London Indymedia

Beggars and drug addicts disappear in Athens 'clean-up' before games

Solidarity Urgently Needed | 11.08.2004 06:10 | Analysis | Migration | London | World

The Greek state and the bosses killed dozens of workers in order to finish the olympic stadiums on time...
Then they poisoned thousands of stray animals (mostly dogs and cats)...
They installed surveillance cameras and brought two surveillance Zeppelin to stop public dissent...
They deployed 80000 police, riot police and army troopers all over Athens...

Now they are kidnapping drug addicts and immigrants!!!! in order to make Athens seem "clean" and "civilised" like some of the western capitalist cities...

I think only Hitler was doing such things during the '36 games in Berlin... Let's hope the Greek SS police will not gas them as well!



[ photo: workers were ordered to hide the old building in order to make the image of olympic Athens more "civilised" ]

The Greek state and the bosses killed dozens of workers in order to finish the olympic stadiums on time...
Then they poisoned thousands of stray animals (mostly dogs and cats)...
They installed surveillance cameras and brought two surveillance Zeppelin to stop public dissent...
They deployed 80000 police, riot police and army troopers all over Athens...

Now they are kidnapping drug addicts, beggars and immigrants!!!! in order to make Athens seem "clean" and "civilised" like some of the western capitalist cities...

I think only Hitler was doing such things during the '36 games in Berlin... Let's hope the Greek SS police will not gas them as well!

=========================================================================================


Last-ditch efforts to "clean up" Athens before the Olympic games begin on Friday have included removing thousands of immigrants, beggars, drug addicts and homeless people from the capital's streets.
Human rights activists said yesterday that they feared vulnerable people, including asylum seekers from war-torn countries such as Iraq, were falling victim to the campaign.

In the count-down to the games about 70,000 police and military personnel have been drafted to patrol the capital.

"There is a climate of absolute terror on the streets," said Spyros Psychas, a member of Arsis, a charity working with the homeless and underprivileged youth.

"People are afraid. They're ringing in saying how unbearable the police controls have become."

Underlining the concern, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees urged the Greek government to ensure that "international standards", including the Geneva conventions, were not being breached.

The agency's unusual intervention followed reports in the Greek media that mass deportations had soared in advance of the games.

Last weekend the authoritative Ta Nea reported that of the 13,766 immigrants arrested in the first six months of this year about 6,623 had been forced to leave Greece.

Lawyers told the Guardian that they believed growing numbers of foreigners had been banished in recent weeks under fast-track procedures which allowed them no chance to appeal. Asylum seekers in Greece are often forced to wait months before being given proper papers.

"Recent reports regarding the 'clearing' of the streets of Athens ... create concern," the UNHCR's Athens branch said in a statement.

"Many asylum seekers lack proper identification documents and are at risk of arrest, detention and possible deportation in contravention of international standards."

As the organisers have completed the building of venues and other Olympic sites, they have turned their attention to beautifying the capital. The effort has focused on the historic centre, not least the squares where thousands of immigrant street sellers, drug users and homeless people tend to gather.

Partly because of its strategic geographic location and poverty, Greece has a large number of socially excluded people. The European Observatory on Homelessness believes that about 17,000 people are without a roof, not counting the majority of the immigrants who cross the Greek borders daily.

A lot of "undesirables" are thought to have been moved on to less visible districts.

Some people are thought to have been put in psychiatric institutions where doctors have complained of being deluged with sectioning orders from public prosecutors.

In June the staff at the Dromokaition psychiatric hospital, one of Athens' two mental institutions, protested on the streets.

Michalis Yannakos, leader of the hospital's trade union, said at the time: "Following arrests, the prosecutor issues sectioning orders that force us to lock up drug addicts, alcoholics or mentally ill people."

Psychiatrists told the Guardian that many of the capital's burgeoning population of drug users had mysteriously disappeared.

The authorities deny that the police have conducted a sweep, saying that no group had been deliberately targeted.

