Out of the spotlight: The rights of foreigners and minorities are still a grey area that residents’ associations, who express racially-biased views about these policies, appear to exert considerable influence on the ways in which such policy is shaped. This consultation process appears to be discriminatory against the Roma on two fronts: both through their exclusion from it, as well as through the authorities’ failure to address practices of non-state actors that appear to be inciting racial discrimination. This section of the report exemplifies this latter concern. In November 2001 the local daily Peloponissos published a Letter of Protest which bore the signatures of 1200 residents of the area neighbouring the settlement of Riganokampos, from which the Albanian Roma had been forcibly evicted two months previously. The letter referred to the Roma as Athingani 108 and blamed them for breaking into the gardens, desecrating the local cemetery, swearing, and violence. The letter also made reference to “increased pollution” arising from the installation of fresh water facilities in the Roma settlement by the authorities and warned that “any postponement or delay in resolving the problem we face will lead to militant action from the residents of the areas of Eglykada, Perivola, Neo Souli – Riganokampos”. 109 In March 2002, Maria Vassilari and Eleftheria Georgopoulou, two Romani women residents and representatives of the Riganokampos settlement, filed a criminal complaint against the signatories to the letter. A year later, the Prosecutor indicted the authors of the Letter and the owner and editor of the newspaper for the public expression of offensive ideas (Law 927/1973) but considered that the Letter of Protest did not constitute incitement to discrimination, hatred or violence under Article 1 of Law 927/1979 as the Romani women claimed. In June 2003 the local Three-Member Misdemeanours Court acquitted the defendants of violating Article 2 of the anti-racist law on the basis that “doubts remained regarding the… intention to offend the complainants by using the expressions referred to in the indictment”. 110 During the hearing the judge reportedly made prejudiced comments about the Roma: in response to a comment made by the defence counsel that the Roma commit many crimes, she replied “it is true” and added that there were “currently many cases pending against Roma in the courts of Patras”; furthermore, when one of the complainants stated that the Letter of Protest had offended her, the judge responded “you have to admit though, you Roma do steal”. In a more recent incident, there were reports that on the night of 21 June 2005 a number of persons on motorcycles threw at least one firebomb against the Albanian Roma living in Makrigianni. A complaint was made and the police recorded the incident, but reportedly failed to initiate an investigation (including carrying out an on-site forensic examination and eye-witness interviewing). Romani residents also reported a second attack the following evening, in which firecrackers had been thrown into the settlement by motorcyclists, which the police had similarly failed to investigate. The local police had also reportedly failed to intervene in an incident on 10 January 2005, when a number of people attacked a Romani man outside a local TV station. The station’s crew filmed the incident, documenting the failure of police officers present nearby to intervene. On 10 June 2004 owners of restaurants and cafes in the central square in Patras sent a letter to their association in which they complained of the “extreme” situation prevailing in the square whereby “dozens of young athingani beggars … litter [the square] with rubbish… defecate 108 This is a derogatory term used in Greece to refer to the Roma, although not as offensive as $ . 109 “Letter of Protest-Denunciation to the Dean of the University of Patras and the Rector’s Council of the University of Patras”, ! newspaper, 17 January 2001. Amnesty International 5 October 2005 56 110 Minutes and Decision of the Three Member Misdemeanours Court of Patras, Decision No. 3080/2003. AI Index: EUR 25/016/2005