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### Viewing cable 09ATHENS1725, University Asylum in Greece: When Democracy Goes Awry

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Reference ID | Created | Released | Classification | Origin
--- | --- | --- | --- | ---
09ATHENS1725 | 2009-12-23 08:54 | 2011-06-14 08:00 | CONFIDENTIAL | Embassy Athens
Appears in these articles: http://www.tanea.gr

`

    VZCZCXYZ0008
    OO RUEHWEB

    DE RUEHTH #1725/01 3570854
    ZNY CCCCC ZZH
    O R 230854Z DEC 09
    FM AMEMBASSY ATHENS
    TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 1256
    INFO RUEHTH/AMEMBASSY ATHENS

` `

    C O N F I D E N T I A L ATHENS 001725

    SIPDIS

    E.O. 12958: DECL: 2019/12/23
    TAGS: PGOV OEXC SOCI GR
    SUBJECT: University Asylum in Greece: When Democracy Goes Awry

    CLASSIFIED BY: Daniel V. Speckhard, Ambassador, State, EXEC; REASON:
    1.4(B), (D)

    ¶1. (C)  Summary:  A series of violent attacks against Greek
    academics in both Athens and Thessaloniki during the past month has
    fueled public debate over whether the university asylum law should
    be repealed to allow police officers to enter university grounds
    absent a formal request from university authorities.  Both sides of
    the debate are vocal:  leftist-leaning politicians and students
    oppose any change to the present law, which they claim is a beacon
    of free speech.  Proponents of abolishing the law argue it is an
    outdated holdover from the early post-dictatorship years,
    irrelevant to today's Greek reality and nothing more than a legal
    cover for hoodlums to wreak destruction with impunity.  The
    government appears unwilling to touch this political hot potato,
    tossing it instead to university rectors who are forced to choose
    between their own safety (when calling in authorities to intervene)
    and that of their students, faculty and premises (when they refrain
    from doing so).  As debate continues over what to do with asylum,
    the broader cost of maintaining this policy (the only one of its
    kind in Europe) in terms of disrupted classes, missed semesters,
    delayed graduations, damage to university property, and
    psychological impact on administrators, faculty and the
    well-meaning student majority, is inestimable.  End summary.

    An Education in Violence

    ¶2. (C)  In the year following the death of Alexis Grigoropoulos,
    the teen who was accidentally shot by a police officer, leading to
    some of the worst rioting that Greece has ever seen, violence on
    Greek campuses continues.  The respected and influential long-time
    rector of the University of Athens and Embassy contact, Christos
    Kittas, was recently severely beaten by assailants on university
    grounds.  He resigned his post after suffering a heart attack
    following the assault.  In his widely-publicized resignation
    letter, Kittas admonished Greece's youth that it is high time for
    them to find non-violent means to express themselves.  Kittas is
    not the only victim of violence on university grounds.  Also
    recently, a professor at the Athens University of Economics and
    Business, Gerasimos Sapountzoglou, was targeted by hoodlums who
    beat and choked him when he refused to stop a lecture.  Anastassios
    Manthos, rector of Thessaloniki's Aristotle University, was knocked
    unconscious by students last year.  Several other academics have
    suffered similar attacks in Athens and Thessaloniki over the past
    year, yet most avoided publicly condemning the assaults, fearing
    reprisals.

    The Asylum Law:  How Did We Get Here?

    ¶3. (C)  The university asylum law was introduced in 1982 to protect
    freedom of thought and expression on university campuses, in the
    aftermath of the military dictatorship.  The law stipulates that
    only university rectors and/or leadership have the right to invite
    police onto a campus.  In reality, university administrators are
    extremely reluctant to do so, first and foremost because they fear
    for their own safety and second because doing so could instigate
    further violence on campus.  To our knowledge, there have only been
    three instances when permission for the police to enter university
    grounds was requested:  a) in 1985 at the sit-in at the Chemical
    Laboratory in Athens; b) in 1995 during a destructive sit-in at the
    Athens Polytechnic School; and c) in 2002 during the informal EU
    Defense Ministerial in Crete, when a police helicopter spotted
    marijuana plants in a field owned by the University of Crete and
    police officers were given permission to uproot 620 six-foot high
    marijuana plants.

    Sacred Cow or Red Herring?

    ¶4. (C)   In contrast, during the violent protests of December 2008
    in which university grounds were targeted by hoodlums, university
    officials did not call in the police for fear that violence would
    escalate.  Police remained well outside university walls as they
    were taunted by Molotov cocktail-throwing vandals from within.
    Since then, the topic of university asylum has been the subject of
    heated public and political debate.  Leftist political parties and
    student groups in Greece support the current law, to protect free
    speech.  Those in favor of repealing the law argue that it was
    enacted during a time when universities were the sole venues of
    tolerance and freedom.  However, in today's stable Greek democracy,
    freedom of speech and thought are well protected already.  As
    practiced today, they say, the law is supporting a system that
    encourages violent action without repercussions, allows lawlessness
    on campuses, provides a sanctuary for criminals, and threatens the
    academic and student communities.

