• [Ze Glaz and Prez Show] #135
    https://www.radiopanik.org/emissions/ze-glaz-and-prez-show/135-1

    Lamin Fofana And The Doudou Ndiaye Rose Family – Toco sos Beatriz Ferreyra – Vuelo de signos y remolinos Khyam Allami, Antonina Nowacka – Pt.10 Batsükh Dorj – Bainak Jacken Elswyth – A Fisherman’s Song for Attracting Seals Astrid Sonne – Almost Alex Deforce & Charlotte Jacobs – Kwart Voor Straks (Deel 23) Fritz Hauser & Pedro Carneiro – Premier pas Marina Rosenfeld, Greg Fox & Eli Keszler – Solace Cabane – Italian Mysteries High Llamas – Hey Panda Siamese Godfish – The Color of the Room Mary Halvorson – Desiderata Kreidler – Hands Vanishing Twin – Non Guardare

    https://www.radiopanik.org/media/sounds/ze-glaz-and-prez-show/135-1_17427__1.mp3

  • CARNETS DE GUERRE #13- Autre futur
    http://www.autrefutur.net/CARNETS-DE-GUERRE-13

    Comment l’Ukraine et l’Europe ont échappé à un désastre nucléaire : « Un accident majeur, en comparaison duquel Tchernobyl et Fukushima pouvaient n’être que des jeux d’enfants, tant en termes d’ampleur que de conséquences ». En tant qu’ingénieur en chef de la centrale de Zaporijia, Oleg Dudar y a (...) @Mediarezo Actualité / #Mediarezo

  • [Ze Glaz and Prez Show] #135
    https://www.radiopanik.org/emissions/ze-glaz-and-prez-show/135

    Sean O’Hagan – Yellow The King Of Luxembourg - Poptones Stian Westerhus – Fire Elvin Brandhi & Lord Spikeheart - do you like feeling awakeee33 cult 8 again Samizdat - Same Song Robert Wyatt – John Cage’s Experiences No. 2 Memotone - Laughing Grass Lucy Railton - Corner Dancer Raphael Rogiński - Flickering Glance Reverend Kristin Michael Hayter - I Will Be With You Always Andrew Weathers - A Haunted Structure Dorothy Moskowitz - The Creation Scotch Rolex, Shackleton & Omutaba - Ring Dirt Akira Umeda - B

    https://www.radiopanik.org/media/sounds/ze-glaz-and-prez-show/135_17280__1.mp3

  • [Ze Glaz and Prez Show] #134
    https://www.radiopanik.org/emissions/ze-glaz-and-prez-show/134

    Laurel Halo - Belleville Joana Queiroz - Dois Litorais Mayssa Jallad - Holiday Inn (January to March) Ben Vida w- Yarn-Wire and Nina Dante - Who’s Haunting Who Here Shovel Dance Collective - In Charlestown there Dwelled a Lass Raz O’Hara - Bardot Svitlana Nianio - Episode III Thomas Stone - An Act Of Surrender Part 4 Radian - Skyskryp12 Céline Gillain - The Authoritarian Lilly Joel Plays The Organ - Aguas de Março Andre 3000 - That Night in Hawaii … Eli Keszler - Manhattan Part I Upsammy - Constructing Modern Nature - Murmuration The National Jazz Trio Of Scotland - To Love Somebody Letieres Leite e Orkestra Rumpilezz - Coisa nº 1 Domenico Lancelloti - Diga Armand Hammer - Empire Blvd Fire! Orchestra - ECHOES; I see your eye, part 2 Irreversible Entanglements - root (...)

    https://www.radiopanik.org/media/sounds/ze-glaz-and-prez-show/134_17042__1.mp3

  • [Djiboutik] Calypso #13
    https://www.radiopanik.org/emissions/djiboutik/calypso-13-2

    Comme pour pas mal d’autres styles (reggae, afrobeat, hip hop, rockabilly, etc.), le Calypso a eu une popularité telle qu’il y a sans doute un groupe de ce style dans chaque grande ville du monde encore aujourd’hui. Certains le rejouent à l’ancienne, d’autres l’amènent vers de nouvelles pistes de renouvellement de la tradition. Il existe aussi des fondus de calypso tout autour du globe, des fois encore plus spécialisés que les trinidadais eux-mêmes. Les deux nôtres nous expliquent d’où leur vient cette lubie et comment ils ont préparé les émissions de cette série.

    Donc, un treizième épisode non pas proposé par le duo Cyprien Lepoivre Alexis De Seume, mais bien par l’équipe de base de l’émission. On y entend du calypso européen d’aujourd’hui et d’autres régions du monde.

    Bonne écoute (...)

    https://www.radiopanik.org/media/sounds/djiboutik/calypso-13-2_17036__1.mp3

  • [Djiboutik] Calypso #13
    https://www.radiopanik.org/emissions/djiboutik/calypso-13-1

    Comme pour pas mal d’autres styles (reggae, afrobeat, hip hop, rockabilly, etc.), le Calypso a eu une popularité telle qu’il y a sans doute un groupe de ce style dans chaque grande ville du monde encore aujourd’hui. Certains le rejouent à l’ancienne, d’autres l’amènent vers de nouvelles pistes de renouvellement de la tradition. Il existe aussi des fondus de calypso tout autour du globe, des fois encore plus spécialisés que les trinidadais eux-mêmes. Les deux nôtres nous expliquent d’où leur vient cette lubie et comment ils ont préparé les émissions de cette série.

    Donc, un treizième épisode non pas proposé par le duo Cyprien Lepoivre Alexis De Seume, mais bien par l’équipe de base de l’émission. On y entend du calypso européen d’aujourd’hui et d’autres régions du monde.

    Bonne écoute (...)

    https://www.radiopanik.org/media/sounds/djiboutik/calypso-13-1_17033__1.mp3

  • [Ze Glaz and Prez Show] #133
    https://www.radiopanik.org/emissions/ze-glaz-and-prez-show/133

    Patrick Shiroishi - tule lake blues Daniel Villareal With Jeff Parker & Anne Butteress - Bring It Niecy Blues – U Care Jobs - Soft Sounds Dawuna - Naya Modern Nature - Tapestry Titanic - Hotel Elizabeth Flora Yin-Wong - Konna Shabazz Palaces - Binoculars feat Royce The Choice DJ Znobia - Cuba em Angola King Mzaiza Music - Umlholo Lento Ssabæ - Le premier soir du monde James Ilgenfritz - #saladdays Asha Sheshadri - Looting Index Amor Muere - Love Dies Maths Balance Volumes - Yellow for Doddie Call Super - Coppertone Elegy Shackleton - Es fiel ein Reif

    https://www.radiopanik.org/media/sounds/ze-glaz-and-prez-show/133_17011__1.mp3

  • [Ze Glaz and Prez Show] #132
    https://www.radiopanik.org/emissions/ze-glaz-and-prez-show/132

    Youmna Saba - Akaleel أكاليل Shackleton, Wacław Zimpel - Your Love Pours like Water Fiesta En El Vacio - Le Pont Basile Brémaud - Carbonier mon amic Umeko Ando - Iuta Upopo Jac Berrocal, David Fenech & Vincent Epplay - IZevil Brutter - Dance un-dance Okapi - The Ferryman Voice Actor – Daydream Armand Hammer - The Flexible Unreliability Of Time & Memory Hyperdawn – Basic Aunty Razor - Bounce Loraine James -While They Were Singing Rat Heart & The Peanuts - It Was A Joint Effort So I Had To Do It All SG - Half-Steps To Love Vumbi Dekula – Maamajacy Idris Ackamoor & The Pyramids - Nice It Up Razen - (...)

    https://www.radiopanik.org/media/sounds/ze-glaz-and-prez-show/132_16649__1.mp3

  • [Ze Glaz and Prez Show] #131
    https://www.radiopanik.org/emissions/ze-glaz-and-prez-show/131

    Bendik Giske – Start Eivind Lønning, Espen Reinertsen, Romke Kleefstra & Jan Kleefstra - Fersliten Dûns Annea Lockwood - Water Gong Jlin – Duality Piotr Kurek - Wid Spirit Fest - In Our House Maryana Klochko - Song For Maddy Laura Agnusdei – Sasha Actress - Game Over ( e 1 ) Azu Tiwaline - Night in Palmtree Burial - Unknown Summer Saint Abdullah, Eomac - A Vow Not To Read Laurel_Halo - Atlas Kofi Flexxx - By Now (Accused of Magic) Maxine Funke – Oblivion Delphine Dora & Mocke - Le destin de toute parole solitaire Svitlana Nianio - Episode III Ihor Tsymbrovsky - Come, Angel Pmxper - Irrigation Tirzah - No Limit Hackedepicciotto - Schwarze Milch Abstract Concrete - This (...)

    https://www.radiopanik.org/media/sounds/ze-glaz-and-prez-show/131_16560__1.mp3

  • [Ze Glaz and Prez Show] #130
    https://www.radiopanik.org/emissions/ze-glaz-and-prez-show/130

    Pan African People Arkestra - Nation Rising Paavoharju - Haihtuu Baldruin - In heimlichen Winkeln Balint Brösel & Brannten Schnüre - Disco 7777 の天使 - Marble Wings Zaumne - Prairie (feat. Patrick Shiroishi) Sexmob – Tapestral Irreversible Entanglements - rootbranch Jaimie Branch - Burning Grey Amy Cutler - lost field, empty reins Anne Bakker - Go to sleep P.G. Six - I Don’t Want To Be Free 75 Dollar Bill - 15 (YASI) Matana Roberts - a(way) is not an option Fay Victor - Governorship;Senate (For Stacey Abrams) Praed - The Spell

    https://www.radiopanik.org/media/sounds/ze-glaz-and-prez-show/130_16496__1.mp3

  • ★ Un voile sur la cause des femmes - @PartageNoir

    La question du #voile revient de façon récurrente sur le devant de la scène #politique et #médiatique. C’est la première mesure que prennent les #religieux pour asseoir leur #autorité, leur présence, leur influence. Les #femmes en sont toujours les premières #victimes - même si certaines veulent défendre les marques de leur oppression - et les luttes féministes des années 1970 ont du mal à entrer en résonance avec les préoccupations des jeunes filles des années 2000. Il s’agit donc de déconstruire le modèle idéologique religieux sur lequel se fonde l’#oppression des femmes. La question de l’#islamisme et du #féminisme est ici posée...

