US embassy cable - 05ATHENS842

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ATHENS 000842 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
FOR H - PLEASE PASS CODEL PRYCE FROM AMBASSADOR CHARLES RIES 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: OREP, PREL, PGOV, ASEC, PHUM, GR, VISIT 
SUBJECT: SCENESETTER FOR CODEL PRYCE'S MARCH 29-30 VISIT TO 
ATHENS 
 
REF: A. STATE 51348 
 
     B. ATHENS 831 
 
 SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED -- PLEASE HANDLE ACCORDINGLY. 
 
1.  (U)  I want to warmly welcome you to Athens.  As you have 
requested, we have arranged a schedule focused on trafficking 
in persons.  This issue is a high priority for the Embassy. 
In the short time you have with us, I hope you get a good 
overview of Greece's efforts to fight this scourge.  I look 
forward to meeting with you, and the Embassy will do all it 
can to make your visit a productive and enjoyable one. 
 
TIP 
--- 
2. (SBU)  Sadly, Greece is a country of transit and 
destination for women, men, and children who are trafficked 
for sexual exploitation and forced labor.  Most women come 
from Eastern Europe and former Soviet states, and there have 
been some recent reports of African women victims.  Albanian 
children make up the majority of child victims who are 
trafficked for forced labor and petty crimes.  According to 
NGO and police officials, the child trafficking phenomenon in 
Greece continues to diminish as more Albanian parents are 
able to emigrate to Greece rather than "rent" their children 
to traffickers.  There are also reports of some male victims 
trafficked from South Asia, Afghanistan, and Pakistan for 
forced labor. 
 
3.  (SBU)  During your visit, you will have a meeting with 
representatives of a wide variety of anti-TIP 
non-governmental organizations (NGO).  Many of these NGOs are 
recipients of funding from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 
The GoG cooperates with NGOs and the new National Action Plan 
provides for formal meetings between the GoG and NGOs (the 
most recent occurred March 16).  NGOs will likely describe 
their desire for greater involvement in the critical 
victim-screening process and greater access to the women's 
immigrant detention facility near Athens.  You will also 
visit the trafficking shelter of the NGO "Doctors of the 
World" (MdM), where some potential victims are currently 
being hosted.  Additional information on the specific NGOs 
you will meet with will be provided in your briefing book. 
 
4.  (SBU)  You will also have the opportunity to meet with 
government officials during a lunch that the Ministry of 
Foreign Affairs (MFA) will host for you.  Ambassador Verros, 
the new national coordinator for anti-trafficking, will 
describe the efforts made by the government during the past 
year to fight trafficking.  An interministerial council of 
Secretaries General from relevant ministries has been 
 
SIPDIS 
established and in August, the government published the 
"National Action Plan to Combat Trafficking in Persons."  The 
Secretaries General of the Health, Justice, and Public Order 
 
SIPDIS 
Ministries, which have primary involvement in the trafficking 
issue, have been invited to attend the lunch, and will 
describe the efforts of their ministries in prosecution and 
prevention.  You will also hear "independent" views from the 
head of the International Office of Migration-Greece (IOM) 
which is involved in victim repatriation, and the Greek 
Ombudsman for Children, who provides recommendations to the 
government related to child trafficking. 
 
5.  (SBU)  During your visit, you will have a brief 
on-the-record press roundtable event.  The invited press will 
be familiar with the TIP issue.  They may express interest in 
the TIP report tier ranking process and why you chose to 
visit Greece.  We will have embassy experts on hand to 
address specific issues in Greece.  You might take the 
opportunity of the press briefing to discuss our interest in 
TIP as a global issue, and efforts in the U.S. to address the 
problem.  Additional Greece-specific talking points will be 
provided in your briefing book.  We see your visit as a good 
opportunity to underline for the media the USG's broad-based 
interest in this topic. 
 
Political and Economic Context 
------------------------------ 
6.  (SBU)  Your visit comes in the aftermath of a highly 
successful -- but expensive -- Olympic Games last year.  We 
were involved in nearly all aspects of Olympics security, and 
this close cooperation with the Greek government has paid 
dividends in other security-related fields.  Along with other 
allies and friends, we congratulated (and continue to praise) 
Greece for presiding over a safe and secure Games. 
 
7.  (SBU)  U.S.-educated PM Costas Karamanlis, in power since 
March 2004, has had little time to bask in the afterglow, 
however.  He now must make tough choices to bring his 
government's deficit under control, in line with EU policy. 
He must also confront the painful, but necessary task of 
making Greece's economy more competitive by privatizing 
inefficient state industries and attracting foreign 
investment.  Adding to the post-Olympics malaise are recent 
scandals involving corrupt judges and theft of antiquities, 
trial-fixing, and other illegal (and immoral) behavior by 
high-ranking clerics that has shaken the powerful Orthodox 
Church to its foundations. 
 
8.  (SBU)  The good news is that our relations with the Greek 
government are good and getting better, despite policy 
differences (Iraq, Kyoto, the ICC).  Our primary objective 
now is to find ways to encourage Greece to become a more 
active partner on our regional and global agendas.  This is 
particularly true given Greece's current two-year (2005-2007) 
seat on the UN Security Council and willingness to take an 
active part in resolving long-standing problems in the 
Balkans -- including the status of Kosovo, the Macedonia name 
issue, and bringing war criminals to justice. 
 
9.  (SBU)  One area of continuing concern for us is the issue 
of domestic terrorism.  Greece has made progress in past 
years convicting key members of the infamous November (N17) 
terrorist group, responsible for killing many Greeks and five 
USG employees over the course of its bloody, 30-year history. 
 We are concerned that the December 2004 brutal assassination 
of a Greek police officer guarding the residence of the 
British army attach may represent the emergence of a 
follow-on terrorist group.  The Greek justice system's 
lenient attitude toward N17 and other Greek terrorist 
convicts -- two were recently released on health grounds -- 
and continuing violent anarchist activity raise concern about 
a re-emergence of domestic terror. 
 
Greek Public Opinion 
-------------------- 
10.  (SBU)  A word on Greek public opinion and the media 
generally.  The Greek public's negative opinion toward U.S. 
policy reflects grievances over our perceived historical 
favoritism toward Turkey, American support for the former 
Greek military junta, our actions in Iraq, and, most 
recently, our policy to recognize Macedonia by its 
constitutional name ("Republic of Macedonia"), which many 
Greeks saw as a deliberate snub against their historic claims 
to this designation.  Polls bear this out:  some 93 percent 
of Greeks opposed the war in Iraq and a large majority (80 
percent) believe the U.S. plays a negative role in the 
worldwide fight against terrorism (incredibly enough).  Some 
media outlets hype this sort of feeling, broadcasting violent 
images from Iraq and playing up any perceived slight against 
Greek interests by the U.S.  This prevailing attitude is 
based on a sense of insecurity about Greece's place in the 
world and a traditional belief in the country's victimhood at 
the hands of great powers. 
 
11.  (SBU)  At the same time, we think this feeling is slowly 
starting to change.  Greeks make up the largest percentage of 
foreign students in the U.S., related to population, of any 
EU country.  Many Greek elites have a nuanced and balanced 
view gained from years in the U.S. or from working closely 
with Americans in business or multilateral institutions. 
Even the shrillest Greek critic grudgingly accepts the 
necessity of working closely with the U.S., although few will 
ever openly support us.  The current government has been 
reluctant to publicly criticize the U.S., which in turn has 
tempered the Greek media's editorial line toward our 
policies.  Your visit will be seen as part of the normal 
high-level exchange between our two countries. 
Ries