[NYtenants-online] Athens Olympic Games Bring Human Misery

[Tenant]

NYtenants Online/TenantNet                                8/13/04
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IN THIS ISSUE ...

1. Athens Olympic Games Bring Misery to Roma Communities in Greece
2. Calls for European Social Rights Committee to act on Greek Human Rights 
Violations
3. Olympics blow out [Greek] deficit (The Australian)


While we're on the edge of our seats tonight watching the Athens Olympics 
opening ceremony, getting goosebumps from the Olympic anthem, wondering 
what country will have the next Olga Korbut, why not turn down the volume 
and read the following reports from the CENTRE OF HOUSING RIGHTS AND 
EVICTIONS on the real impact of the Olympic games.

While what is happening in Athens is bad enough, other Olympiads have 
created much more displacement and forced evictions (more on those later). 
It still makes you wonder why elected officials such as Chris Quinn, Tom 
Duane and Richard Gottfried, along with their fake grass-roots group, 
Hudson Yards Alliance, and Manhattan Community Board 4 are supporting the 
NYC2012 bid. The displacement expected in New York City, both primary and 
secondary, would be much higher than what has been so far reported in Athens.

Evictions don't interest you while gobbling down your the Olympic sponsored 
McDonalds' cow meat? Then how about fiscal disaster? See below how the 
fiscal stability of the entire Greek nation could go belly-up. Some reports 
even put the eventual costs of the Greek Olympics at around $20 billion 
USD. New York's bid is already hovering at around $15 billion (with 
everything thrown in), but we've yet to see the inflation, cost overruns, 
or the federal security costs.


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2004 ATHENS OLYMPIC GAMES BRING MISERY TO ROMA COMMUNITIES IN GREECE
Housing Rights Bulletin
Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions
August 2004

As the world’s attention turns to Greece for the 2004 Summer Olympic Games, 
to witness the excitement and glory of the world’s biggest sporting 
competition, there is a lesser-known and darker side to the staging of the 
Games of the XXVIII Olympiad. The Athens games once again reveal that 
events of such magnitude are almost always accompanied by human rights 
violations such as the forced eviction of whole communities in host cities. 
Nearly 140 Roma (formerly known as Gypsy) from the Marousi community have 
been forcibly evicted and several other Roma communities threatened with 
forced eviction in the Greater Athens area in the last two years, as 
preparations for the Olympic Games have gained momentum.

Local organisations in Greece such as the Greek Helsinki Monitor report 
that a majority of the Roma families who were forcibly evicted from their 
homes have not been provided with adequate compensation, reparation or 
resettlement. Even when resettlement and compensation have been granted to 
Roma families of the Marousi community, only Greek Roma have been eligible, 
with non-Greek Roma who have legal residency status (such as Albanian Roma) 
excluded from the process.

Preparations for the Olympic Games in Athens have been a double-edged 
sword. While it has created massive employment and economic opportunities 
for many Greeks, it has also caused uncertainty and severe economic 
hardship to Roma communities in the Greek capital. Municipal authorities 
have used the upcoming Games as a pretext to carry out forced evictions of 
Roma communities, even when the land they inhabited was not required for 
the construction of Games-related infrastructure.

According to the Greek National Commission for Human Rights “the holding of 
the Olympic Games has been an occasion for driving the Roma out of many 
regions. Local communities (very often untruthfully) invoked the need for 
the construction of sports facilities in order to get rid of the Roma, as 
was the case in Mexico in 1968.”

The municipalities of Halandri, Aghia Paraskevi, Aspropyrgos and 
Aharnai/Menidi ­ all of which are in the Greater Athens area ­ have 
resorted to such arguments to threaten Roma settlements with forced 
eviction or to actually carry out such evictions.

In the second scenario, the actual construction of infrastructure for the 
Olympic Games has lead to the forced eviction of a Roma community. The 
settlement of the Roma community of Marousi was located in the Greater 
Athens area adjacent to the main Olympic Complex.

Although no other Roma settlement has been directly affected by the actual 
construction of Games-related infrastructure, local government authorities 
such as the Municipality of Nea Alikarnassos in Crete have openly claimed 
that they want the land on which Roma settlements are built to construct 
sports facilities and other infrastructure required for the 2004 Summer Games.