    ▶️ https://www.partage-noir.fr/+un-voile-sur-la-cause-des-femmes+

    • @rastapopoulos

      Merci pour le lien... perso, nous n’avons aucune envie de nous « écharper » sur ces sempiternels sujets... c’est usant et sans fin.

      A nos yeux, il n’y a pas de "religion des opprimés", seulement des religions qui oppriment.

      Pour résumer, notre point de vue :
      L’anarchisme est anticlérical, rationaliste et athée.
      L’anarchisme est contre toutes les religions, pas contre les croyants dans leur liberté individuelle.

      > C’est aussi "simple" que cela et, pour notre part, nous ne changerons pas d’opinion... même pour une "place au paradis" ! :-))

      ////////////

    • Hello, quelques précisions :

      A nos yeux, il n’y a pas de « religion des opprimés », seulement des religions qui oppriment.

      Personne n’a parlé de ça (ici). :)

      L’anarchisme est anticlérical, rationaliste et athée.

      Ça tout le monde est plutôt d’accord (même si ya des exceptions discutables, Ellul, etc), mais donc ce n’est pas le sujet pour moi.

      En revanche

      L’anarchisme est contre toutes les religions, pas contre les croyants dans leur liberté individuelle.

      C’est ce point là précis, et uniquement ce point là, qui fait débat dans cette affaire récente.

      C’est à dire la (grosse) différence entre des positions abstraites de principes affirmés (le mantra « contre les religions mais pas contre les croyants »), et la réalité concrète du terrain où dans de très nombreux cas il y a une focalisation fortement exacerbée sur les croyants et leurs pratiques individuelles, bien au-delà de l’aspect clergé/systémique (qui est aussi critiqué bien sûr).

      Ce n’est pas une nouveauté, la manière de faire est débattue depuis le 19ème déjà, d’où mon lien initial sur l’autre discussion, qui comportait justement un rappel explicite du sieur Bakounine (vers la fin).

      nous ne devons pas provoquer nous-mêmes de tels entretiens. Nous ne devons pas mettre la question religieuse au premier plan de notre propagande dans le peuple. Le faire équivaut, nous en avons la conviction, à trahir sa cause.

      Le peuple n’est ni doctrinaire ni philosophe. Il n’a ni le temps ni l’habitude de s’intéresser à plusieurs questions à la fois. En se passionnant pour une, il oublie les autres. D’où l’obligation pour nous de poser devant lui la question essentielle dont, plus que de toute autre, dépend son affranchissement. Or, cette question est indiquée par sa propre situation et par toute son existence, c’est la question économico-politique : économique dans le sens de la révolution sociale ; politique dans le sens de l’abolition de l’État. Amuser le peuple avec la question religieuse, c’est le détourner du problème essentiel, c’est trahir sa cause. Cette cause consiste uniquement à réaliser l’idéal du peuple en le corrigeant éventuellement selon les aspirations de celui-ci et en suivant, parce qu’elle sera la meilleure, la direction plus directe et plus courte que le peuple lui-même dictera.

      C’est un débat qui n’est absolument pas que venant de critiques externes (religieuses ou autre) du mouvement anarchiste (et qui aurait pour conséquence une ouinouinterie « tout est bon pour taper sur nos idées » et basta on n’en parle plus :p), mais bien un débat interne au mouvement, et qui existe depuis le début. Non pas le débat sur Dieu, sur la religion, mais bien le débat sur la hiérarchie des sujets et la manière de dialoguer avec les personnes extérieures au mouvement et les autres composantes du mouvement social.

      (Obligé d’insister mais c’est dit dans l’autre fil : cela vaut tout autant pour d’autres de ces composantes, comme le mouvement queer, chez qui beaucoup n’ont aussi aucune appétence pour le dialogue réel et le débat argumenté avec les gens extérieur.)

    • Hello @rastapopoulos

      En préambule, on dira que ce n’est pas sur un réseau social, dans le virtuel où les quiproquos et humeurs pullulent, que l’on peu approfondir véritablement tel ou tel sujet. ;-)
      Nos réactions sont aussi le fruit de notre (modeste) expérience sur ces réseaux depuis des années, on connaît souvent par avance les réactions sur certains sujets "sensibles".

      Ce que l’on a écrit est, bien évidemment, un tout petit résumé de ce que l’on pense. C’est bien pour cela que l’on a créé notre Blog qui est la "base" de notre travail pédagogique. Et nous invitons nos visiteurs-euses a le parcourir pour approfondir beaucoup de sujets loin des rumeurs, on-dit sur nos idées.

      "A nos yeux, il n’y a pas de « religion des opprimés », seulement des religions qui oppriment." : c’est nous qui le disons... on dira pourquoi un peu plus loin.

      Nombre de positions et d’invariants anarchistes font polémiques depuis toujours... normal dans un environnement sociétal toujours très conformiste.
      Perso, j’ai moi-même mis des années avant de comprendre et assimiler beaucoup de ces positions.

      Dans nos sociétés formatées (mais c’était également vrai dans les siècles précédent mais autrement), il y a des tabous ancestraux.

      Les religions font partie intégrantes de ces tabous avec lesquels il faut "prendre des pincettes", sinon c’est à coup sûr un déferlement de réactions outrées.
      "Malheureusement", toute notre histoire libertaire est justement un cheminement pour bousculer et dénoncer tous les conformismes et tabous.

      Des gens ou mouvements peuvent se dirent contre les religions, cela n’a souvent peu de rapports avec nos positions. Notre anticléricalisme, notre rationalisme, notre combat contre les religions, etc. sont anarchistes.
      Tout comme notre communisme est anarchiste...
      Et cela change "tout".

      Il y a certainement des priorités de choses à dénoncer mais pas, à nos yeux, de "hiérarchie".
      Nous sommes anticapitalistes, antiétatistes principalement mais aussi antimilitaristes et antireligions, par exemple.
      C’est un tout, sinon pas d’anarchisme.
      Un certain nombre d’anarchistes ont oublié les luttes contre les religions ou l’antimilitarisme, car ce n’est soi-disant "plus important" ou "plus dans l’air du temps" : c’est une grossière erreur.

      Depuis pas mal d’années maintenant, dénoncer les religions chrétiennes ne pose pas de problème (sauf auprès des culs-bénits bien évidemment) c’est même presque "tendance", cela fait sourire... d’où notre phrase il n’y a pas de « religion des opprimés », seulement des religions qui oppriment... mais le hic arrive avec l’islam !
      Là, pas touche... le tabou est là.
      Les accusations tombent : "islamophobie", "intolérance" et même des détours vers un "racisme" caché, sous-jacent... fantasmagorique... cette dernière accusation ou insinuation, nous ne l’accepterons jamais car c’est insultant et nous répondrons en conséquence (> on vire sans préavis !)

      Ceci dit, on a quand même eu droit sur un autre réseau à l’accusation de "cathophobie" !
      On critique le judaïsme, on est "antisémite", etc.
      Critiquer l’islam, (d’un point de vue anarchiste, on le répète) devient du "racisme" avec un savant confusionnisme entre origine et religion.
      OUI nous critiquons l’islam, comme toutes les religions, et nous sommes antiracistes... nous dénonçons aussi les persécutions contre les croyants.

      Et là il faut sans cesse se justifier comme dans un tribunal de l’Inquisition... MAIS en quel honneur ?

      > Nous exposons nos idées : elles plaisent ou ne plaisent pas. Nous n’allons pas sur les nombreuses pages ou sites de croyants pour leur demander des comptes sur leurs promesses d’enfer à notre encontre et ils ne s’en privent pas !
      Mais toujours ces tabous qu’il ne faut surtout pas toucher au "sacré", cela peut heurter les croyants et tutti quanti.
      Les premiers anarchistes étaient autrement plus critiques envers les religions que l’on ne peut le faire... des critiques acerbes qui feraient bondir plus d’un croyant de nos jours.

      Nous dialoguons avec des croyants, il n’y a aucun souci.
      Nous respectons leur liberté tant qu’elle devient pas une inquisition.
      Perso, dans ma vie j’ai rencontré et échangé avec beaucoup de pasteurs (’ethnologiquement’ je suis protestant... une marque indélébile), de prêtres, des moines/moniales, des rabbins, etc. j’ai lu la Bible et nombre de livres religieux.

      Mais nous ne mettrons jamais en sourdine nos convictions... pour que les choses soient claires.

       ;-) On pourrait noircir des centaines de pages, mais on n’a pas le temps... ni l’envie...

      " [...] La religion est une folie collective, d’autant plus puissante qu’elle est une folie traditionnelle et que son origine se perd dans l’antiquité la plus reculée. "

      Dieu et l’État - Mikhaïl Bakounine - 1882

    • 🔴 Juste pour info et avant que des cris d’effroi jaillissent... ou pas

      > Nous sommes depuis assez peu de temps sur SeenThis et pour la deuxième fois depuis cette arrivée, nous avons supprimé des commentaires insultants et/ou outrageants.

      > Comme sur tous les autres réseaux « sociaux » où nous sommes présent, ce genre de comportements de personnes sont inadmissibles à nos yeux et ils seront systématiquement bloqués, nous n’avons pas de temps à perdre... et il est parfaitement inutile de se ridiculiser, de geindre en criant à la "censure" 😂 et au "fascisme" 🤣... inutile d’invoquer la « liberté d’expression », vous n’êtes pas des « vrais libertaires » et bla-bla-bla et bla-bla-bla, cela ne changera rien... A bon entendeur...

      ▶ Les échanges doivent être corrects, cordiaux, ouverts, respectueux, sans calomnies, sans anathèmes, ni procès d’intention ! Merci ! !

    • Salut @socialisme_libertaire je m’apprêtais à migrer sur ce troisième thread (traitant à peu près du même sujet) pour compléter la remarque de @rastapopoulos et vous répondre ainsi qu’à @colporteur

      Et je découvre que vous avez fait le ménage du seen de @touti sous prétexte qu’elle considère que l’anarchisme est une religion.

      Ce n’est pas mon point de vue mais je trouve que la remarque est très intéressante.

      Il m’arrive souvent de dire que le marxisme-léninisme, tel qu’il s’exprimait chez certains militants des années 60 et 70, s’apparentait, pour moi, à une pratique religieuse. Je ne rentrerai pas ici dans les détails pour lesquels je pense toujours cela, mais je ne vois pas au nom de quoi la même observation ne pourrait pas s’appliquer aussi à l’anarchisme.

