Antenna: News in English (AM), 97-06-26

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From: Antenna Radio <http://www.antenna.gr> - email: antenna@compulink.gr

News in English, 26/06/97

TITLES

• Chaos in Albania, three days before the elections.
• Giorgios Rallis talks about the reasons for Greece's military coup in 1967.
• And, a new book to remind the world that Gavdos is Greek.

ALBANIA

As we hear in this report, many ordinary people spend their days trying to stay out of harm's way, and fear the elections will be held in a climate of terror.

For four long hours Wednesday afternoon, two gangs shot it out in the streets for control of the city of Vlore in southern Albania. For months, the streets and roads of the south have virtually belonged to just about anyone with a gun. Central authority collapsed with the outbreak of rebellion, and, as a result, the police are often nowhere to be seen.

During the Vlore battle, Italian peacekeepers were also helpless. They could only look on, as ordinary people ran for cover.

When the gangs aren't settling scores with each other, they're preying on the population.

Greek businessman Xenophon Memos is still in the hands of kidnappers, who are asking his family for a ransom of 24 thousand dollars.

Robbing and killing are daily events for many people in the south.

Yiannis Tsonis, a Greek-Alanian, had gone to his village of Vlachochoratzi to vote. But he won't be dropping his ballot in the box Sunday. He was killed by two masked gunmen, as his grandmother and uncle looked on.

His uncle says his last word was "air". "But I couldn't do anything to save him".

Villagers suspect the murder was an act of provocation by President Sali Berisha's men, an attempt to terrorize people out of voting in the south, where Berisha is so unpopular that his party doesn't even campaign there.

Fed up with the situation, one elederly man told Antenna's Nikolas Vafiades, "We're all ready to go live in Greece".

All this is going on just three days before the nation goes to the polls to elect a new parliament. Whether Berisha's behind them or not, the rifle- toting gangs are seen as amajor threat to the balloting.

Despite the fear, people are fighting back. In the absence of a police presence, people in Vlachorchoratzi and many other Greek-speaking villages in the south, have set up patrols to deter criminal elements from striking.

And politicans in the south - like Vangelis Doulis, an ethnic-Greek running as a Human Rights Party candidate - are calling on people not to be intimidated out of voting.

Greece has sent jeeps and armoured vehicles to help ensure the voting goes off smoothly Sunday.

In the town of Korytsa, crime abounds. The ethnic- Greeks there want Greek peacekeepers to go to protect them, instead of the Italians who are there. One man says, "We're Greeks, we want Greeks here".

In the capital of Tirane, there's relative calm. The royalist party of former king Lekka held a rally in the centre of the city Wednesday. Lekka's supporters say only a return of the monarchy can ensure order returns to Albania.

President Berisha, has resorted to open threats and bribes to guarantee a victory for his party Sunday.

He threatened the Socialist Party, telling his national guardsmen that the socialists will never be able to enjoy seats in parliament. "We'll freeze the smiles on their faces", he said.

The Socialists fear that Berisha's men will unleash a wave of violence to prevent his opponents from voting. They urge the international peacekeepers to be on the alert Sunday, to prevent an election-day bloodbath.

The socialists want the polls to close at 6pm, but Berisha wants them to stay open until 9. His opponents say that would facilitate him unleashing terror tactics as the sun sets.

With Berisha's threats came a carrot. For months, Berisha ignored demands by rebels in the south that he return the money to thousands of people who had invested everything they had in pyramid schemes that collapsed.

Two of the banks running those schemes is giving people 50 per cent of their money back, just before the elections. A poster of Berisha graces the wall of one of the banks.

But all this may be too little, too late.

As one ethnic-Greek in the southern town of Korytsa says, if Berisha refuses to leave office, we'll fight.

SIMITIS-KONTICH

The Greek leader said efforts to bring Greece and New Yugoslavia into closer cooperation are on the right road.

It's time, added, Simitis, that Yugoslavia be brought back into the world community.

Kontich also met with Greek president Kostis Stephanopoulos.

TSOCH-COHEN

Currently, the flights are banned for 2 months during the summer.

Discussing the possibility of extending it to 3 months with US defence secretary Bill Cohen in Washington, Greece's Akis Tsochatzopoulos says that would be nice, if Turkey were willing.

Cohen and Tsochatzopoulos also discussed the confidence building measures being promoted by Nato. And they talked about defence cooperation and possible future acquisitions of American-made arms by Greece.

MITSO-PANGALOS

The former Greek prime minister briefed foreign minister Theodoros Pangalos on his recent trip to Turkey, where he met with president Suleiman Demirel.

After talking to Pangalos, Mitsotakis predicted that the current US effort to broker a settlement in Cyprus will come to fruition next year, after the Cypriot presidential election.

Mitsotakis and Pangalos also discussed Albania. The former premier told him Greece should take steps to ensure that Greek-Albanians living in Greece can get to Albania safely for Sunday's elections, if they want to vote.

RALLIS

Launching his book "My Diary", Giorgios Rallis criticized the western alliance for saying there are Greek-Turkish differences.

The truth is, he explained, that Greece is constantly threatened and bullied by Turkey. If Nato can't see that, he continued, then it is useless, and incapable of preserving world peace.

In his book, Rallis recounts his political experiences, and reflects on some key controversies in contemporary Greek history.

He says that quote "everyone" unquote was responsible for the military dictatorship that began in 1967.

The conservative Rallis also rejects claims that the 1961 elections were rigged. "There was pressure on military personnel NOT to vote for the left", he says, adding that the leaders of the Centre Union party knew about it.

TAXES

The government spokesman says there is no question of the government imposing any new capital gains tax, or any other new taxes for that matter.

Papandreou says she didn't mean to suggest that there should be a new tax to help pay to train the unemployed, and set up employment for them. She meant that any money to be spent in that direction should come out of EXISTING taxes.

BASKETBALL

And defence was the key.

Greece throws a tight net around Turkey, allowing its opponent just 23 points, and taking a 16 point lead into the intermission.

Guards Kostas Patavoukas and Frankisco Alvertis made two big steals mid-way through the first half, sparking an offensive run that put Greece up by 10 points.

Sloppy play by Greece allowed the Turks to close to within 7 at one point after the break, but Dimitris Papnikolaou scores all 13 of his points in the second half, helping Greece to a comfortable 74-52 victory.

Greece takes on Russia Thursday. The Russians won their opener against Bosnia, 65-55.

GAVDOS

Now, writer Iro Sgou-rAki has underscored that the island is Greek, with a book entitled "Gavdos, a journey in space and time".

At the launch, Sgou-rAki said it was her intention to make Gavdos, the southernmost part of Greece, better known, and to provide readers with information substantiating the island's historical unity with Greece.

The evidence proves Gavdos has always been Greek, she added.

Today there are only a few scores of people living on the island - all of them Greek.

Giorgos Sgou-rAkis, chairman of the Cretan Union, hopes that the book will help in the campaign to familiarize the world with the history, uniquness, and Greekness of Gavdos.

© ANT1 Radio 1997

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