    Rectors Unite, Government Punts

    ¶5. (C)  During an annual Rectors' Assembly in mid-December, the law
    was at the top of the agenda.  Rectors agreed that the law should
    be seen as protecting freedom of speech in the classroom and
    research.  The rectors stressed that the law has been
    misinterpreted to such an extent that it no longer protects these
    rights, but has become a faC'ade for committing crimes and a tool
    for the violent imposition of opinions by the few.  In the days
    following the assembly, there was significant public debate on how
    universities can protect themselves from acts of violence on
    campus.  The Athens Law School took a bold step toward restricting
    access to its campus, proposing introducing a student ID system
    similar to that used by the Sorbonne and posting guards at its
    gates - an idea supported in principle by the opposition.  Minister
    of Education Anna Diamantopoulou responded on behalf of the
    government, condemning the attack on Rector Kittas but stating that
    the current legislation regarding university asylum is sufficient
    as written, since it provides for universities to choose how best
    to protect their premises and allows for police involvement on
    campus at the invitation of rectors.  Diamantopoulou also
    recommended the establishment of a duty rector on a daily basis in
    order to coordinate better with authorities in case of a sit-in or
    violence on campus.

    ¶6. (C)  Diamantopoulou's claims may be aimed at appeasing leftist
    elements within the PASOK party and outside, but are opposed by
    others.  University of Piraeus professor XXXXXXXXXXXX, educated
    in both the U.S. and the Greek systems, told us that university
    rectors and professors are cowed by the demonstrators and fear for
    their lives when they stand up to them, adding "they (hoodlums)
    know where they (administrators) live, and are not afraid to use
    this threat ."  Panteion University professor XXXXXXXXXXXX agreed that the troublemakers are adept at using
    intimidation tactics, including posting the names of targeted
    professors on a Greek anarchist website (hosted, incredibly, on the
    official Panteion University server) and disrupting classes.
    XXXXXXXXXXXX has resorted to hosting visiting lecturers off campus to
    avoid yogurt-throwing attacks, or worse, by hooligans and in a
    recent international conference he paid 6,000 Euros for an off
    campus site rather than risk the disruption or even forced
    cancellation of the event if held on campus.

    What About the Students?

    ¶7. (C)  Although Greece's overwhelming majority of law-abiding,
    well-meaning students are those most directly affected by the
    violence on campus, for the most part they remain quietly resigned.
    XXXXXXXXXXXX estimates that the problems are created by approximately
    2,000 hooligans - not all of them students - who are known to
    police but are never arrested or detained.  In Greece, students
    elect student union representatives, who are affiliated with
    political parties.  Because the vast majority of students abstain
    from the elections, in many cases leftist groups prevail in some
    departments - these are the most vocally supportive of university
    asylum as it is currently practiced.  Student union representatives
    also hold the keys to the appointments of rectors and other
    administrative officials, representing 30 percent of the vote.  As
    a result, according to both XXXXXXXXXXXX and XXXXXXXXXXXX, a client
    relationship between university administration and student groups
    has been established that makes it difficult for administrators to
    take a hard line on asylum.  XXXXXXXXXXXX added that even political
    parties sometimes cannot control their own student unions, as when
    the New Democracy-affiliated student union at the Athens Law School
    was reprimanded by newly-elected ND party leader Antonis Samaras
    for opposing a proposal put forward by the university
    administration for the creation of student IDs.  Even parents of
    students appear resigned to the phenomena of missed semesters and
    delayed graduations.

    The Social and Financial Costs are Staggering

    ¶8. (C)  The extent to which a small number of troublemakers has
    succeeded in confusing the concepts of freedom of speech and
    freedom of movement is troubling, as are the social and financial
    costs involved.  Campuses have become havens for criminals, most of
    which are involved in crimes such as drug trafficking, assault,
    theft, counterfeiting of DVDs and CDs, looting and vandalism.
    Greece's universities, instead of providing a stable learning
    environment for Greece's future professionals and leaders, have
    become a war zone where police are afraid to show up,
    administrators are afraid to stand up and students are afraid to
    speak up.  Due in large part to constant disruptions to classes,
    the average Greek student takes six years to complete a four-year
    degree.  Greek universities spend a whopping 12 percent of their
    budgets each year to repair damage to university premises and
    equipment caused by violence on campuses.

    What Next?

    ¶9. (C)  The fact that changes to the university asylum law are even
    being discussed is a big step forward for Greek society, an
    indication that, for many, this formerly sacred legislation may be
    past its prime and no longer applicable to today's reality.  The
    Polytechnic revolution generation has become parents now, and their
    children are reaping the not-so-generous benefits of a concept for
    which they fought, which has now been distorted by common
    criminals.  Public debate notwithstanding, however, at this time
    there does not appear to be the political will by the current
    government to repeal the law.  Traditionally, PASOK has been viewed
    as a champion of all that the asylum law - in its intended form -
    has represented.  Insiders fear that repealing the asylum law would
    cause a serious rift within the party, particularly within its
    student and youth ranks.  Tossing the ball back to university
    rectors rather than initiating a more forceful approach to violence
    on university campuses appears to be the preferred path of least
    resistance , for now, for this government.  In discussions with
    Embassy officers, faculty and university administrators describe a
    prevailing sense of fear and intimidation on many campuses. The
    irony is that, due to the asylum law and the inability to protect
    students and professors who dissent from hard line views, the only
    place in Greece where freedom of thought is severely restricted is
    on university campuses themselves.
    Speckhard

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