, that he had legal documents and that there was only one alleged accomplice ("Ta Nea" 30/7).
Albanophobia was enhanced incidentally by Serbian supposedly opposition politician and always staunch nationalist Vuk Draskovic, who happened to be in Greece during the hostage crisis. "The kidnapping of Greek citizens by Albanian terrorists should show Europe and the USA that the problem in the Balkans are not the Serbs. The major problem of the Balkans is Albanians' dangerous plan for Great Albania" ("Eleftehotpyia" 16/7).
It is no surprise then that the "concerted" effort of politicians, media and policemen to demonize Albanian immigrants has made Greek public opinion believe that indeed Albanians make up the largest ethnic group of criminals in Greece, even tough this is not true. "Ethnos" published on 11 July the results of a "Metron Analysis" Greater Athens poll (carried out between 7-9 July among 805 adults). 90% of the interviewees agreed with the ongoing and highly televised then expulsions of Albanians; despite the media's low credibility (67% thought the media were exaggerating the criminality problem), 87% believed (erroneously) that criminality has risen since a year ago, and 77% believed (equally erroneously) that most criminals in Greece are Albanians (vs. 9% who correctly mentioned that most criminals are Greeks). No wonder then that, while 81% of Athenians stated they could have a black for a friend, 80% a French, 64% an HIV positive, and 63% a drug addict, only 50% said the same for an Albanian.
It would not be exaggerated to state that Greece will enter the third millenary with the highest degree of xenophobia in its modern history, thus dishonoring one of the fundamental values of those most of its citizens proudly consider as their forefathers, ancient Greeks. The latter's main god, Zeus (Jupiter), was qualified as "Xenios" (hospitable). Given that most immigrants come from the Balkans (65% of the 373,000 applicants for legalization are Albanians, 7% Bulgarians, and 5% Romanians, the others forming smaller groups) such an attitude may prove harmful for the country's aspirations for a leading role in the region's reconstruction.
Panayote Elias Dimitras (AIM)