»The truth may be bitter, but it must be told« Special boat belonging to the coast guard, without identifying markings or flag. On 5 August 2007 an incident drew attention to the indiscriminate use of violence by the coast guard, hitting headlines across the country. In the night of 4 - 5 August 2007, in the strait between Chios and the Turkish coast, a coast guard patrol boat came across a grey dinghy with an outboard motor. The officials later claimed they had repeatedly called on the three men on the suspect dinghy to stop; however the dinghy drove off at full speed and tried to evade capture. In response the patrol boat took up pursuit and opened fire on the dinghy from behind. One of the men on board died from the gunshot wounds. All three men on the dinghy were Greek citizens. The account of events given by the two survivors differs from that of the coast guard. As the patrol boat approached »we stopped immediately. The captain stood up in the headlights and raised his hands over his head«, they said in an interview with a state television channel. It was then that the first shots were fired. The postmortem provides supporting evidence for this account; the victim had bullet wounds inflicted from the front, in the stomach area. He was also missing two fingers. The dinghy – which will remain in the harbour of Chios until the end of the investigation – has almost been split in two by the gunfire. Contrary to the allegations made by the coast guard, who say there was no identifiable markings (national emblems) on the dinghy, the Greek flag is clearly visible on stern. Staff of the coast guard on Lesbos confirm that weapons are used in operations; according to them shots are only fired at the motors of suspect boats, and only »when there are no refugees on board, only smugglers«.13 For the local commander of the coast guard, Apostolos Mikromastoras, it is smugglers in particular who are the targets of the operations. »They are murderers, you can’t put it any other way. Sometimes when we have disturbed a trafficking operation, they throw the illegal migrants into the water. Then our patrol boats have to stop to pick up the people – and so the traffickers can escape«14. However, Mikromastoras makes it clear that he categorically regards every (male) refugee as an enemy. »At any moment they could strike in Europe, beginning a war here. That’s dangerous, very dangerous. They are all men between 15 and 35 years of age. They are all very well trained, they swim very well! Europe has to understand that a very real danger is approaching. I believe we are dealing with an Islamic invasion. They are all warriors!« As proof for his assertion that the refugees are specially trained undercover warriors he points at an officer who leads one of the special units. »He once chased a person in a speedboat (…) … the other person who was in the water simply dived – and he escaped, by diving! They couldn’t find him!« Even within the coast guard, whose staff tend to regard the views of their commander sceptically, such thinking is gaining ground. Boats with women and children on board are seen as in need of help, while others are seen as a threat. «When we see refugees, women and children, we say: that is a family, we have to help them. But when Afghans (for example) arrive, you see that they are all young men between 14 and 17 – it seems as though it were a sort of army, moving from the east to Europe,« says Mr. N. an officer in the coast guard. The practices of the Greek coast guard: systematic human rights violations 13