      Où est le problème ? Pourquoi ne pas avoir demandé à @touti d’expliciter sa remarque ? Est-ce que cela justifie-t-il la censure ?

      Vous ne vous attendiez pas quand même à ce que votre message sur ce livre Un voile sur la cause des femmes passe sur cet espace de partage et de dialogue comme une lettre à la poste, sans aucun commentaire, sans aucune contradiction.

      D’ailleurs, si tel était le cas, quel en serait l’intérêt ?

      Votre but ne consiste qu’à placarder des annonces ? Vous supportez mal les graffitis ?

      Ce message n’est pas un cri d’effroi mais une protestation fraternelle mais néanmoins ferme pour exprimer la protestation d’un militant s’estimant libertaire et qui vous fait remarquer que, depuis deux semaines, je défends le principe que la FA, puisse afficher sa propagande, quel que soit le contexte, quel que soit le contenu sans avoir à subir la censure :

      https://seenthis.net/messages/1014311

      et, là, l’air de rien...ben vous me faites couillon.

       :-((

    • Salut @cabou

      Tu ne fais que retranscrire ce que cette personne affirme partialement et que "tout le monde suit" aveuglément... et que tu as aussi gentiment partagé... l’équité aurait voulu que les 2 points de vue soient diffusé par ces "bonnes consciences" : sans surprise, ce n’est pas le cas ! Mais bon, on s’en fout des "flics de Seenthis".

      Cette personne nous traite insidieusement de "racistes" (!), nous amalgame à "riposte laïque" (!) etc. avec des commentaires calomnieux que nous virons ici ou ailleurs : la gerbe ! Faudrait surement en plus lui dire "merci" ! ? ! C’est quoi cette mentalité pourrie ?

      Des insultes, des calomnies ? => c’est simple on vire, sans état d’âme... basta. C’est clair pour les mous du bulbe locaux ??

      > JAMAIS on se permettrait d’avoir une attitude aussi minable sur les autres pages.

      Rien à voir avec cette stupidité d’assimilation "religieuse".
      On a fait des réponses, mais la calomnie et le lynchage virtuel a été crescendo.
      On fait des réponses aux personnes qui ne nous invectivent pas et ne salissent pas nos idées, c’est pourtant simple. On se l’applique nous-mêmes, on attend la même chose des autres.
      Quelle ambiance détestable...

      > On constate que cela amuse la galerie, avec le crétin de service :

      " Olaf il y a 40 minutes

      @cabou a frappé - on verra combien de temps sa réponse va tenir :-) "

      >> Super drôle... super pathétique. Ce petit clan se croit tout permis. On a autre chose à foutre que de répondre à toutes ces inepties, aux inquisiteurs. On constate qu’il y a autant de connards (shocking pour les BCBG locaux) ici que sur les autres réseaux tant décriés MDR ! Bref !

      >> Nous sommes passé à autre chose de + intéressant que ces péripéties de caniveaux, genre procès de Moscou...

      Notre "version" est là, même si l’on sait que cela n’intéresse pas grand monde du sérail :

      🔴 Juste pour info et avant que des cris d’effroi jaillissent... ou pas

      > Nous sommes depuis assez peu de temps sur #SeenThis et pour la deuxième fois depuis cette arrivée, nous avons supprimé des commentaires insultants et/ou outrageants.
      Si nos publications ne plaisent pas, c’est très simple : passez votre chemin, les inquisiteurs et autres anti-anarchistes primaires... idem.
      Certain-e-s vont même jusqu’à plaindre et soutenir en s’autocongratulant ceux qui viennent nous insulter... un comble. Cela dénote une mentalité nauséabonde 💩 🤮 pathétique. Qu’ils se délectent de leurs immondices, restent entre eux dans leur petit club nombriliste et nous laissent tranquille.

      > Comme sur tous les autres réseaux « sociaux » où nous sommes présent, ce genre de comportements de personnes sont inadmissibles à nos yeux et ils seront systématiquement bloqués, nous n’avons pas de temps à perdre... et il est parfaitement inutile de se ridiculiser, de geindre en criant à la "censure" 😂 et au "fascisme" 🤣... qui adorent se faire plaindre sur leur page... inutile d’invoquer la « liberté d’expression », vous n’êtes pas des « vrais libertaires » et bla-bla-bla et bla-bla-bla, cela ne changera rien...
      A bon entendeur...

      ▶ Les échanges doivent être corrects, cordiaux, ouverts, respectueux, sans calomnies, sans anathèmes, ni procès d’intention ! Merci ! !

    • @cabou

      > On te cite (citation venue d’ailleurs...) :

      « Concernant l’attitude inacceptable de socialisme_libertaire hier ici-même, (en dépit de leur non-réponse) je n’ai rien de plus à dire que ce que je leur ai laissé et qui a été noyé, depuis ce matin, par un flot discontinu de placards publicitaires. » (sic)

      1) Notre « attitude inacceptable » :

      Donc pour toi, supprimer des commentaires diffamatoires par une personne arrogante et agressive que l’on avait jamais vu auparavant, c’est « inacceptable »... il y a vraiment une ambiance délétère dans ce petit coin du réseau.
      Donc, n’importe qui peut débarquer sur ta page, te traiter de tous les noms et tu vas dire « amen »... c’est du masochisme ? Tu trouves ça normal ? Dans le virtuel c’est autorisé ? Tu as le droit, tu fais ce que tu veux sur ta Page... mais ici c’est Niet !
      Si l’on supprime un commentaire, c’est l’exception et sans gaité de cœur, c’est qu’un cap intolérable a été franchi.

      On le redit, pour la centième fois, on ne refuse pas les débats (il y en a eu pas mal sur notre Page) quand il sont respectueux. On en a quasiment tous les jours sur les nombreux réseaux où nous sommes présent et cela se passe très bien même avec les détracteurs... tant que cela se passe dans le respect.

      > Notre Page n’est pas un défouloir ni un paillasson.

      On le redit aussi, personne ne trouvera ici ou ailleurs une pareille attitude de notre part.
      On a beau le dire et le redire, mais le petit carré « VIP » de SeenThis avec sa mentalité de flic, n’en a rien à foutre visiblement.
      C’est leur problème. On ne discute pas avec des cons même (et surtout) s’ils se prennent pour des « intellectuels » _con_descendants... pas plus qu’on ne va taper la discute avec un négationniste de la Shoah.

      Que qq ne soit pas d’accord avec l’opuscule de notre Camarade ne nous pose strictement aucun problème.

      Sur le fond, pour nous, prendre la défense des nervis écervelés fascistoïdes qui ont sévi à la réunion anarchiste - dans le haut lieu historique de l’anarchisme qu’est Saint-Imier- c’est détestable. On trouvera les mêmes qui vont dénoncer avec virulence la Brav-M ! Mais ils ont la même mentalité... avec un autre drapeau : c’est vraiment à chier !

      C’est facile de verser sa bile en nous traitant de « racistes » plutôt que de dénoncer l’extrême-droite qui monte partout, ils sont où ces crétins qui brûlent des livres, à la Goebbels, quand les néo-fascistes défilent un peu partout ??

      Colporter ces immondices dénotent une mentalité puante et le connard qui se fait appeler « vide » (avec un vrai vide sidéral au niveau du cerveau) n’a visiblement rien d’autre à foutre que de venir cracher sa haine crasse contre les anarchistes sur notre Page.
      C’est qui ce type ? un journaliste de C-News ? un émule de Darmanin ? qui va surement bientôt nous traiter d’ « anarcho-terroristes-racistes »... eh bien vas-y connard, c’est dans l’air du temps ! et en prime tous les mous du bulbe du coin t’applaudiront en te soutenant.

      Mais c’est peine perdu, bien au contraire, cela nous motive encore plus !

      Notre anticléricalisme antireligieux existe depuis la naissance de l’anarchisme moderne... certains, qui ne connaissent pas grand chose à l’anarchisme, font semblant de le découvrir... !

      2) « Non réponse » : Ah bon ?, elle est pas mal celle-là !... c’est notre deuxième réponse ici-même...

      3) « un flot discontinu de placards publicitaires » : on ne sait pas de quoi tu parles.

      Nous clôturons définitivement ce non évènement.

    • Je me permets de dire que je plussoie. Tout ce qui prétend dévoiler les femmes au nom d’une idée dévoyée de la laïcité et/ou d’une quelconque supériorité de « nos valeurs » se fourvoie et statistiquement est plus souvent du côté de ce que je perçois comme des ennemis politiques que des amis. Et quand ça abuse du mot connard tout en prétendant débattre en produisant autant d’aphorismes supposément démonstratifs d’un éventuel débat, que dire d’autre en effet que le débat est effectivement clôturé, faute d’avoir pu commencer.

      Au point de départ, ceci dit, il y a cette façon pénible de prendre pour soit ou pour son organisation, à laquelle on se sent doctrinalement lié, une critique d’idées, sans doute rude, mais que tout adulte se devrait de savoir entendre autrement que comme une mise en cause personnelle ou institutionnelle.

      A l’arrivée, il est évident que ce n’est pas l’anarchisme qui est écorné, ni le socialisme, mais bien l’auteur de ces élucubrations agressives et épuisantes.

      Nous clôturons définitivement ce non évènement.

    • @BigGrizzly

      On ne sait en quelle langue il faut parler ici, puisque visiblement tu n’as rien compris à nos réponses.
      Vous allez venir chacun votre tour pour nous faire la leçon ?

      >>> Bis repetita : venir nous insulter en traitant l’anarchisme et les anarchistes de "racistes" (sic) et de "religion" (sic), etc., eh bien oui on le prend pour nous ("désolé" !).
      C’est un comble que l’on vienne nous demander "des comptes" à nous... pourquoi pas des excuses ?? 😅
      Le premier qualificatif est bel et bien une insulte, le deuxième est tellement débile que cela ne vaut pas la peine de s’y attarder.

      On confirme donc le qualificatif de #connard à cette personne arrogante et agressive qui a droit à des éloges... puisque personne ne lui dit, sauf nous... et a contrario, on soutient ce connard.

      > On attend avec curiosité que vous alliez tous lui dire d’être correct et respectueux des autres sur ce RS : n’inversez pas les rôles ! Que ce connard (oui, oui) aille traiter de racistes les fachos et les racistes au lieu de baver sur nous.

