Dear RN, I find this item an exciting read; I had no idea of how Greeks view NATO... maybe there is hope of disbanding NATO after all! all the best, Jan ********************************************************************* From: "macha mackay" <•••@••.•••> Subject: Eyewitness report from Greece: Clinton protests Date: Fri, 26 Nov 1999 12:02:04 GMT I Thought you might find this report interesting...It is long, but not the type we have heard about Clinton`s successful trip!! An indication of how our news is distorted. Greetings to all...Macha >From: •••@••.••• (by way of Rycroft & Pringle ><•••@••.•••>) >To: •••@••.••• >Subject: Peace/Justice Int'l-- Eyewitness report from Greece: Clinton >protests >Date: Thu, 25 Nov 1999 19:35:39 -0800 > >EYEWITNESS ACCOUNT from >INTERNATIONAL ACTION CENTER staff member >reporting from ATHENS, GREECE > >ATHENS, Greece--Bill Clinton arrived in Greece Nov. 19 like a thief >in the night. His motorcade moved down darkened boulevards >carefully cleared of people. Armies of police guarded him against any >contact with ordinary Greeks. But the voice of the people could not >be silenced. > >While the U.S. president wined and dined with Greek Prime Minister >Costas Simitis, police loosed barrages of tear gas against thousands of >workers, students and retirees trying to march to the U.S. Embassy. >Among those gassed were elderly veterans of the Greek anti-Nazi >resistance in World War II. > >Despite the gas and repeated police attacks, protesters regrouped >again and again and marched through downtown Athens to the city's >central Omonia Square. Over 80 people were arrested, many of them >at pharmacies where they had gone for medical aid. As of this writing, >they are still being held. > >In the aftermath of the protest, the Greek government has mounted a >violence-baiting campaign against the Greek Committee for Peace and >the Communist Party of Greece (KKE), which was a major force in >the demonstration. But it was the state and its heavily armed police >that unleashed the violence that night. > >CLINTON LEAVES TRAIL OF REPRESSION > >The media have played up Clinton's carefully scripted comment about >the "right to protest as long as it's peaceful." But at every stop on his >Balkan tour, protests have been met with fascist-like violence. > >While he was in Turkey, police beat and arrested hundreds of >protesters in Ankara, the capital. They had not been released as of >Nov. 22. > >In Sofia, Bulgaria, where Clinton went after leaving Athens, protests >were also banned and over 100 people arrested. Blagoesta >Doncheva, a former anti-communist "dissident" who has written >eloquently about the Bulgarian people's suffering under the new >capitalist regime, including a recent op-ed piece for the New York >Times, was thrown into a mental ward. > >Clinton will also visit the NATO-occupied Yugoslav province of >Kosovo. There, Serbs, Roma people, Turks and other minorities are >being systematically murdered and driven from their homes by NATO- >sponsored gangs, even as the imperialist occupiers claim to be >combating national oppression. > >LONG HISTORY OF GREEK RESISTANCE > >In Greece, too, the regime tried to stifle protest. In the week before >Clinton's arrival, a masked gang attacked a Communist Party >neighborhood office in Athens, beating three people. Another KKE >office was firebombed. Officials and the media also created a climate >of fear with constant warnings about violence. But their efforts at >intimidation failed. > >The Greek people hate NATO. Nearly 700,000 Greeks were >murdered by Nazi occupiers during World War II. When the >Communist-led Greek resistance, in alliance with Yugoslav and >Albanian partisans, succeeded in driving Hitler's armies out of the >Balkans, the imperialists feared a revolution and sent British troops to >occupy the country. > >Britain, a supposed ally, imposed on Greece a regime of Nazi >collaborators headed by a hated royal family that had spent the war >under British protection. In 1948 and 1949, tens of thousands of >Greek anti-Nazi fighters were murdered, imprisoned or driven into >exile by mercenary forces armed, trained and financed by the U.S. >and British imperialist governments. > >The Truman administration created NATO in conjunction with this >war against Greece. The U.S. military's first use of napalm bombs was >against Greek villages. U.S. planes also bombed Yugoslavia in this >period. Over 100,000 anti-Nazi fighters were held in concentration >camps for the next 20 years. > >In 1967, when the Greek left had regained its strength, Greece's >NATO military carried out a coup. Col. George Papadopoulos, >leader of the fascist junta that would rule the country for the next >seven years, was on the direct payroll of the CIA. This was finally >revealed by the New York Times in 1976. > >Fascist terror did not crush the people's resistance. On Nov. 17, >1973, tens of thousands of university students defied tanks and guns >to challenge the junta, which fell the following year. > >That same spirit was very much alive in the streets of Athens and other >Greek cities before and during Clinton's visit. > >10,000 ACCUSE U.S./NATO OF WAR CRIMES > >On Nov. 8, 10,000 people had stood in the rain in Athens's >Constitution Square for a mass trial of the U.S. president and other >NATO leaders. The judges were 20 justices of the Council of State-- >the Greek Supreme Court. Famous entertainers served as other >officers of the court. > >Clinton had ignored a subpoena delivered to the U.S. Embassy a >week earlier by a march of several thousand people. > >After hours of eyewitness testimony about the U.S. bombing of >Yugoslavia, the presiding judge asked if Clinton were guilty of war >crimes. The entire crowd responded "Guilty!" > >On Nov. 17, the anniversary of the 1973 student uprising, tens of >thousands of marchers, mostly youth, filed past the U.S. Embassy. >They loudly denounced Clinton as the butcher of the Balkans, called >for an end to NATO and demanded that the U.S. military get its bases >out of Greece and its troops out of Yugoslavia. The march was >organized by the communists, but even youth from PASOK, the >social-democratic governing party, felt compelled to join. > >And then on Nov. 19, the night of Clinton's arrival, tens of thousands >of protesters, many waving red flags, gathered in three squares in >downtown Athens in defiance of a police ban. > >The main rally, in Constitution Square, was opened by Bill Doares of >the International Action Center. Doares saluted the Greek people's >history of resistance to fascism and war and their solidarity with the >people of Yugoslavia. > >"The profits of Wall Street depend on wars of destruction," he said, >"and only mass action can stop the Pentagon's drive toward new and >bigger wars. In this great task, the Greek people are leading the way." >Doares also condemned Clinton's hypocrisy in preaching about >"human rights" when the "U.S. has more people in prison than any >other country--70 percent are Black and Latin--and the biggest >companies profit off their slave labor." He drew loud applause when >he called for international action to stop the execution of U.S. political >prisoner Mumia Abu- Jamal. Pictures of Mumia dotted the crowd. > >The main speaker was Athanasios Pafilis, General Secretary of the >Greek Committee for International Peace. Pafilis condemned the >"stability pact" signed at the conference of the Organization for >Security and Cooperation in Europe in Istanbul. The pact asserts the >"right" of the U.S. and NATO to intervene in any country where they >deem there are "human rights violations." > >Pafilis spoke of the long and bloody history of U.S. intervention in >Greece and honored some of the country's anti-fascist martyrs, >including Grigoris Lambrakis, a vice president of the Peace >Committee, who was assassinated in 1963. > >Pafilis asserted that the police had no right to stop the people of >Greece from marching in protest down their own streets. > >At 6:30 p.m., the moment Clinton's plane touched down, the minister >of public order still refused to allow a march. The lead contingent of >the demonstration, made up of construction workers and shipbuilders, >then forced its way through police lines. The authorities responded >with volleys of gas bombs. > >Despite the police attack and arrests, the Greek people's opposition >to NATO and the Pentagon's war plans was heard around the world. >[Note: The U.S. media have minimized this extremely important >political development, but the demonstrations were top news in >Europe.] > >Clinton came to Greece from Turkey, where he had dominated the >conference of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in >Europe. Why the United States, which is not part of Europe, should >have been there at all the president did not explain. But the reason is >clearly that the continent is under U.S. military occupation. NATO is >the justification for this relationship. > >At a press conference, Clinton appealed to Greece's elite with visions >of a partnership with U.S. corporations in robbing the rest of the >Balkans. But for the Greek people, U.S. military and economic >domination has meant high prices and a 13-percent unemployment >rate. > >It also means a $2-billion military budget, much of which is spent on >U.S. arms. The Nov. 21 International Herald Tribune admitted that >military spending "exacts a heavy toll" on the Greek economy. > >Clinton admitted that 94 percent of the Greek people opposed >NATO and the war against Yugoslavia. He said that was "an example >of democracy." He didn't explain why it was democratic for the U.S. >to impose its war policies on Greece despite this overwhelming >opposition. > >Clinton also made the amazing statement that "southeast Europe is >undivided and at peace for the first time in 50 years." Only a few >months ago the U.S. launched the first war this region has seen since >Washington's 1948 intervention in Greece. > >Filip Karamalis, a young worker who took part in the Nov. 19 >protests, told this writer, "U.S. imperialism will not pass. We shall >stand fighting. All the Greek people are against NATO, against the >European Union and U.S. policy. Clinton is trying to act like Hitler. >But Hitler could not conquer the Balkans and neither will NATO." > >International Action Center >39 West 14th Street, Room 206 >New York, NY 10011 >email: •••@••.••• >http://www.iacenter.org >phone: 212 633-6646 >fax: 212 633-2889 >
