Section:GDN 1N PaGe:24 Edition Date:190827 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 26/8/2019 19:44 cYanmaGentaYellowb
- The Guardian Tuesday 27 August 2019
(^24) World
Police arrest 100 in
Athens dawn raids
on refugee squats
Alex King
Athens
Greek police arrested about 100 peo-
ple yesterday in dawn raids on squats
in Athens that are mostly occupied by
refugees and migrants.
Dozens of offi cers cleared four sites
in the Exarcheia neighbourhood of the
capital as helicopters hover ed over-
head. The conservative government of
Kyriakos Mitsotakis , who took offi ce as
prime minister last month, had vowed
to bring order to the district, promis-
ing regular police patrols.
Kostas Bakoyannis , t he new mayor
of Athens , who was sworn in on
Sunday, has pledged to make security
his highest priority. He has accused the
previous leftwing government of hav-
ing taken a soft line against vandalism
by some anarchist groups.
Ringed by university buildings,
Exarcheia has long been the home
of Greece’s intellectual left and
anti- authoritarian and anarchist
movements. Riot police stand on con-
stant guard on the perimeter, and it is
the site of regular skirmishes between
police using teargas and youths hurl-
ing molotov cocktails and eager to vent
their frustration at Greece’s economic
and political situation.
In a country where far-right and
state violence against migrants is
well-documented, the lack of a visi-
ble police presence inside Exarcheia
and its vocal anti-racist stance have
created a place of relative sanctuary.
“I am so happy here, I feel safe,” a
squat resident from Afghanistan told
the Guardian before yesterday’s raids.
“Here we work together and have a
good life.”
Thousands of refugees arrived in
Athens in summer 2015. Seeing little
response from the state, the anarchist
squat movement in the area, which
dates back to the 1980s, resolved to
open empty buildings in Exarcheia
to house refugees. The squats off er
a n alternative to official refugee
camps and detention centres, where
Centre-left
leader urged to
back Conte as
Italy coalition
deadline looms
Angela Giuff rida
Rome
The leader of Italy’s centre-left
Democratic party (PD) was under
pressure last night to relent to
demands for Giuseppe Conte to lead a
PD-Five Star Movement (M5S) coali-
tion, as the deadline loomed for the
two parties to strike an agreement and
avoid new elections.
The nomination of Conte, the
outgoing prime minister, who last
week ended an ill-fated coalition
gov ernment between M5S and the
far-right League, is the main obstacle
in the talks.
In brief
Belgium
Anti-racism activist
‘expelled’ from town
United States
Tree marking 1919
racist massacre is felled
Indonesia
West Papuans march
after violent protests
An anti-racism campaigner said
yesterday he was expelled from the
Belgian town of Ath after a racism
row. A fl oat featuring a white man
in black face called “the savage”
featured in Ath’s festival on Sunday,
despite calls to end the practice.
Mouhad Reghif , of the Brussels
Panthers, which petitioned Unesco
to axe the festival from a cultural
heritage list unless it ended its use of
blackface, said he had been ejected
by police on the mayor’s orders. The
mayor, Bruno Lefèbvre, said he told
Reghif early on Sunday his safety
could not be guaranteed, adding:
“The interview passed well and
he left .” Jennifer Rankin Brussels
Thousands of protesters took to
the streets in highland areas of
West Papua yesterday, a week after
violent demonstrations fl ared
across Indonesia’s easternmost
provinces, leaving one dead and
dozens injured. The planned action
followed a week of sometimes
violent demonstrations across West
Papua , prompted by an incident in
the Javanese city of Surabaya, where
military offi cers and nationalist
militia allegedly taunted Papuans
with racist slurs.
The demonstrators have decried
racism and called for independence
from Indonesia across West Papua.
Kate Lamb Jayapur
Arkansas offi cials are investigating
the felling of a willow tree planted
earlier this year to honour the
victims of one of the largest
racist mass killings in US history.
Hundreds of African Americans died
across the US at the hands of white
mob s during what became known
as the “ red summer” of 1919.
The tree was planted in April in
the town of Elaine, where estimates
of the number of people killed range
from the low hundreds to more
than 800 , which would make it
the deadliest such massacre in US
history. Events are planned next
month to mark the centenary.
Martin Pengelly New York
conditions have been condemned by
international observers.
“I visited the camps as a volun-
teer,” said a 31-year-old refugee from
Gaza , before the raids. “You’re not a
refugee there, you feel like you are in
prison – and they’re full. [The squat] is
important for me because I feel more
like home, I feel a little more human.
We have space to sleep, neighbours
and a neighbourhood around us.”
In opposition, New Democracy
attacked the Syriza administration’s
handling of the refugee crisis, capital-
ising on security fears and frustration
at Greece having to shoulder a dispro-
portionate share of responsibility.
In government, they have stepped
up border enforcement, revoked asy-
lum seekers’ rights to access health
and social security services, and dis-
solved the ministry of migration,
transferring responsibility for refugees
to the ministry of citizen protection,
which also oversees the police.
It was under Syriza that the strat-
egy of criminalising the refugee squats
began. A wave of evictions by heavily
armed police occurred in early April,
aff ecting more than 300 people.
The PD leader, Nicola Zingaretti ,
showed signs of opening up to the
prospect of Conte during a PD meeting
in Rome on Sunday, a source close to
the discussions said. But later on Sun-
day, and again yesterday morning, he
told reporters that any “turning point”
government required a break from the
past, including a change of team.
“I am working for a serious solution
... we need to build a shared pro-
gramme, because parallel programmes
were a mistake that Italy is paying for
... we can and we must move forward,”
Zingaretti said.
Luigi Di Maio, the M5S leader, has
refused to back down on Conte, saying
last week that the law professor, who
was plucked out of nowhere to lead its
alliance with the League, was “a rare
pearl that Italy can’t lose”.
Zingaretti’s reluctance over Conte
stems partly from his preference to
have elections rather than team up
with a long standing rival who has
already been part of a failed govern-
ment. The other issue is Matteo Renzi,
the PD senator and ex-prime minister
who spearheaded the idea , and who
still wields infl uence within the party.
President Sergio Mattarella is
expecting to see serious signs of pro-
gress towards the creation of a new
parliamentary majority before holding
fresh consultations with Italy’s main
parties today and tomorrow.
▼ Police stand guard at a building in
the Exarcheia area of central Athens
yesterday during an operation
PHOTOGRAPH: ANGELOS TZORTZINIS/GETTY
‘I am so happy here,
I feel safe. Here we
work together and
have a good life’
Refugee from Gaza
Before yesterday’s raids
RELEASED BY "What's News" vk.com/wsnws TELEGRAM: t.me/whatsnws