The Roma community living in Marousi ­ a suburb of Athens ­ was directly 
affected by the construction of Olympic facilities because their settlement 
is located in the vicinity of the main Olympic stadium. In 2002, the 
Marousi Roma were asked to vacate their settlement because the 2004 Olympic 
Games Committee had decided to construct a parking lot and road 
enlargements. Initially, the Marousi municipal authority came to an 
agreement with the community, which stipulated that adequate compensation 
and resettlement would be provided to the community in exchange for 
vacating the land they had been living on for decades. This agreement was 
signed in August 2002 between the Marousi Mayor, Panagiotis Tzanikos, and a 
representative of the Roma association Elpida.

The agreement, which affected a total of 137 persons, was by no means a 
fair and just one as it stated that compensation and resettlement was 
limited to Greek Roma and purposely excluded non-Greek Roma, such as the 
Albanian Roma, with legal residency status in Greece. According to the 
terms of the agreement, 40 Greek Roma families were to be paid a reasonable 
sum of money to be used as a monthly rent subsidy. The agreement also 
stipulated that the Roma families would be resettled in heavy-duty 
prefabricated houses that would be constructed by the Marousi Municipal 
Authority. In the longer term, the agreement also underlined that this 
relocation would be temporary and that the Municipality would work towards 
guaranteeing permanent resettlement to the families.

On the basis of this agreement, the Roma families started leaving their 
settlement. Some of the families opted for rented housing whilst others 
sought temporary accommodation in the homes of relatives. Although the Roma 
community of Marousi honoured their part of the agreement, it soon became 
evident that the Municipal Authority was not prepared to implement its 
various obligations under the arrangement. According to reports from the 
Greek Helsinki Monitor, the Municipal Authority soon defaulted on the 
payment of rent subsidies to the Roma families.

Roma families who had moved to rented accommodation struggled to meet their 
monthly rental payments when the subsidy payments stopped coming from the 
Municipal Authority. This led to landlords evicting a number of Roma 
families from their rented accommodation from September 2003. Several of 
the affected Roma families have voiced their concern that the agreement was 
merely a pretext to lure them to vacate the land they have been living on 
so Olympic related infrastructure could be constructed, and that the 
Municipal Authority of Marousi never intended to honour the arrangement.

In January 2004, the Marousi Municipal Authority claimed to have paid all 
40 of the Roma families the money it owed them ­ which in some cases was in 
excess of more than six months of accrued subsidies. However, a letter 
dated 12 February 2004 from the Mayor of Marousi to the Greek Ombudsman’s 
Office mentioned that only 14 Roma families had been paid all the subsidies 
they were owed up to January 2004 and that 21 others had only received 
payments up to November 2003. By May 2004, payments from the Municipal 
Authority for the period since January 2004 had defaulted once again 
causing severe economic hardship to the families. The Mayor of Marousi made 
a statement in March 2004, saying that the families would cease receiving 
monthly rent subsidies until they had filed applications for housing loans 
for Roma. According to the Mayor, payments would resume once all the 
families had made loan applications. Such a move by the Municipal Authority 
arguably raises questions about its commitment to abide by its contractual 
obligations, as no such provision exists in the agreement signed in 2002.

In addition to the Municipal Authority’s failure to provide the promised 
rent subsidies, reports also indicate that no initiative was taken to 
implement the resettlement part of the agreement. There has been no 
response from the Mayor’s office to questions from the families about when 
the resettlement arrangements will be ready or where they will be situated.

The plight of the Marousi Roma community is merely one example of the 
widespread practise of illegal forced evictions of “undesirable” Roma in 
Greece. In most cases, local municipal authorities are the ones carrying 
out forced evictions and failing to implement resettlement and compensation 
initiatives even when such measures have been agreed upon.

As the world counts down the days to the opening ceremony of the Athens 
Olympics and local authorities strive to present the city in the best 
possible light, it is important to consider how this may affect the Roma 
community there.

The run up to the Olympic Games could well bring about further forced 
evictions of “visible” Roma communities in a last minute bid to “clean up” 
and “beautify” the greater Athens area, before the world’s cameras descend 
on Greece.

Local NGOs have expressed concern that the predicament of Roma communities 
affected by the Olympic Games could be neglected altogether by local 
authorities once the event is over. Several international and local NGOs, 
including COHRE, have repeatedly asked the International Olympic Committee 
to intervene in the matter to ensure that such injustices do not eventuate. 
COHRE also made a presentation about Olympics-related forced evictions in 
Greece to the 32nd Session of the UN Committee on Economic, Social and 
Cultural Rights in Geneva in April. COHRE called upon the Committee to 
raise this issue in its constructive dialogue with Greece and make evident 
in its concluding observations that the run up to the Olympic Games should 
not lead to further forced evictions of Roma communities in Athens. Scott 
Leckie, Executive Director of COHRE said, “Local authorities in Greece must 
abide by international human rights law and standards related to the 
enjoyment of housing rights and ensure that no further violations take place.

