Subject: News about Greece 9/5/95 - 13/5/95 Topic: nexis From: Thanos Tsekouras [1] Soccer- Greek club owners meet on curbing violence, Reuters World Service [2] M. Pangalos denonce le racisme en Grece, Agence France Presse [3] Greek aid worker shot dead in Burundi, Reuters World Service ----------------- [1] Copyright 1995 Reuters, Limited Reuters World Service May 11, 1995, Thursday, BC cycle LENGTH: 674 words HEADLINE: Soccer- Greek club owners meet on curbing violence BYLINE: By Costas Paris DATELINE: ATHENS, May 11 BODY: Greek soccer and basketball club owners are discussing ways of curbing violence, highlighted by the brutal beating of a soccer referee two weeks ago, but a meeting this week came up with few answers. ''Sport violence has taken dangerous dimensions,'' sports ministry under-secretary George Lianis said before the owners met on Monday. ''Unfortunately neither club officials nor fans can accept defeat.'' Hours later, in a basketball play-off between Panathinaikos and Olympiakos, two players fought on court and were sent off while another was hit on the head by a barrage of coins thrown by angry fans. Monday's meeting brought no concrete results. In fact club owners seized the occasion to trade insults and further fuel bitter fan rivalries. ''What does one expect from the fans when they see club presidents fighting it out in the dressing-rooms with referees and players?'' asked Olympiakos soccer and basketball owner Socratis Kokkalis. He was referring to violent clashes last month among Panathinaikos and AEK fans and officials during the Greek Cup soccer final which Panathinaikos won 1-0 with a disputed penalty in the closing moments of extra-time. Two AEK players rushed at referee Philippos Bakas to protest against the penalty and ripped his shirt. Rival fans threw rocks, flares and chairs at each other, turning the Athens Olympic Stadium into a battle zone. A few days later Bakas, on his way to Athens airport in a taxi, was stopped by eight AEK fans, dragged out of the car and hit in the face and body with iron bars and chains for 10 minutes before the assailants fled. ''This is what you get for crucifying AEK,'' they told their bleeding victim, who was taken to hospital. ''You are lucky we didn't kill you.'' The referees boycotted all first, second, third and fourth division matches last weekend to protest against Bakas's beating. All matches were cancelled and Lianis summoned the conference on Monday to seek ways to end the violence. Fan violence was confined until recently to soccer but has spilled over to basketball courts, giving Greece a bad name internationally despite having some of the best clubs in Europe, such as Olympiakos, Panathinaikos and PAOK. The International Basketball Federation (FIBA) has punished Greek clubs repeatedly with heavy fines and bans but this does not seem to discourage club owners or fans. ''Olympiakos paid for my tickets to follow the club to Tel Aviv last year and Zaragoza this year. I love my club and when I see Panathinaikos fans, I go crazy,'' 18-year-old George Apostolou, an Olympiakos fanatic, said. Olympiakos and Panathinaikos met in the semifinals of the European clubs' basketball championship in Israel and Spain in the last two seasons and their 3,000 fans clashed non-stop. In Israel last year, brawls were reported in the port of Haifa and in Bethlehem. In Spain last month, some 250 fans were briefly detained immediately after the Final Four tournament following violent clashes in the town of Tarragona. On their return, the fans fought outside the Rome Coliseum during the Catholic Easter week. ''I guess they adopt my ways because they pay my expenses,'' Apostolou said. ''The battle of the stands is as important as the one on court.'' Enmity among clubs is apparent at all levels. Coaches of losing teams constantly complain about refereeing decisions, club officials allege matches are fixed, newspapers describe matches as battles of life and death and courts rarely punish offenders. ''I don't think I will take them (fans) along next time,'' Panathinaikos basketball president Pavlos Yannakopoulos said after the Final Four tournament in Zaragoza. ''They caused a lot of damage in their hotels and I had to pay the bill.'' But Kokkalis takes a different line. ''These are our fans. We can't and we don't want to change them,'' he said. In June, the European basketball championship will take place in Athens. Greece are among the favourites for the trophy and preventing violence will again be the top concern. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [2] Copyright 1995 Agence France Presse Agence France Presse May 13, 1995 SECTION: Informations Generales LENGTH: 386 words HEADLINE: M. Pangalos denonce le racisme en Grece DATELINE: ATHENES BODY: L'ancien ministre des Affaires europeennes Theodore Pangalos (socialiste) a lance samedi un appel a la "vigilance" contre "l'ideologie raciste et le manque de tolerance" en Grece. Dans un article au journal Elefterotypia (socialisant), M. Pangalos estime qu'il y a en Grece "un manque de tolerance non seulement contre les etrangers - -albanais, noirs, asiatiques-- mais aussi contre les grecs eux memes: les juifs , les tziganes, les musulmans, les pontios" (grecs originaires de la mer noire). M. Pangalos invite la presse et les partis politiques a ne pas encourager les "phenomenes de distinction" entre minorites. Il revient dans cet article sur sa presence dans une emission televisee mercredi, qui a ete finalement interrompue, en declarant qu'il etait venu pour discuter "des problemes de racisme quotidien qui existe et qui empoisonne la societe et la civilisation" de ce pays. La presse de gauche s'en prend samedi a Themos Anastassiadis, un chansonnier et journaliste d'Elefterotypia, estimant que ses ecrits excitent le racisme et tentent de ridiculiser les noirs, les asiatiques, les albanais, les juifs, les femmes, les homosexuels ou les jeunes des partis de la gauche. M. Anastassiadis a ete agresse vendredi soir dans son bureau par de nombreux anciens communistes qui lui ont jete des yaourts. Le journal explique samedi qu'il est souvent contre les positions qu'exprime son collaborateur mais qu'il ne pourra jamais lui couper la parole au nom de la liberte de la presse. Selon une etude sociologique publiee en decembre dernier dans le quotidien de gauche Avghi et qui a ete contestee alors par les officiels grecs, la majorite des Grecs sont racistes, xenophobes et anti-semites, trouvant "anti-pathiques" les Turcs (89%), les Albanais (76%), les Juifs (57%), les Gitans (55%). -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [3] Copyright 1995 Reuters, Limited Reuters World Service May 9, 1995, Tuesday, BC cycle LENGTH: 299 words HEADLINE: Greek aid worker shot dead in Burundi DATELINE: NAIROBI, May 9 BODY: A Greek aid worker from a U.S.-based charity was shot dead by unknown gunmen in the increasingly violence-plagued area of northern Burundi, aid workers said on Tuesday. The body of Dimitri Lascaris, 32, a Greek born and raised in Burundi and working for the U.S.-based Catholic Relief Service, was discovered 10 km (six miles) outside the town of Ngozi late on Monday, a CRS official said. He had been shot once in the head. His car was found some distance away in the town itself. ''There is some mystery. We don't know what's behind it at the moment,'' said Jim O'Connor of CRS in Burundi. ''That's a general problem in Burundi -- people get killed and nobody knows what really happened and certainly nobody goes to trial.'' Lascaris was winding down CRS's work to hand out food in the region and would have left within a week. A CRS spokeswoman in Nairobi told Reuters: ''What makes the incident more tragic is that he would have been out of there on Friday. ''Without a doubt the area is becoming more and more dangerous. One other of our staff there had been threatened.'' His body was transferred to the capital Bujumbura on Tuesday where an autopsy was carried out. Until recently, expatriates were untouched by the ethnic bloodletting between rival Hutu and Tutsis that has claimed up to 100,000 lives in the past 18 months. But in March three Belgians were killed in an ambush on their vehicle 12 km (eight miles) southeast of Bujumbura as they were returning to the capital. Last month a South African Worldwide Television News producer was also killed in an ambush on his vehicle as he drove back to Bujumbura shortly before curfew. Few international agencies continue to work in north Burundi and those that do complain of harrassment from state security services.