»The truth may be bitter, but it must be told« Annex: Excerpts from interviews Detailed report of conversation by lawyer Marianna Tzeferakou (See report on Chios: Torture during interrogation by the Greek coast guard 58 in chapter I) »It was on the 17-18 June 2007. We left from Cesme in Turkey. There were 48 of us including several women. We used a wooden boat – around 11 metres long and 3 metres wide. At 6 o’clock in the morning we reached a small island near Chios. We made the boat unseaworthy immediately. On this small island were six soldiers. One of the soldiers asked: ›Who speaks English?‹ I stepped forward. Then they asked: ›Who is the captain? How did you come here? How much did you pay for the trip?‹ I informed them: ›We have no captain. We came from Libya in a large ship and were put into a smaller boat. They told us this was Italy. We paid around 3,000 euros per person for this crossing.‹ The soldiers took us to a military building and gave us water and bread. A doctor came and looked after the sick and injured. The soldiers said to us: ›You don’t need to be afraid. You will go into a camp on Chios. There everything is OK – you will have no problem.‹ We walked about 100 metres to a small harbour. A small ship belonging to the coast guard was moored there. The boat was white; the three policemen on board wore blue clothing but no hats. We were ordered to form groups of five. The first group was made up of five women. This group was taken to a large ship that was moored around 200 metres away. This ship was dark blue. The police on board were armed and had emblems on their sleeves. They wore no hats. I arrived with the last group – we were seven people – on the big ship. Everyone was sitting on the floor and seemed terrified. There was a boy a little apart from the group. His shirt was pulled over his head. His upper body was bent far forward. I found out later that the boy was 17 years old, and that during a search they had found a knife on him. As soon as I got on the large boat, I was beaten. Several times they hit my head against the railings. I was ordered to ask the others if they had knives. All answered my question with a denial. Three policemen grabbed me by the arms and neck and took me to the other side of the ship. The other refugees couldn’t see me. I was behind the ›big ball‹ and the bridge. I was confronted with the same questions. One of the policemen ordered the other two to leave. He said to me: ›I will kill you if you do not tell the truth.‹ I answered: ›I will tell the truth, please don’t hurt me‹. He grabbed my head and bashed it against the railing again. I begged him to believe me. I asked him for some water. ›There is no water here. Tell me the truth or I will hurt you.‹ I was taken to another part of the boat. On the way I saw a man on all fours, crying for help. The man’s mouth seemed totally parched. I saw a policeman hitting him with an electric stick. I said to the policemen: ›Don’t hit him anymore‹. I was pushed away and hit. I was taken back to the group. There were four policemen present and I was ordered to translate. The questioning was conducted by the policeman who had already beaten me several times. The three questions were: ›What is your name? What did you eat yesterday? Are you married?‹ Then he asked me my shoe size. Refugees who laughed were beaten immediately. Then he asked everyone the same questions twice. And then later: ›How did you get here? Who is the captain?‹ I was then brought to another place. I had to kneel down. One policeman stood behind me while two stood in front of me. The one behind me hit me with a stick on the head, deliberately and hard. He hit me on the crown of my head repeatedly with the stick. I tried to protect myself with my arms. Then he hit my arms. I tried to look behind me, and he started hitting me again. The two policemen in front of me were armed and showed me their weapons while I was being beaten. They looked at me very seriously. They said: ›We are going to kill you‹. The expression on their faces was terrifying. I was very scared. The other policeman – a fat one – came up to me and said into my ear: ›Tell the truth. These two policemen are very dangerous. They will kill you. My friend, I don’t want you to get into trouble. Just tell the truth and nothing will happen. But be careful, whatever happens will happen to you and not to the others.‹ I smiled and one of the two policemen kicked me in the chest. They grabbed me by both shoulders and pulled me up sharply. I was beaten again and taken to the back of the ship – the engine room. The others from the group couldn’t see me and probably couldn’t hear me because it was very loud in the engine room. One of the policemen ordered me to look at him. He pulled his gun and pressed it down on my head. I didn’t see the weapon, but I could feel it: ›Tell the truth!‹ – Annex: Excerpts from interviews 33