      " Tout ce qui prétend dévoiler les femmes au nom d’une idée dévoyée de la laïcité et/ou d’une quelconque supériorité de « nos valeurs » " (sic)

      > Encore et toujours ces fantasmes sur l’anarchisme... des "poseurs de bombes", des "semeurs de chaos", des "terroristes" etc. maintenant on est "raciste", "dogmatique", etc.
      On attend avec impatience celle ou celui qui passera le pas pour dévoiler que nous sommes en fait des "illuminatis" ! Pourquoi pas ?! Patience, patience ça va arriver.

      En attendant, on veut "forcer les musulmanes à se dévoiler"... où s’arrêtera la vendetta ? Allez un scoop : on mange les petits enfants... à diffuser d’urgence. 😅

      La surenchère pour nous discréditer s’emballe partout : le(s) pouvoir(s) en place (dans le peloton de tête), les marxistes orthodoxes, les bourgeois (petits ou gros), les fachos, les culs-bénis, les crétins sur les RS, les complotistes écervelés, etc. allez-y tous en chœur !

      Alors, oui on navigue en plein délire et dans la connerie crasse.
      Il est vrai que pas mal de gens adoooorent ça.

      > RDV au prochain donneur de leçon pour nous livrer, sur le canapé, ses angoisses et fantasmes vis-à-vis des anarchistes et qui s’emmerde dans la vie... au suivant !

      –------------------------------------------------------

      " Quand ils sont tout neufs,
      Qu’ils sortent de l’œuf,
      Du cocon,
      Tous les jeun’s blancs-becs
      Prennent les vieux mecs
      Pour des cons.
      Quand ils sont d’venus
      Des têtes chenu’s,
      Des grisons,
      Tous les vieux fourneaux
      Prennent les jeunots
      Pour des cons.
      Moi, qui balance entre deux âges,
      J’ leur adresse à tous un message :

      Le temps ne fait rien à l’affaire,
      Quand on est con, on est con.
      Qu’on ait vingt ans, qu’on soit grand-père,
      Quand on est con, on est con.
      Entre vous, plus de controverses,
      Cons caducs ou cons débutants,
      Petits cons d’ la dernière averse,
      Vieux cons des neiges d’antan.
      Petits cons d’ la dernière averse,
      Vieux cons des neiges d’antan.
      Vous, les cons naissants,
      Les cons innocents,
      Les jeun’s cons
      Qui, n’ le niez pas,
      Prenez les papas
      Pour des cons,
      Vous, les cons âgés,
      Les cons usagés,
      Les vieux cons... "

      ★ Brassens, le célèbre libertaire raciste 😅

      >>>> pour ceux qui s’emmerdent, il y a une vraie cause à dénoncer (introuvable sur SeenThis, comme de bien entendu !) et à porter même si cela concerne des vilains-pas-beaux anarchistes :

    • Bah ya même pas à donner des leçons, les faits parlent pour eux-mêmes sans rien ajouter : dire qu’on accepte le débat tant que c’est pas insultant et qu’on vire les gens insultants tout en traitant les gens de connard, c’est… d’une logique implacable. 😅
      (Rappel : d’un côté l’insulte c’est penser l’idée que le milieu anar peut avoir un comportement religieux/doctrinaire et raciste, de l’autre c’est traiter de connard 15 fois de suite.)

      Par ailleurs il ne vient jamais à l’esprit que la personne qui a affirmé ça, que « ce connard », puisse être une femme ? Bel angle mort.

      (Dénoncer le racisme « partout », c’est le dénoncer à l’extrême-droite et ailleurs. L’un n’empêchant pas l’autre, on peut parfaitement le dénoncer chez les fachos, et dans nos milieux anar, gauche, mouvement social, etc. Ya aucune contradiction. Exactement comme pour le sexisme qui prévaut partout aussi.)

    • @rastapopoulos

      Allez... On en remet une couche ?

      Pinaillons, pinaillons... tergiversons sans fin on a du temps à perdre... on sent que l’on va y passer la semaine.

      Cherchons les erreurs de syntaxes et les virgules inutiles.

      Mettre ce #connard ou cette #connasse (ça va te faire plaisir, ah mais c’est bien sûr... nous sommes sexistes également... suis-je #con) sur le même plan que nous, c’est jouissif ??

      Partager une « ouinouinterie » (comme tu dis si bien) puante du fameux et désormais célèbre connard/connasse sur ta page, ça participe surement au « débat » !

      On va organiser un concours de « ouinouinterie » et du meilleur connard ou connasse sur SeenThis...

      > Bizarre, bizarre : On répond un peu trop pour des affreux anarchistes, qui passons notre temps à censurer, à ne pas répondre aux gentils BCBG de la nomenklatura du microcosme de SeenThis... 😅

    • Je te rappelle que :
      Nous clôturons définitivement ce non évènement.

      Mais cela faisait longtemps que je n’avais pas eu l’opportunité de lire toutes les manifestations du troll bête qui s’ignore (pléonasme, je sais). De mon côté, il y a longtemps que je ne me fais plus d’illusion sur ce que je produis. Mais si ma participation à ce fil pouvait avoir au moins l’intérêt de t’éclairer, j’aurais l’impression de ne pas m’être réveillé aujourd’hui trop inutilement.

    • C’est vrai, c’est vrai : on a besoin d’être « éclairé » !

      😆😂🤣🙃

      Tu es sérieux/sérieuse (attention à l’angle mort dirait Rastatopoulos) là ?

      > Au fait... as-tu pensé à faire la leçon au fameux #connard / #connasse de SeenThis ? Il y a un éclairage d’enfer à faire d’urgence.

      Bah, on répond sinon toutes les bonnes âmes vont dire encore que l’on ne répond pas ou que l’on censure 😂 on tiens à notre réputation sur SeenThis ! 😂

    • ▶️ @cabou

      ▶️ @BigGrizzly

      ▶️ @rastapopoulos

      >>> « Allez les fous, soyez pas mous ! »
      (réplique culte de « One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest »...)

      >>>>>> A partager : ... Yallah, yallah  !!

      #Anarchisme #persécution #Iran #mollahcratie #anticléricalisme #Liberté #DroitsHumains #solidarité ✊✊ #13livesatrisk

      🛑 ★ EXIGEONS LA LIBÉRATION DE NOTRE COMPAGNON ANARCHISTE AFCHINE BAYMANI EN GRÈVE DE LA FAIM ET DE TOUS LES PRISONNIERS POLITIQUES EN IRAN !

    • Je te rappelles, cher camarade, que je n’attends que tu me tapes l’épaule pour relayer un communiqué de la FA, alors que je ne suis même pas membre de cette organisation :

      https://seenthis.net/messages/1014311

      Maintenant, si tu souhaites vraiment que d’autres personnes partagent cette info spécifique sur le sort du compagnon iranien, peut-être serait-il préférable de la mettre sur un message spécifique... mais bon, ce n’est qu’une suggestion.

      Souhaitant sincèrement une désescalade

      Salutations libertaires

    • @Cabou

      Cher Camarade... ;-) on a pas « attendu que tu nous tapes sur l’épaule » pour publier (il y a maintenant + de 6 heures) ce communiqué de la FA sur la répression en Iran. ;-)

      « Désescalade » : on ne demande pas mieux, nous ne sommes pas ici pour être dans une baston permanente, ce que l’on écrivait d’ailleurs il y a 3 jours, au tout début de ce "Règlements de comptes à O.K. Corral".

      Cette dernière publication, sous forme de boutade, pour « secouer le cocotier », pour dire qu’il y a plus grave sur cette satanée planète, pour tourner en dérision cette polémique stérile et parler des vrais problèmes.

      Bonne soirée et salutations libertaires. 🏴

  • Un feu sous la cendre : Anima Sola #13
    Récit poétique à partir d’images créées par procuration.

    https://liminaire.fr/palimpseste/article/un-feu-sous-la-cendre

    La fascination du feu. Il sait qu’il ne doit pas allumer de feu en forêt, c’est dangereux. Il aime jouer avec le feu. C’est plus fort que lui. Le craquement de l’allumette dans l’obscurité. La flamme hésitante qui vacille dans l’air et tarde à se développer. Il pourrait encore tout arrêter, d’un coup de pied dans le tas de feuilles et de brindilles accumulées au sol. Étouffer le feu avant qu’il ne soit pas trop tard. Personne ne le voit. Je suis la seule mais je reste là sans rien faire. Tétanisée. Il ne me voit pas, il ne m’entend pas, je suis invisible, c’est à peine si j’existe.

    (...) #Écriture, #Langage, #Poésie, #Lecture, #Photographie, #Littérature, #Art, #AI, #IntelligenceArtificielle, #Dalle-e, #Récit, #Incendie, #Feu (...)

    https://liminaire.fr/IMG/mp4/anima_sola_13.mp4

  • Initiative of Lawyers and Jurists for the shipwreck of Pylos

    All of us who gathered on Thursday, June 22, 2023, at the Athens Bar Association, responding to the call for an open meeting of lawyers and jurists for the fatal criminal shipwreck off Pylos on June 14, 2023 – lawyers, citizens and representatives of organizations in the field:

    We voice our disgust at the tragic death of hundreds of our fellow human beings and express our sadness and pain to their families and loved ones.

    We express our belief that this fatal shipwreck could have been avoided, as the overloaded ship had been spotted in time and the danger it was in had been identified many hours before it sank. But the competent bodies of the Coast Guard, as well as Frontex, which were watching the incident, refrained from any rescue action. In fact, there is evidence of an attempt to tow the ship by the vessel of the Greek Coast Guard, without it being known for what purpose or in which direction. In any case, the criminal liabilities of the state authorities responsible for the salvage operation of the ship off Pylos must be investigated regarding committing felonies by acts or omissions. It is necessary for there to be a true and objective, independent from state interest, exhaustive investigation of the circumstances of the shipwreck. That is for the truth to emerge and for the responsibilities to be assigned to all those who were involved with the incident in any position and in any capacity.

    The first open meeting on June 22, attended by over 70 people, was an opportunity for a rich discussion with interventions by lawyers active in the field, figures from human rights organizations and representatives of anti-racist movements.

    We decided to create an Initiative of Lawyers and Jurists for the shipwreck of Pylos, with the aim of revealing the whole truth about the circumstances of the wreck and in order to render justice. We seek to create a space that helps highlight, document and record the facts, and empower victims, their families and their representatives in their fight for justice, through all the required political and legal actions. We ask all Bar Associations in Greece to undertake similar initiatives.

    We are open to cooperation and coordination with every individual and collective fighting for the same cause. The initiative will meet again to discuss our next steps and actions.