Forced evictions and discrimination against racial minorities goes against 
the very spirit and ideals of the Olympic Movement, which aim to foster 
peace, solidarity and respect for universal fundamental ethical principles.”

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EUROPEAN COMMITTEE ON SOCIAL RIGHTS CALLED TO ACT
ON HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS OF ROMA IN GREECE
Housing Rights Bulletin
Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions
August 2004

The housing crisis and widespread human rights violations experienced by 
Roma people in Greece have recently been brought to the attention of the 
European Committee of Social Rights. The Committee was alerted to the fact 
that Greece has failed to adopt laws or take concerted action to combat 
discrimination and racial segregation in the field of housing in the last 
two decades, and that in reality discrimination and segregation have 
worsened. The European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC) filed a complaint against 
Greece with the Committee earlier this year regarding its treatment of Roma 
people, alleging Greece is in breach of several international and regional 
legal standards including the European Social Charter (ESC).

The frequent forced evictions of Roma by, or with the consent of, the Greek 
authorities have been well documented by groups such as the ERRC and Greek 
Helsinki Monitor. Roma in Greece have been subjected to forced evictions, 
abusive police raids and destruction of property. In a number of cases, the 
purpose and/or effect of forced evictions was to relocate Roma to racially 
segregated areas.

Research conducted by the ERRC reveals that few evicted Roma have been 
provided with alternative accommodation and that the adverse effects 
experienced by Roma from forced evictions in Greece are further aggravated 
by the lack of adequate resettlement plans.

Despite having ratified the International Covenant on Economic, Social and 
Cultural Rights, which contains one of the strongest expressions of the 
right to adequate housing, Greece’s legislative framework fails to 
adequately protect housing rights in accordance with international 
standards ­ especially with respect to racial discrimination in the field 
of housing. International covenants ratified by Greece have great 
significance in its domestic laws because the Greek Constitution states 
that such international standards are an integral part of Greek law after 
ratification. There is evidence that by pursuing policies of racial 
segregation and forced evictions and failing to secure adequate living 
standards for a large number of Roma, Greece has fallen significantly short 
of its obligations under the ESC.

According to Article 16 of the ESC “full development of family life” 
includes recognition of the right to adequate housing. The critical role of 
the right to housing was recognized by the Committee of Independent Experts 
overseeing the ESC, which stressed “the need to consider family welfare in 
terms of the right to receive adequate housing and essential services (such 
as heating and electricity), these being necessary for the welfare and 
stability of families.”

Local authorities that do not wish to assist Roma residents often use the 
excuse that the Roma mostly live in informal settlements and do not fall 
within the official ambit of their local administration, and that councils 
are therefore not responsible for their welfare. For example, Roma living 
in segregated, informal settlements are in practice not afforded the same 
legal protection given to residents of formal housing from forced 
evictions. In many cases, the informal Roma housing settlements also do not 
have access to basic amenities such as electricity, water, heating, sewage 
and solid waste removal, and are overlooked in the planning and 
implementation of urban grids for the purposes of public services such as 
transportation and schooling. A 1983 Ministerial Decree entitled “Sanitary 
provision for the organized relocation of wandering nomads”, which 
prohibited the Roma from living amongst the rest of the Greek population, 
thus leaving them susceptible to forced evictions and abusive police raids, 
was only amended in July 2003. Although the 1983 Decree was amended last 
year, there are no indications that Greek authorities have acted to design 
or implement policies aimed at alleviating the suffering caused to 
countless Roma during the period the Decree was in effect.

In addition, amendments to the law do not remedy many of the problems that 
are the basis of the complaint by the ERRC to the European Committee on 
Social Rights. According to the ERRC, the existence of legal frameworks 
that provide for the resettlement of other categories of people, such as 
those who are victims of earthquakes, but are not available to Roma, are 
testimony to the discriminatory practices of the Greek authorities. The 
ERRC has called for the development of a policy that clearly provides for 
the resettlement of Roma, and also notes in the complaint that the amended 
Decree continues to penalize Roma for the failure of the government to 
provide or ensure adequate housing for them. In addition, the law continues 
to allow the criminal prosecution of Roma for creating illegal settlements, 
even when they have been relocated by local authorities.

The Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE), which has monitored the 
situation of Roma in Greece in partnership with the ERRC, has raised 
concerns that forced evictions of Roma will continue to occur under Greek 
legislative and administrative provisions authorizing evictions of persons 
from property under certain conditions. Malcolm Langford, Senior Legal 
Researcher at COHRE, said, “These laws are not consistent with 
international legal standards on forced evictions. The systematic practice 
of forced evictions of Roma also provokes the concern that these general 
laws are more likely to be used against Roma, on account of their race and 
poverty.”

Langford added, “While evictions in some cases are unavoidable, COHRE is 
concerned that the Greek authorities are more likely to proceed with the 
eviction of Roma, and less likely to devise appropriate alternative 
solutions, than is the case with the non-Roma majority.” COHRE will submit 
an amicus curiae brief in support of the complaint filed by the ERRC with 
the Committee, which will present in greater detail the relevant 
international and regional laws and jurisprudence on forced evictions, the 
right to housing and its relation to Article 16 of the European Social 
Charter. COHRE’s brief argues the Committee should urge the Greek 
government to provide adequate reparations for Roma who suffered losses 
during the approximately twenty year period in which the 1983 Ministerial 
Decree was used by public authorities to forcibly evict Roma.

The brief also urges the Committee to advise the Greek government to use 
all appropriate means to protect and promote the right to adequate housing 
and guarantee protection against forced evictions. The brief will be 
submitted to the Committee this month.

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Olympics blow out [Greek] deficit
The Australian
By Glenda Korporaal
August 14, 2004

GREECE's last-minute dash to get Athens ready for the Olympics has blown 
out the country's deficit and put further pressure on its membership of the 
European Union Stability Pact.

With concern rising about whether the city would be prepared for the games, 
the Greek Government went on a massive spending spree to complete transport 
and sports venues, pushing out the total cost of the Olympics to E7 billion 
($12.08 billion).

Total projected Olympics spending for 2004 alone is now expected to exceed 
E3 billion - more than double the initial budget of E1.4 billion. The total 
games budget is now hopelessly over the initial estimates of E4.6 billion.

Greece's State Accounting Office has already admitted that the country's 
budget deficit for the first six months of the year was 26 per cent higher 
than the same period last year, hitting E8.7 billion. It has already 
exceeding its original goal of E6.2 billion for all of 2004. The figure has 
yet to take in last-minute costs of staging the games, including bonuses 
promised to public servants on standby during the event.

The Greeks are also resentful that "terrorism hysteria" from overseas has 
forced them to double their Games security budget to a record cost of more 
than E1.2 billion. Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis, whose New 
Democracy party took power in the March elections, is blaming the blowout 
on the previous government.

He argues that former prime minister Costas Simitis and his PASOK party 
wasted years getting games preparation started after the Olympics were 
awarded to Athens in 1997.

Since his election, Mr Karamanlis has stepped up spending in a massive 
effort to get Athens ready. While he seems to have succeeded, Greeks have 
yet to count the real cost of staging the games.

Greece's Deputy Finance Minister, Petros Doukas, is now projecting that the 
Government deficit will exceed 4 per cent of gross domestic product by the 
end of the year, compared with 3.5 per cent in 2003.

This represents a further blowout beyond the European Union ceiling of 3 
per cent of gross domestic product.

The smallest country to host an Olympics since Finland in 1952, Greece will 
severely tighten public spending after the games. European Union finance 
ministers recently gave Greece until November 5 to announce tough new 
measures to bring the country's budget deficit under control.

A first round of cuts is expected to be announced in October when the 
Government releases its draft budget for 2005.

Mr Doukas this week rejected suggestions that the total budget for the 
games had blown out to E10 billion. He said spending was closer to E6 
billion but this was expected to be higher once all the bills came in.

At the same time Greece's tourism industry has failed to capitalise on the 
Olympics. With the games now under way, hotels have been cutting prices in 
a last-minute effort to lure tourists. But security concerns, high prices 
and poor marketing have already cut foreign arrivals by 12 per cent on last 
year.

Athens hotels, which had expected to sell 100,000 to 150,000 beds a night 
during the games, have sold only about 70,000 to 120,000. Hotel prices are 
being slashed - some to as low as half that being asked in the lead-up to 
the games.

The Greeks are blaming inflated hotel prices for the lack of foreign 
tourists. The hotel industry's image was further damaged in recent weeks by 
pictures of workers striking for more money. Employees have yet to rule out 
further strike action during the games.