Prisoners are beasts not men

By THEO DOGANIS

ECENTLY a three-man dele-
gation of the Socialist In-
ternational had an_inter-

view with Brigadier S. Pattakos,
the so-called Minister of the In-
terior and the strong man of the
junta now ruling Greece.

The delegation consisted of
Mr. Bruno Pitterman, ex Vice-
Chancellor of Austria and chair-
man of the Socialist Interna-
tional, Signor Antonio Cariglia,
M.P., and chairman of the For-
eign Affairs Committee of the
Italian Parliament, and Mr. G.
Oleson, secretary of the Social
Democratic Party of Denmark.

QUESTIONS

They were received by Brig.
Pattakos a few weeks ago at his
Ministerial office in Athens, and
they put to him the following
questions:

“Does your government grant
us permission to visit the places
where political prisoners are de-
tained, to speak with them, and
put the appropriate means of
transport at our disposal?”

Pattakos: “This is not a ques-
tion within my competence ..
Besides, there are no political
prisoners. There are Commu-
nists who have committed of-
fences against the laws of the
State.”

Question: “Does your govern-
ment give us the possibility of
speaking to the chairman of the
€entre-Union Party. Mr. George
Panandreau, in his residence?”

Pattekos: “I do not see why
the delegation wants to visit
George Papandreou. He is a
peast uc

The Italian member of the de-
legation, Mr. Antonio Cariglia,
intervened at this point and ex-
plained that the delegation made
no distinction between men and
would like to visit them all.

Pattskos: “We, too, make no
distinction between men, only
men-and beasts .. .”

Antonio Cariglia asked what
distinction was to be made be-
tween political prisoners and
other men.

Pattakos’ reply was: “Political
prisoners were not men, only
beasts . . .”

DEMOCRATIC

The delegation then wanted to
know whether the new Consti-
tution which has been drafted
would be democratic and whe-
ther it would respect the provi-
sion on human rights contained
in the Charter of the Council of
Europe.

Pattakos replied that “the new
Constitution would respect hu-
man rights” and that “in any
case there was at present more
freedom in Greece than in any
of the countries of the members
of the delegation” (Italy, Aus-
tria, Denmark).

At this point it seems, that
the delegation lost its patience.

Its leader, Mr. Pitterman, said:
“It will be very difficult for all
our States and for the organiza-
tions of which our States are
members to collaborate with a
regime which thinks like that.”

Pattakos: ‘“. . . the government
is not interested to collaborate,
if the others are not willing...”

Pitterman: “. . . there is no
common ground and no bridges
between our views and yours on
individual liberty and demo-
cracy.”

Pattakos’ reply .was, that he

August 25, 1967—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 4

himself was a bridge . .

The interview came to an end.

From it, it becomes clear that
the military junta follows the
path of Hitler and Himmler. It
considers every opponent of the
regime to be a beast, and it
treats him accordingly. It calls
every opponent a “Communist.”
Since the coup, Greece is full of
“Communists.”

The irrepressible Brigadier
Pattakos dubs even well-known
extreme right-wingers as Com-
munists.

UNIONS

The other day he clashed
with the Athens Union of Jour-
nalists,, because he forbade the

Union from holding an annual.

lottery—a privilege which was
granted to the union over 33
years ago.

The profits from the lottery
are the union’s main source of
revenue and covers the costs of
its health service and superan-
nuation scheme.

When their lottery was for-
bidden, the executive of the
union resigned in protest. Pat-
takos immediately declared:
“Such actions can only be com-
mitted by Communists.”

I happen to know personally
most of the members of the ex-
ecutive committee of the Athens
Union of Journalists, and their
president Mr. Lakis Petroma-
niatis.

In fact, when I was allowed
to visit Athens last summer
after 21 years in exile, I met Mr.
Petromaniatis, and found him
politically a staunch supporter
of the extreme right-wing Na-
tional Radical Union Party
(E.R.E.).