    To contact us, email: justice4pylos@yahoo.com

    https://justice4pylos.org

    #Justice_4_Pylos #Pylos #résistance #naufrage #justice
    #Grèce #naufrage #asile #migrations #décès #morts #tragédie #mourir_aux_frontières #morts_aux_frontières #14_juin_2023 #Méditerranée #Mer_Méditerranée #13_juin_2023

    –—

    sur le naufrage (et les contre-enquêtes), voir ce fil de discussion :
    https://seenthis.net/messages/1008145

  • Drowning in Lies. Greece tries to cover up its own role in the #Pylos shipwreck by tampering with evidence

    On the night of 13 June, a vessel carrying around 750 men, women and children mainly from Pakistan, Egypt and Syria capsized in the Central Mediterranean, in Greek waters. The Greek authorities had been aware of the overloaded vessel the day before because Europe’s border agency Frontex and activists had warned them.

    Instead of rescuing the people, the Greek coast guard stayed close to the boat and observed it from the sky with a helicopter, ignoring Frontex’s offer for help. They sent commercial vessels to the area and later a coast guard boat.

    Shortly after the coast guard vessel arrived on the scene, the overloaded boat capsized. Only 104 men survived. All the others, including all the women and children on board, drowned.

    Survivors alleged that their vessel was towed by the Greek coast guard boat, causing the fatal wreck. The Greek coast guard and the government strongly denied these allegations and claimed the boat was never towed.

    We decided to collect as many survivor testimonies as possible and try to establish what really happened, and whether there had been efforts to cover up the truth.
    METHODS

    Finding visual evidence to determine the cause of the shipwreck was nearly impossible since it happened on the high seas and commercial vessels and surveillance planes were sent away by the Greek authorities. Videos survivors might have had on their phones were no longer accessible due to water damage or because they lost their phones.

    We decided to put a team together, including journalists from the same regions as the passengers, and carried out 17 interviews with survivors – the largest number collected in a single investigation into the wreck so far – to compare their accounts. We also spoke to sources inside the European border agency Frontex.

    We obtained crucial court documents containing two sets of testimonies given by the same nine survivors. They spoke first to the Greek coast guard and later to a local Greek court.
    STORYLINES

    Documents and witness testimony obtained by Lighthouse Reports, Der Spiegel, Monitor, SIRAJ, El País, Reporters United and The Times show the Greek coast guard tampered with official statements to conceal their role in the wreck and pressured survivors into naming certain people as the smugglers.

    Nine survivors were asked by the coast guard to give witness statements just hours after the wreck. On analysing the documents, we discovered that critical parts of several testimonies contain identical phrases.

    The documents reveal that the translator used during one of the survivor’s interviews with the coast guard is a member of the coast guard himself. Other translators were local residents who spoke Arabic and other languages, who were sworn in on the day.

    In the documents, eight survivors are stated to have blamed the capsizing on factors unrelated to towing. Four of them are stated to have testified – in nearly identical wording – that the boat capsized because it was “old” and “there were no life jackets”. Their interviews were translated by three different interpreters.

    None of the survivors interrogated by the coast guard blamed the coast guard at all, according to the transcriptions. But in a later round of questioning by a Greek court of the same nine survivors, six of them are stated to have said the coast guard towed the boat shortly before it capsized.

    We spoke to two of the nine survivors who testified; they told us that the coast guard had omitted the parts of their testimony mentioning towing.

    “They asked me what happened to the boat and how it sank. I told them the Greek coast guard came and tied the rope to our boat and towed us and caused the capsizing of the boat,” said one survivor. “They didn’t type that in my testimony. When they presented it at the end I couldn’t find this part.”

    He added that the coast guard pressured him to single out certain people as the smugglers in charge of the operation. This claim is supported by our analysis of the documents: two answers to the coast guard’s questions about smugglers contain identical sentences.

    Another survivor who testified said he also blamed the shipwreck on towing when asked by the coast guard, but still signed the deposition at the end despite knowing it did not reflect what he said, because he felt “terrified”.

    Sixteen out of the seventeen survivors we spoke to said the coast guard attached a rope to the vessel and tried to tow it shortly before it capsized. Four also claimed that the coast guard was attempting to tow the boat to Italian waters, while four reported that the coast guard caused more deaths by circling around the boat after it capsized, making waves that caused the boat’s carcass to sink.

    While Europe and its border agency Frontex have largely backed Greece on its border practices and said following the shipwreck that they believed the coast guard did everything it could to save the people who drowned, Frontex is now doubting the official version

    The border agency has circulated an internal report on the incident based on survivor testimony, in which survivors state that the Greek coast guard was to blame for the drownings, according to sources.

    https://www.lighthousereports.com/investigation/drowning-in-lies
    #Grèce #naufrage #asile #migrations #décès #morts #tragédie #mourir_aux_frontières #morts_aux_frontières #14_juin_2023 #Méditerranée #Mer_Méditerranée #13_juin_2023
    #Lighthouse_reports #enquête #contre-enquête

    Sur ce naufrage voir ce fil de discussion:
    https://seenthis.net/messages/1006608

    • Survivors: ‘Greek coastguard was next to us when boat capsized’

      Two Syrian refugees recall their harrowing journey and pin blame on the coastguard for the devastating shipwreck.

      “The boat was too heavy,” he told Al Jazeera.

      “We were sitting next to each other, and there was a constant fear of sinking.”

      On the derelict blue ship that was soon to hit international headlines, he saw about 750 people crammed together, shoulder-to-shoulder, unable to move. They had all hoped to eventually reach Europe.

      In a few days, he would see hundreds of these people drown as a Greek coastguard ship floated nearby.

      Ahmed fled Syria with his friend Mohammed*, 23. They both asked to use pseudonyms because they fear the Greek government would punish them for speaking out about what they saw that night.

      They are two of the 104 survivors of the shipwreck off the coast of Pylos, Greece. Seventy-eight people have been confirmed dead.

      Like hundreds of other people on board, their third companion, Mohammed’s cousin, was never found.

      Their path to the central Mediterranean was taken in many steps. Ahmed and Mohammed said they left home hoping for a future without violence.

      Their journey took them to Lebanon, then Egypt and Libya.

      They spent about a month in Libya, where smugglers kept them closed up in an apartment with Egyptians, Pakistanis and other Syrians also making the journey.

      Mohammed said the smugglers beat the Egyptians and Pakistanis, constantly cursing and insulting them.

      Finally, in the first days of June, they were told, “You are leaving today.”

      They were put on the back of trucks that drove to the shore, were loaded onto small boats and were taken to a trawler, the Adriana, out in deeper waters.

      “They were beating people there,” Ahmed said.

      “They were beating them while taking them to the lower deck of the boat. … It was very bad down there. It smelled of diesel and fish. You couldn’t breathe.”

      Ahmed and his companions managed to pay a bribe of $200 to get themselves a spot on the upper deck.

      But wherever the passengers sat on the ship, they were wedged together.

      Women and children were kept below in the hold. From their cramped spot on the top deck, the young men could see the sea.
      ‘People were starting to lose consciousness’

      From the second day of the voyage, the boat’s engine started breaking down.

      “They would repair it, and after a while, it would break down again,” Mohammed said. “Every time they repaired it, it would stop again after two to three hours.”

      After the second day at sea, food and water ran out. Panic began to percolate across the ship.

      “At that time, people were starting to lose consciousness,” Ahmed said.

      “They were falling on the ground. They were fainting. Some were shaking. We were seeing tens, hundreds of people in this state.”

      They heard fights were breaking out all across the boat due to hunger, thirst and fear.

      “Me, Ahmed and my relative who is now missing were always trying to keep our spirits up,” Mohammed said. “When someone cried, we made jokes. ‘We will make it,’ we were saying to ourselves. But everyone was going crazy.”

      By the fourth day, they heard disturbing news from the hold.

      “Some people coming up from below said, ‘There are dead people down there,’” Ahmed said.

      “They said there were six dead bodies on the boat. Five bodies were down below, and we didn’t see them. One was on the upper deck. We saw him.”

      Ahmed and Mohammed said the passengers started telephoning the Italian authorities and the Greek coastguard to ask for help.

      “From the fourth day onwards, the Greek coastguard had been aware of us,” Mohammed said.

      By the fifth day, June 13, they said it looked like the Adriana had stopped moving completely.

      In the afternoon, a helicopter flew overhead.

      The passengers could not understand from the deck, but it was the Greek coastguard. In the afternoon, one and then another commercial ship passed by and tossed those on board water over the waves.

      “People were saying: ‘Take us with you.’ They were saying, ‘No.’” Mohammed said. “We asked for help, but they refused to help us.”

      A Greek coastguard vessel finally approached the fishing trawler around midnight in the first minutes of June 14, the friends said. “‘Follow us,’ they told us. We followed them,” Mohammed said.

      “Half an hour later, our boat stopped completely. It could not move. They came back and tied us to their boat.”

      Ahmed and Mohammed said the coastguard started to tow their stalled-out trawler, but it took a sharp turn, and the Adriana heaved precariously left, then right, then capsized.

      “They were right next to us when it capsized. In the moment it sank, they moved away from us. They deliberately made us sink,” Mohammed said. “We were standing on top of the boat, and we were able to see everything clearly.”

      Tossed into the dark Mediterranean Sea, hundreds of people tried to find something to cling onto, some way to survive. “People were holding onto me,” Ahmed said.

      “I was going under the water and getting away from people. Every time I got away, I would come across someone else, and they would hold onto me to save themselves. When someone grabbed onto me, we both went underwater together.”

      After an hour and a half, Ahmed said he spotted an inflatable coastguard boat and swam towards it.

      “They were 200 or 300 metres [220 to 330 yards] away from us,” he said. “I swam to them and got into the boat. They did not come close to us to save us. They were standing far away, and those who could swim were going towards them, like me.”

      As he made his way towards the inflatable boat, Ahmed had to push aside bodies floating in the water.

      Once taken to the larger coastguard boat, Ahmed was reunited with Mohammed. The two hugged each other, overwhelmed and elated to have found each other.

      They started asking about their third companion. He had not made it, and they realised how incomplete their relief was.

      The survivors of the shipwreck were taken ashore. Mohammed said that when they were first held in the Greek city of Kalamata, the authorities came to take his testimony of the tragedy three or four times.

      “When we told them that we had been towed with a rope, they stopped,” he said. “They were saying that the problem was our boat. They wrote our statements with their own words. They did not write down what we said. They made us say it and write it down.”

