Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
05ATHENS842
2005-03-24 16:39:00
UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY
Embassy Athens
Cable title:  

SCENESETTER FOR CODEL PRYCE'S MARCH 29-30 VISIT TO

Tags:  OREP PREL PGOV ASEC PHUM GR VISIT 
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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.

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