Solidarity Urgently Needed
- Homepage: http://sport.guardian.co.uk/olympics2004/story/0,14912,1280604,00.html

Comments

Hide the following 10 comments

ridiculous

14.08.2004 00:37

Oh Please. Workers killed by bosses? Disappearances? According to who? Only YOU leftwing extremists. No credible media source states this. You hypocrits claim to love internationalism, but whenever nations gather at the Olympics or WTO, you riot and pillage in the name of "revolution", and accuse any measures to prevent it as "fascism" or whatever. You pathetic freaks make me sick.

Steven Bensics


Oh?

14.08.2004 02:06

Of course, because Rupert Murdoch and his pals choose not to publish/broadcast anything about it means that it mustn't exist. If we believed only what the mainstream media told us (because of course they have the best interests of public knowledge at heart) then we'd be a bunch of brainwashed idiots. Even for someone who can't even spell 'hypocrites' properly, you make an incoherent argument.

It's a tragedy that the modern Olympic games have become such a bastion of sham and glam (if they were ever different) as an opportunity for a genuine global celebration, they are wasted as a celebration of the rich and powerful (because hardly any athletes from 3rd world countries win gold medals) definately a triumph for human spirit alright.

A.

A.S.T


LET THE OLYMPIC DIE IN THEIR BIRTHPLACE

14.08.2004 06:38


Steven Bensics you are just a low life fascist! You and your kind is the reason that we still live under the totalitarian regimes here and in Greece and everywhere.

So the photograph above is fake? And by the way take this list and stick it... above your TV so as when you watch the fucking games and wave the british flag to remember that you are cheering for the murders of people.

Here is the bloody list:

[ date - name & surname (age) - construction site ]
==================================================

01. 14/12/01 - Hristos Miamis (62) - Olympic Village
02. 15/01/02 - K. Mpourmpoulas (32) - Metro, Sepolia
03. 22/02/02 - Thanasis Papagiorgis (45) - olympic building "Athens 2004"
04. 26/03/02 - Kotsi Astrit (35) - Olympic Village
05. 01/05/02 - L. Marinakis (29) - Hippodrome, Markopoulou
06. 10/06/02 - Vaggelis Imeri (45) - Olympic Village
07. 15/07/02 - Ali Varet (29) - Olympic Shooting Range, Markopoulou
08. 19/07/02 - Manea Marinel (32) - Olympic Village
09. 27/01/03 - Panagiotis Mpolanis (58) - Mass Media Centre
10. 30/03/03 - Ilias Mauropoulos (48) - Hippodrome, Markopoulou
11. 14/04/03 - Mihalis Evaggelou (46) - Olympic Gym, Galatsi
12. 05/06/03 - Giani Krekou (29) - Olympic Shooting Range, Markopoulou
13. 06/06/03 - kostantinos Zervoudakis (33) - Attikis Highway, Aspropirgos
14. 09/10/03 - Alex Mpatsi (32) - Olympic Village
15. 16/12/03 - Ntoka Ntalip (51) - Olympic Village for the Press, Marousi
16. 08/10/04 - Milo Zote (23) - Metro, Dafnis
17. 12/01/04 - Vlassi Marzinis (36) - unkown site, Patra
18. 20/06/04 - Sotiris Seka (51) - Olympic Village for the press

==================================================
 http://www.scotland.indymedia.org/newswire/display/671/index.php

And if you stil believe that this list is fake then go and watch this video:

 http://www.scotland.indymedia.org/newswire/display/727/index.php

After this if you open your TV to watch the bloody games then you are worse than just a fascist... you are a sick man who deserve to be miserable for the whole of his life!