      Ahmed said no officials have ever taken his testimony.
      ‘Accountability vacuum’

      Both men are now in the Malakasa refugee camp, 40km (25 miles) north of Athens. They are awaiting their asylum claims to be processed. Mohammed is desperate for news of his cousin, even if that news is confirmation he is dead.

      Ahmed’s and Mohammed’s accounts contradict the account of the Greek coastguard, which has said the passengers of the Adriana refused aid, it was only immobile for about 20 minutes before it capsized and the coastguard had not towed the boat prior to it capsizing.

      Survivors’ accounts line up with other evidence.

      The Greek investigative website Solomon has published emails showing that the Greek authorities had been notified that the ship was in distress by 6pm (15:00 GMT) on June 13. And tracking data published and verified by the BBC and The New York Times show that the trawler was not moving for at least seven hours before it capsized.

      When asked to comment on allegations that the coastguard towed the boat and was involved in the shipwreck, the Greek Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Insular Policy told Al Jazeera: “The required information is part of the investigation procedure that is being conducted under strict confidentiality based on the instructions given by the prosecutor of the Supreme Court. Regarding the details of the operation plan of the Hellenic coastguard, no further comments can be made by our service.”

      Fingers have been pointed at the Greek coastguard for both the shipwreck and its large death toll.

      “It has been evidenced that the Hellenic coastguard uses a range of tactics to move boats they have intercepted at sea into different territorial areas to avoid responsibility for search and rescue and the lodging of their applications for international protection,” said Hope Barker, a policy analyst at the Border Violence Monitoring Network.

      “Whilst this usually includes towing boats back to Turkish territorial waters, it is equally likely that if the boat was closer to Italian territorial waters, they would try to transfer it there instead.”

      The organisation is calling for an independent investigation and for Frontex, the European Union’s border agency, to withdraw from Greece.

      “Violations of fundamental rights by the Hellenic coastguard are routine and systematised operations that have proven to be under-investigated by the Greek state. There is an accountability vacuum that allows these actions to continue unabated,” Barker said.

      In Malakasa, Mohammed said he cannot stop thinking about the moment the boat capsized and the screams of the people around him. He does not know how he survived in the water.

      “I shouted Ahmed’s and my cousin’s names for a while,” he said. “In that moment, I heard a voice screaming, ‘Mother! Mother!’ I asked that person for his name, and he said, ‘Fuat’.

      “He and I told each other our names, so that whichever of us survived would be able to bring the news to the other’s family.”

      https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2023/7/5/survivors-greek-coastguard-was-next-to-us-when-boat-capsized

    • Under the unwatchful eye of the authorities’ deactivated cameras: dying in the darkest depths of the Mediterranean

      A collaborative investigation by Solomon, Forensis, The Guardian and ARD presents the most complete tracing, to date, of the course that the fishing vessel Adriana took until it ultimately sank, causing over 600 people to drown − while under the supervision of Greek and European authorities. A document reveals that according to Frontex recommendations, the Coast Guard vessel was obligated to record the operation on video.

      In the early hours of June 14, the state-of-the-art cameras of the Coast Guard vessel ΠΠΛΣ-920 were off.

      The deadliest shipwreck within the Greek Search and Rescue Zone, one of the largest the Mediterranean has ever seen, was reportedly not visually detected.

      Only hours before, aerial photos of the overloaded fishing vessel were taken. Nearby tankers recorded videos before they were ordered to leave the scene. There were satellite images that captured its movement.

      But the exact circumstances in which the Adriana capsized off Pylos, killing more than 600 people, remain unclear three weeks on.

      In affidavits and interviews, some of the 104 survivors attributed the sinking of the fishing vessel to an attempt by the Hellenic Coast Guard to tow it to Italian waters.

      The Coast Guard emphasizes that it saved human lives, and maintains that the fishing vessel overturned due to a disturbance by the passengers.

      Solomon, in a joint investigation with the research group Forensis, The Guardian and German public broadcaster ARD reveals: the Coast Guard vessel ΠΠΛΣ-920, the only vessel present at the time the Adriana capsized, was obligated to “document its operation by video-recording” in accordance with a 2021 Frontex document which recommends that the Greek authorities record their operations continually.

      If this had been done, today there would be answers to the questions that the victims’ families are still asking.

      The ΠΠΛΣ-920 cameras were supposed to record

      By midday on June 13, the Greek and Italian authorities and Frontex (the European Border and Coast Guard Agency), were aware of the overloaded fishing vessel, which had been sailing aimlessly for four days in the central Mediterranean – its only means of navigation was a compass and the position of the sun.

      The activist network Alarm Phone had also relayed to the authorities the desperate SOS of some 750 men, women, and children — mostly from Pakistan, Egypt and Syria — who, lacking potable water, were using their shoelaces to lower containers into the sea: “They are urgently asking for help”.

      ΠΠΛΣ-920, the Coast Guard vessel which received the order to depart from the port of Souda, Crete to assist, has been the pride of the Coast Guard since 2021. European funding covered 90% of its cost, and it is one of the best-equipped vessels available in Greece.

      And it could not be in better hands: earlier this year, in March, its captain was awarded for “his valuable contribution to the protection of maritime borders and human life at sea.”

      According to the Coast Guard, ΠΠΛΣ-920, like its three sister ships (ΠΠΛΣ-900, ΠΠΛΣ-910 and ΠΠΛΣ-930), has two state-of-the-art thermal camera systems. According to the Coast Guard, however, when the fishing vessel capsized, the cameras were not in operation because the crew’s attention was focused on the rescue efforts.

      “When we have an incident, we try to have the ability to operate seamlessly. Making some crew members ‘inactive’ so that they can record a video, you understand, is unethical,” Coast Guard spokesman Nikos Alexiou stated on June 15, justifying why the incident was not recorded on video.

      However, one of the three former and current Coast Guard officers who spoke to us during our investigation, said that these cameras do not require constant manual operation and they exist exactly for this reason – to record such incidents.

      But there is still a critical issue: a document reveals that, according to Frontex recommendations in March 2021, the Coast Guard vessel was obligated to record the operation.

      The document states that “if feasible, all actions taken by Frontex assets or Frontex co-financed assets… should be documented by video consistently.”

      The cost of the ΠΠΛΣ-290, one of four state-of-the-art vessels purchased for €55.5 million, has been 90% financed through Frontex. It is designated to be “available for four months a year, for Frontex missions outside of Greek waters.”

      Frontex had recommended the visual recording of operations, during a meeting where representatives from Greece were present as well as from other European countries, following complaints of human rights violations by the Coast Guard.

      The complaints that were assessed during the meeting referred to the exact same practice, attributed to ΠΠΛΣ-920: towing vessels of asylum seekers outside of Greek waters.
      We created a 3D model of the Adriana

      Solomon, Forensis, The Guardian and ARD worked together and after analyzing a wealth of evidence, we present the most complete picture to date, of the Adriana’s course up to the time of its sinking.

      We collected more than 20 survivor accounts and analyzed material derived from, among others, witness statements, official reports from the Coast Guard and Frontex, deck logs of the Coast Guard vessel and tankers in transit, aerial photographs and data on the position and movement of ships and aircraft. We also secured exclusive footage from the commercial vessels that were in the area and spoke to sources at Frontex, the Coast Guard, and rescuers.

      The analysis of this information resulted in a detailed chronology of the events that occurred on June 13 and 14, an interactive map showing Adriana‘s movement, as well as a 3D model of the fishing vessel.

      With the help of the 3D model, we were able to do what no official authority or journalistic investigation has done so far: to conduct in-person interviews with survivors of the wreck, using the visual impression of this body of data.

      Using the method of situated testimony, the survivors placed themselves in the 3D model of the ship, indicated their location on the deck, and recalled the events that unfolded before the sinking of the Adriana: from the alleged towing to its capsize.

      In this way, we were able to cross-reference accounts of what happened in the presence of the Coast Guard vessel, based on each person’s eyewitness account.
      Main conclusions

      Eleven critical findings emerge from the joint investigation:

      – Frontex offered to help three times. A Frontex source stated that the Coast Guard did not respond to any of the three requests for assistance.

      - The records of ΠΠΛΣ-920 are incoherent and raise questions. For example, while it is reported that immediately before the sinking, the fishing vessel was moving west, it actually appears to be moving for about an hour (00:44 – 01:40) in a southerly direction at a speed of only 0.6 knots. In addition: since, according to the Coast Guard, the fishing vessel’s engine had stopped working at 00:44, why was the preparation of life-saving equipment carried out an hour later, at 01:40?

      - While the fishing vessel’s engine was running but there was no navigation capability, according to testimonies, ΠΠΛΣ-920 approached the vessel and gave directions to Italy. A survivor stated: “[a crew member] told us that the Greek ship would go ahead of us and lead us to Italian waters. He told us that in two hours we would be in Italy.” ΠΠΛΣ-920 directed the fishing vessel from a distance, which followed until its engine broke down again.

      – According to Syrian survivors on deck, when the engine broke down, masked men from ΠΠΛΣ-920 boarded the fishing vessel and tied a blue rope to the stern. The above-mentioned testimonies are also consistent with an entry in the ΠΠΛΣ-920 deck logbook, which mentions the participation of a four-member team from the Special Missions Unit in the operation.

      - According to the same survivors, there were two brief attempts to tow the fishing vessel. The first time the rope broke. The second time the ΠΠΛΣ-920 increased its speed and the fishing vessel rocked to the right, then to the left, then to the right again and flipped onto its right side.

      – The Pakistani survivors were located in the interior of the ship, and could not see what was happening. They stated, however, that while the fishing vessel’s engine was not working, they felt a sharp forward thrust “like a rocket” — a sensation that corroborates the use of a rope for towing.

      – Testimonies in this investigation support testaments presented by other journalistic investigations, as well as survivor statements included in the official case file: this action appears to have led to the capsize and eventual sinking of the ship.

      - The fishing vessel capsized and survivors climbed on top of it. ΠΠΛΣ-920 left the scene, creating waves that made it more difficult for the survivors to stay afloat.

      – After withdrawing, ΠΠΛΣ-920 directed its floodlights on the shipwreck site. Survivors tried to swim to the Coast Guard vessel, but the distance was too great.

      – ΠΠΛΣ-920 began the rescue operation 30 minutes after the sinking, and only after the fishing vessel had completely disappeared from the water’s surface.