Of the other members of the
executive committee none is a
Communist or even a Socialist.
Now, since they have protested
against an arbitrary act of the
regime, they are apparently
considered by Brigadier Pattakos

as “Communist beasts.”

Mr. Averoff, former Minister
of Foreign Affairs,’ in the E.R.E.
government of Mr. Karamanlis
also become a beast a few davs
ago, because he had invited to
his house.a few friends, and al-
together they were more than
five.

ARRESTED

He was duly arrested, because
according to the “freedom lov-
ing” Junta more than five per-
sons in a flat are considered as
constituting unlawful assembly,

Greece, 1967

Socrates: “Me too!”

Stuttgarter Zeitung (West Germany)

Storm clouds over Cyprus

By L. ZAMOISKY
TORM clouds have gathered
above’ “the Island of Aphro-
dite,” as Cyprus is some-
times called, and a thunderbolt
seems likely.

Cyprus has already been an
arena of bloodshed. The inter-
necine strife triggered off with
the help of the imperialists —
those of Britain who governed
the Island before and those of
the USA who seek to lash the
island to the NATO chariot —
was ended with difficulty. A
loose, often violated peace was
finally established between the
Greeks and Turks on the Island.

However, the reactionary coup
in Athens has put an added
temptation in the way of im-
perialist addicts of gambles, of
those who would like to plunge
Cyprus into chaos once again.
This is causing the international
public U.N. circles, legitimate

alarm. The special United Na-
tions envoy on Cyprus, Osorio
Tafall, has been compelled these
past few days to visit Ankara
and Athens to discuss the situ-

ation on the island with Turkish
and Greek leaders.

It is, though, more than a mat-
ter of preventing increased ten-
sions between the Greek and
Turkish communities. The _is-
land’s peaceful future is in still
greater jeopardy. “Lightning,”
or “Astrapi” in Greek, is the
code name of a plan for a coup
recently drafted in Athens with
the aid of the CIA. Its aim is to
do away with the independent
Republic of Cyprus, make the
island part of Greece, and re-
place the present’ leaders with
stooges. The military fascist re-
gime in Greece and its Washing-
ton patrons hope by means of a
lightning Enosis to kill two
birds with one stone. They seek
to boost the dwindling reputa-
tion of the Athens generals and
at the same time put NATO
shackles on this island, which
occupies, strategically, a key
place of importance in the Medi-
terranean. The masterminds of
the conspiracy make no bones
of their intentions to. suppress
the democratic mass organiza-

“Don't be scared, | only want to

leave my luggage.”

V. Andreyev in Rubotnichesko
Delo (Sofia)

tions existing on Cyprus and in-

stall a police regime similar to
that in Greece.

Night and day numerous ra-
dio-stations, which the USA has
built in Greece fill the air above
Cyprus, demanding that all who
question the expediency of an

immediate Enosis be squashed
and threatening island’s leaders,
M.P.s and progressive organiza-
tions. Such emissaries of the
Athens junta like the notorious
General Grivas, the ring leader
of the anti-Cyprus plot, and
American experts in dirty do-
ings are displaying frantic activ-
ity. According to the French la
Tribune des Nations Grivas
“continues to maintain constant
contact with his more active ad-
visers, U.S. Ambassador Belcher

and the CIA agent for Cyprus.

Schott, whose role apparently is
no longer secret to anyone.”

Meanwhile Athens, to judge
from what has leaked out into
the press, would like to reach
an understanding with Turkey.
In particular, it has been pro-
mised the British military base
on Cyprus. It looks like British
Minister of State for Foreign
Affairs Mulley, who visited An-
kara between the 10th and 20th
of July has backed the over-
tures made by the Greek gene-
rals. We are faced with some-
thing like an Anglo-American-
Greek alliance, whose objective,
according to the Swiss Tribune
de Geneve is to secure an “At-
lantic” solution for Cyprus. Of
late one more plan has emerged
within NATO; this is to divide
Cyprus into four — Greek, Am-
erican, British and Turkish —
parts.

Imperialist designs on Cyprus
clash with the vital interests of
its people and imperil their de-
mocratic gains.

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