(A)


"Credible media sources"

15.08.2004 09:37

Here they are Steven Bensics:

Anti-Games protesters remember dead workers
'We have paid for the Olympic games in blood,' official says
 http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5665158/


Greece calls up army of illegal workers to get Olympic venues completed on time
By Andrew Alderson and June Field in Athens
(Filed: 01/08/2004)
"The union has collected the names of 14 workers who have died, but fears that the total may be as high as 40. George Theodorou, the union's general secretary, criticised the attitude of some contractors. "Men are forced to work long shifts, up to 14 hours a day, in very hot temperatures and under constant pressure to complete the work in time. Most have no hard hats or safety boots, and if they complain they are sacked.""
 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/08/01/woly01.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/08/01/ixnewstop.html

Bill


Disappearances

15.08.2004 19:50

I have no trouble believeing that the homeless, the drug addicts and other "undesirables" have disappeared from Athens. In 1984, the jails all over Southern California were filled beyond capacity with such undesirables before the Olympics began because the U.S. government wanted the whole world to see that it was "Morning in America." The mainstream media didn't report on that either. Nonetheless, I know it is true because I was one of those that was jailed.

Joe

Joe


why

16.08.2004 11:58

Why are so many people like mister steven b., they can't believe what they don't get in their morning post, right next to the tits of 20year old nicole. i'm really waiting for his comment on the 'propaganda' answers. of course it's hard to recognize that so many things you learned and saw for so long are just one side of the medal. i'm trying to go through my second school days, too. so mr. steve b., show that man IS able to evolve and comment on that.

Dirk from Germany


another dead worker on the altar of the olympiad

17.08.2004 11:04

Yesterday another worker died for the Olympic Games.

The working "accident" happened at the tram station of Trokantero at 15:00, as the 33 year old Yiaho Sou was passing through the tram rail to repair a machinery on the other side, when he was hit by the moving intercity.

The 33 year old worker from Korea was working for the company which is responsible for the operation and maintenance of the automatic ticket machinery for the olympic routes.

According to some media, on the time that the accident took place the worker was already working for more than 15 hours!

How much more blood will be shed for the fucking olympic games? for their doped games and their capitalist sponsors?

NO JUSTICE! NO PEACE!

@
- Homepage: http://www.scotland.indymedia.org/newswire/display/749/index.php


Where is the problem?

17.08.2004 23:04

15 people died in the construction of Olympic structures - how does this equate with 'facsim' or any other of the claims you made? If you knew anything about Greece, or knew something about Greek construction methods, then your first instinct from the news of these deaths would not be the uneducated and malicious response that you threw together on this website. Many of my collegues are Greek, and these deaths came as no surprise to them: It was typical laziness during the 6 years before construction began that forced the increased pace on the worksite, as well as corners to be cut on safety. During those 6 years, my Greek collegues elaborated on the petty infighting that went on among many Greek companies (big and small) for contracts from the government. They went on to say how this type of process is typical of Greek projects in general, and that construction site fatalities are some of the highest in the EU, notwithstanding the Olympics. Get your facts straight and do some research. Saying nothing about something is better than making up bullshit to push an agenda. You're worse than corporate news.

David


david

18.08.2004 09:07

ksero poli perisotera apo giapia kai oikodomes apo esena poutanas gie giati douleuo ekei!

Gamimeno giousoufaki tis Gianas tis poutanas! Erxete i ora sas mpastardia!

translation:

I know a lot more than you about construction sites because I work there! And even if there quite usual working accidents this doesn't mean that we struggle now only against the Olympoics! Our struggle is against the state first of all and the scums like you who support it!

But now because of the olympics the situation is 100 times worse than usual... and we say ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!!!

Fucking fascists like you David and like Steven are the ones who supported the old Junta in 1968, but we were too soft then with your kind... your time comes, and there gonna be no mercy for traitors and parasites of your kind!

DOWN WITH THE JUNTA!

DESTROY ALL AUTHORITY!

LONG LIVE THE POPULAR STRUGGLE!

@


Idiots!

12.10.2005 13:21

Police and government men are assholes and fascists. Anarchists are more than assholes...

Democrat


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