Greece: Racist violence in 10 cities; 1 dead

international | miscellaneous | news report Tuesday September 07, 2004 16:36 by xx

- sports and nationalism -

The lights of the Olympic Games are off now in Greece. All the world is happy with the success of the Games. However, only a week after the closing ceremony racist violence against Albanian immigrants was spread around the country, following the defeat of the Greek by the Albanian national soccer team.

Before the soccer match between Greece and Albania in Tirana mass media in Greece made an effort to provoce racism. Images of crazy Albanians ready to kill all Greeks appeared in the TV news. Before and during the game there were also several acts of provocation from Albanian nationalists in Tirana.

After the match thousands of Albanian immigrants went to the streets of Greek cities to celebrate peacefully the victory of the Albanian team by 2-1 (exactly like the Greeks in Portugal when Greek beated Portugal in the final of the EURO 2004). The reaction of Greek nationalists was immediate: they organized themselves into groups and they start beating every Albanian they found. This happened in more than 10 cities of Greece. The result: 1 Albanian immigrant (Gramos Paluci) murdered by a Greek - american (Panagiotis Kladis) in the island of Zakinthos and at least 50 others wounded in several incidents on Saturday evening!