      - Survivors claim that their phones (which were protected in plastic cases) contain visual material from the incident. Immediately after the rescue, according to the same testimonies, Coast Guard officers confiscated their phones, which have not been returned to them.

      https://vimeo.com/843117800

      Survivor accounts of the towing

      In the deck log of ΠΠΛΣ-920, which we have seen, there is no mention of any towing attempt. The Coast Guard captain reports that they approached the fishing vessel to offer assistance, received no response, and followed it “from a discreet distance”.

      This is disputed by the accounts of the survivors, some of whom not only tell of a rope that was tied to the fishing vessel, but they all mention its color: blue.

      This investigation documents, for the first time, the blue cable that was used by ΠΠΛΣ-920, which can also be seen in earlier photos of the vessel.

      The estimation that the attempt to tow the fishing vessel by the ΠΠΛΣ-920 led to its sinking is underlined by the statements of survivors, that form part of the case file which is available to the journalists that participated in this investigation.

      “Then the Greek ship came and threw the rope which was tied to the front of our ship,” says a survivor who was on the deck.

      The Coast Guard started towing the fishing vessel, he adds, and “when it was going slowly the fishing vessel was fine, but instead of approaching the Greek ship we were moving away. When they hit the gas, I’m sorry to say, that’s when our ship sank.”

      The same survivor estimates that the fishing boat capsized due to the “pulling from the Greek ship, because then our ship began to lean to one side. And I, who was standing in a corner, slipped into the water with a relative of mine, who died.”

      Another survivor who was also on the deck, but at the stern and without full visibility, says in his testimony that “it was night, the guys in front told me that they tied the rope, but I could feel the motion too, because then we moved, but not for more than two minutes.”

      “Then we said stop-stop because our ship is leaning,” he says, adding, “I think we sank due to the fact that our boat was in bad condition and overloaded and that it shouldn’t have been towed.”

      In another testimony, the description of the towing attempt is concise: “On the last day the Greek ship threw us a rope and tied us to their ship. The Greek one turned right, then ours overturned and we fell into the water.”

      We contacted the Coast Guard, asking questions about the timeline of the shipwreck and asking them to comment on the findings of our investigation. At the time of publication, we have not received a response.
      Why didn’t Greece respond to Frontex?

      The picture of what actually happened would be more complete if the ΠΠΛΣ-920 was not the only vessel present during the incident.

      According to the captain of the merchant ship Faithful Warrior, at 00:18 the Coast Guard’s Search & Rescue Coordination Center gave him permission to depart the scene, thus removing the last witness present. The Faithful Warrior left at 00:30, about 15 minutes before the fishing vessel’s engine stopped working, according to Coast Guard records.

      Frontex, which operates in the central Mediterranean, had informed the Greek authorities about the fishing vessel early in the afternoon, and had offered to help.

      Specifically, at 19:35 (local Greek time) Frontex offered to assist with the Eagle I aircraft. Afterwards, the Greek side asked Frontex to assist in a search and rescue incident south of Crete, where 80 people were in danger. The vessel in question was spotted by the Frontex Heron drone at 22:50.

      At 00:34, Frontex again offered to provide assistance with the Eagle I and a few minutes later, at 00:52, it also offered the Heron. According to a Frontex source who spoke to our joint investigation, the Greek authorities did not respond to any request to send aerial assets to the overloaded fishing vessel.
      Fabricated testimonies?

      Concerns have also been raised about the possible alteration of survivors’ testimonies.

      Survivors gave two rounds of statements: first to the Coast Guard and then to an investigator. Both versions are available to Solomon and the international colleagues who participated in this investigation.

      While there are no references to the attempted towing of the fishing vessel in the survivor testimonies recorded by the Coast Guard, the same survivors spoke about it in the second interview with the investigator.

      Also, when describing the shipwreck, the testimonies that appear to have been given to the Coast Guard by two survivors of different nationalities, are the same, word for word: “There were too many people in the boat, which was old and rusty … that’s why it capsized and sank in the end.”
      Inside the hold

      The TikTok video shows his older brother hugging him tightly and kissing him, before he enters the airport, dragging along his suitcase.

      He had flown from Karachi to Dubai, and from Dubai to Alexandria, Egypt. From there he boarded another plane that took him to Benghazi, Libya, where he spent over ten days locked in a trafficker’s hideout, before he was taken to board the Adriana.

      When he saw the old fishing boat he couldn’t believe it — he thought the trip to Italy would also be by plane. He wanted to go back to Pakistan, but the traffickers wouldn’t let him.

      Inside the Adriana, Abdul traveled on the lowest of three levels, in suffocating conditions where he had to sit with his knees bent. “To get from one place to another, you had to step on people.”

      Conditions were similar on the middle level, where about 300 people were reportedly crammed in, with more than 200 people still on deck. The testimonies speak of another, separate space inside the fishing vessel, where women and children were located. No women were among the 104 people that were rescued.

      The Pakistani travelers had paid a total of €8,000-€10,000 each for the long journey to Europe – Abdul’s family of rice farmers had sold their land to finance his trip.

      Abdul had learned to swim in the canals around his family’s crops – when the Adriana sank, it was his ability to swim that allowed Abdul to reach the Coast Guard vessel and save himself.

      As he walks along in Athens, Abdul’s relatives call him, asking what’s the name of the city he’s in. He tells us about his family, but he also shows us photos of loved ones who perished: he was onboard the Adriana with 14 of his friends and his uncle. Only he survived.

      And of his 350 fellow Pakistanis who were also in the hold with him, only 12 were rescued. “Beautiful people were lost,” says Abdul.

      People who participated in the investigation: Christina Varvia, Lydia Emmanouilidou, Katy Fallon, Ebrahem Farooqui, Armin Ghassim, Sebastian Heidelberger, Stefanos Levidis, Andreas Makas, Stavros Malichudis, Iliana Papangeli, Corina Petridi, Timo Robben, Georgia Skartadou, Sulaiman Tadmory, George Christides.

      https://wearesolomon.com/mag/format/investigation/under-the-unwatchful-eye-of-the-authorities-deactivated-cameras-dying-

    • Greek shipwreck: hi-tech investigation suggests coastguard responsible for sinking

      Research into loss of trawler with hundreds of deaths strongly contradicts official accounts – while finding a failure to mobilise help and evidence that survivor statements were tampered with

      Attempts by the Greek coastguard to tow a fishing trawler carrying hundreds of migrants may have caused the vessel to sink, according to a new investigation by the Guardian and media partners that has raised further questions about the incident, which left an estimated 500 people missing

      The trawler carrying migrants from Libya to Italy sank off the coast of Greece on 14 June. There were 104 survivors.

      Reporters and researchers conducted more than 20 interviews with survivors and drew on court documents and coastguard sources to build a picture of missed rescue opportunities and offers of assistance that were ignored. Multiple survivors said that attempts by the Greek coastguard to tow the vessel had ultimately caused the sinking. The coastguard has strenuously denied that it attempted to tow the trawler.

      The night that the trawler capsized, 47 nautical miles off Pylos, in south-western Greece, was reconstructed using an interactive 3D model of the boat created by Forensis, a Berlin-based research agency founded by Forensic Architecture, which investigates human rights violations.

      The joint investigation by the Guardian, German public broadcaster ARD/NDR/Funk and Greek investigative outlet Solomon, in collaboration with Forensis, has given one of the fullest accounts to date of the trawler’s course up to its sinking. It unearthed new evidence such as a coastguard vessel moored at a closer port but never dispatched to the incident and how Greek authorities failed to respond not twice, as previously reported, but three times to offers of assistance by Frontex, the EU border and coastguard agency.

      Forensis mapped the final hours before the sinking, using data from the coastguard’s log and the testimony of the coast guard vessel’s captain, as well as flight paths, maritime traffic data, satellite imagery and information from videos taken by nearby commercial vessels and other sources. The ship’s last movements contradict the coastguard and reveal inconsistencies within the official account of events, including the trawler’s direction and speed.

      Crucially, the investigation showed the overcrowded trawler started moving westward on meeting the single Greek coastguard vessel sent to the scene. According to multiple survivor testimonies given to the Guardian and Greek prosecutors, the coastguard had told the migrants it would lead them to Italy – clashing with the official version that the trawler started moving west of its own accord. The investigation also showed the trawler had turned to the south and was almost stationary for at least an hour until, survivors said, a second and fatal towing attempt took place.
      Survivors use the 3D model of the boat to describe what happened on the night of the 14 June.

      Two survivors used the 3D model to describe the towing itself, while three others, who were sitting inside or on the vessel’s lower deck, described being propelled forward “like a rocket”, but with the engine not operating. That suggests a towing attempt.

      Another survivor separately said he heard people shouting about a rope being attached by the “Greek army” and described being towed for 10 minutes shortly before the trawler sank. “I feel that they have tried to push us out of Greek water so that their responsibility ends,” a survivor said after considering the map of events and reflecting on his memories of the night.

      Maria Papamina, a lawyer from the Greek Council for Refugees, one of two legal organisations representing between 40 and 50 survivors, said that there had been two towing attempts recounted to her team. Court documents also show that seven out of eight survivors gave accounts to the civil prosecutor of the presence of a rope, towing and a strong pull, in depositions conducted on 17 and 18 June.

      The exact circumstances of the sinking cannot be conclusively proved in the absence of visual evidence. Several survivors testified to having had their phones confiscated by the authorities and some mentioned having filmed videos moments before the sinking. Questions remain over why the newly acquired Greek coastguard vessel at the scene did not record the operation on its thermal cameras. The vessel, called the 920, was 90% financed by the EU to bolster the capabilities of Frontex in Greece and is part of the EU border agency’s joint operations in the country. Frontex recommends that “if feasible, all actions taken by … Frontex co-financed assets should be documented by video consistently”.

      In official statements the Greek coastguard said the operation was not recorded because the crew’s focus was on the rescue operation. But a source within the coastguard said cameras do not need constant manual operation and are there precisely to capture such incidents.

      The presence of masked men, described by two survivors as attaching a rope to the trawler, is also documented in the ship’s log, which includes an entry about a special ops team known as KEA joining the 920 that night.

      According to coastguard sources, it would not be unusual to deploy KEA – typically used in risky situations such as suspected arms or drug smuggling at sea – given the vessel’s unknown status, but one source said that their presence suggested the vessel should have been intercepted on security and maritime safety grounds alone.

      One source described the failure to mobilise help closer to the incident as “incomprehensible”. The 920 was deployed from Chania, in Crete, about 150 nautical miles from the site of the sinking. The source said the coastguard had somewhat smaller but still capable vessels, based in Patras, Kalamata, Neapoli Voion and even Pylos itself. The 920 was ordered by coastguard HQ to “locate” the trawler at about 3pm local time on 13 June. It finally made contact close to midnight. An eyewitness official confirmed another vessel was stationed in Kalamata on 14 June and could have reached the trawler within a couple of hours. “It should have been a ‘send everything you’ve got’ situation. The trawler was in clear need of assistance,” the source said.

      The Greek coastguard and Frontex were alerted to the trawler on the morning of 13 June. Both agencies had photographed it from the air but no search and rescue operation was conducted – according to the Greek side, because the boat had refused assistance. Authorities received an urgent SOS said to have been relayed to them at 5.53pm local time by the small boats emergency hotline Alarmphone, which was in contact with people on board.

      Two of the coastguard sources told the Guardian they believed towing was a likely reason for the boat capsizing. This would not be without precedent. In 2014, an attempt to tow a refugee boat off the coast of Farmakonisi cost 11 lives. Greek courts cleared the coastguard, but the European court of human rights passed a damning judgment in 2022.

      Allegations have also been made that survivors’ statements were tampered with. Two rounds of testimonies were given – first to the coastguard and then to a civil prosecutor – both seen by the Guardian. Testimonies to the coastguard by two separate survivors of different nationalities are word for word the same when describing the sinking: “We were too many people on the boat, which was old and rusty … this is why it capsized and sank in the end.”

      Under oath to the civil prosecutor, days later, the same survivors describe towing incidents and blame the Greek coastguard for the sinking. The same Syrian survivor who stated in his coastguard testimony that the trawler capsized due to its age and overcrowding would later testify: “When they stepped on it, and I am sorry to mention this, our boat sank. I believe the reason was the towing by the Greek boat.”

      Brussels has asked for a “transparent” investigation into the wreck, while there is frustration within Frontex, which repeatedly offered assets to Greek authorities – a plane twice and later a drone – but received no reply. Although Frontex is facing mounting calls to pull out of Greece, the Guardian understands it is considering less drastic measures such as discontinuing co-financing of Greek coastguard vessels.

      The Coast Guard said it “would not comment on operational issues or the ongoing investigation which is confidential according to a Supreme Court Order.”

      Nine Egyptians on the trawler have been arrested on charges including involuntary manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and migrant smuggling; they deny wrongdoing. According to Guardian information, the accused testified there were two towing attempts, the second resulting in the sinking of the boat. A brother of one of the accused said his sibling paid about £3,000 to be on the boat, amounting to proof, he said, that he was not a smuggler.

      In Greece and beyond, survivors and victims’ families are trying to understand what happened. Three Pakistani survivors said they flew from Pakistan through Dubai or Egypt to Libya. Two believed they would fly from Libya to Italy and were shocked on seeing the trawler. “I can’t sleep properly. When I sleep I feel as if I am sinking into the water and will die,” one said.

      Nearly half of the estimated 750 people on board are thought to have been Pakistani citizens taking an emerging people-smuggling route to Italy. Pakistani authorities estimate that 115 came from Gujranwala in the east of the country, a region known for its rice plantations and cotton fields but deeply mired in Pakistan’s economic crisis.

      Ahmed Farouq, who lives on the outskirts of the city of Gujranwala, lost his son in the Pylos shipwreck. Talking of the alleged towing, he saids: “They wanted it to sink. Why didn’t they save the people first? If they don’t want illegal migrants, let them deport us, but don’t let us drown.”

      https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2023/jul/10/greek-shipwreck-hi-tech-investigation-suggests-coastguard-responsible-f

    • Greek coastguard ’pressured’ disaster survivors to blame Egyptian men

      New evidence found by BBC News casts further doubt on the Greek coastguard’s version of events surrounding last month’s deadly migrant boat sinking, in which up to 600 people died.

      Two survivors have described how the coastguard pressed them to identify nine Egyptians on board as traffickers.

      A new video of the overcrowded boat foundering at sea also challenges the Greek coastguard’s account.

      It was taken when the boat was said to be on a “steady course”.

      BBC Verify has confirmed the footage was filmed when the coastguard claimed the boat was not in need of rescue - and was in fact filmed by the coastguard itself.

      We have also confirmed that the larger vessel in the background is the oil tanker Faithful Warrior, which had been asked to give supplies to the migrant boat.

      The official Greek coastguard account had already been challenged in a BBC Verify report - but now we have seen court documents which show serious discrepancies between survivors’ witness statements taken by the coastguards, and the in-person evidence later presented to a judge.

      A translator has also come forward with his account of a people-smuggling investigation last year, after another group of migrants were rescued by the coastguard. He describes how witnesses from that incident were intimidated by the coastguard. The legal case collapsed before it could reach trial.

      The revelations raise fresh questions about how the Greek authorities handle such disasters.

      Both the Greek coastguard and Greek government did not comment and declined our requests for interview.
      A map of a section of the Mediterranean Sea showing the possible route taken by the migrant boat off the coast of Libya, near the city of Tobruk. The possible route shows the last approximate location of the boat before it sunk and the path taken by the Faithful Warrior, which had made contact with the boat. Also shown is the Greek port city of Pylos.

      Survivors ’silenced and intimidated’

      Soon after the 14 June sinking, nine Egyptian men were detained and charged with manslaughter and people-smuggling.

      But two survivors of the disaster say migrants were silenced and intimidated by Greek authorities, after suggesting the coastguards may have been to blame for the tragedy.

      For the past month, allegations have been made that the coastguard used a rope to tow the fishing vessel, causing it to sink.

      The two survivors we spoke to in Athens - who we are calling Ahmad and Musaab to protect their identities - say that is what happened.

      “They attached a rope from the left. Everyone moved to the right side of our boat to balance it,” says Musaab. “The Greek vessel moved off quickly causing our boat to flip. They kept dragging it for quite a distance.”

      The men described how they spent two hours in the water before being picked up by the coastguard.

      When I ask how they knew it was that amount of time, Musaab says his watch was still working so he could tell.

      Once on land, in Kalamata, they claim the coastguard told survivors to “shut up” when they started to talk about how the Greek authorities had caused the disaster.

      “When people replied by saying the Greek coastguard was the cause, the official in charge of the questioning asked the interpreter to tell the interviewee to stop talking,” says Ahmad.

      Ahmad says those rescued were told to be grateful they hadn’t died.

      He says there were shouts of: “You have survived death! Stop talking about the incident! Don’t ask more questions about it!”

      he men say they are scared to speak out publicly because they fear they too will be accused like the Egyptians.

      “If there was a fair system in place, we would contribute to this case,” says Ahmad.

      The men told us they had both paid $4,500 (£3,480) for a spot on the boat. Ahmad’s younger brother was also on board. He is still missing.
      Collapsing court cases

      As well as this testimony given to us by survivors, we have seen court documents which raise questions about the way evidence is being gathered to be presented in court.

      In initial statements from five survivors, none mentioned the coastguard trying to tow the migrant vessel with a rope. But days later, in front of a judge, all explained that there had been a failed attempt to tow it.

      One initial statement reads:

      But the same witness later told a judge:

      BBC Verify has not spoken to these witnesses and so we can’t say why their accounts changed.

      The Greek coastguard initially denied using a rope - but later backtracked, admitting one had been used. But it said it was only to try to board the vessel and assess the situation. It said this was at least two hours before the fishing vessel capsized.

      Eighty-two people are confirmed dead in the sinking, but the United Nations estimates as many as 500 more lost their lives.

      The Greek authorities say the charged Egyptian men are part of a smuggling ring and were identified by fellow passengers. They face up to life imprisonment if found guilty.

      Some survivors allege some of the nine suspects mistreated those on board - while other testimony says some were actually trying to help.

      But Ahmad and Musaab told us the coastguard had instructed all of the survivors to say that the nine Egyptian men were to blame for trafficking them.

      “They were imprisoned and were wrongly accused by the Greek authorities as an attempt to cover their crime,” says Musaab.

      A Greek Supreme Criminal Court deputy prosecutor is carrying out an investigation, but calls - including from the UN - for an international, independent inquiry have so far been ignored. The European Commission has indicated it has faith in the Greek investigation.

      But Ahmad and Musaab are not alone in their concerns about the Greek coastguard.
      Interpreter comes forward to BBC

      When the nine Egyptian men were arrested in the hours after the shipwreck, it was widely reported as an example of efficient detective work by the Greek authorities.

      But for Farzin Khavand it rang alarm bells. He feared history was repeating itself.

      He says he witnessed Greek coastguards put two innocent Iranian men in the frame for people-smuggling last year, following the rescue of 32 migrants whose boat had got into trouble crossing from Turkey.

      Mr Khavand, a UK citizen who speaks Farsi and has lived in the Kalamata area for 20 years, acted as a translator during the coastguard’s investigation into what happened then.

      He says the migrants - 28 from Afghanistan and four from Iran - explained that they had set off from Turkey and been at sea for eight days before being rescued.

      During this time, the Greek coastguard had approached the boat, before leaving, he was told.

      Two Arabic-speaking men had abandoned the boat after the engine blew up, Mr Khavand was told by the Afghan migrants. They said that most people on board had taken turns to try to steer the stricken boat to safety - including the two accused Iranians, who had paid to be on board like everyone else.

      “They [the Iranian men] were highly traumatised,” Mr Khavand said.

      “They were repeating to me that they’d never even seen an ocean before they set off in Turkey. And they kept being told they were the captain and they said: ’We know nothing about the boat. We can’t even swim.’”

      One of the two accused - a man called Sayeed who was facing a long prison sentence - had been rescued with his young son, explained Mr Khavand.

      “I asked him ’Why did you take a six-year-old child on a boat?’ And he said the smugglers told us it’s only two hours’ journey.”

      Mr Khavand relayed their accounts to the coastguard, exactly as it had been told to him - but he says when he saw the transcripts, the Afghans’ testimony had changed. He fears they altered their stories after pressure from the Greek authorities.

      He says the Iranians told him that some of their fellow Afghan passengers had been leaned on by the coastguard to name them as the people-smugglers - to avoid being “treated unpleasantly”, threatened with prison, and being “returned to the Taliban”.

      The case eventually collapsed. Mr Khavand says he was not willing to assist the Greek coastguard again. He says when Sayeed and his son were released from custody the €1,500 (£1,278) that had been confiscated from them was not returned.

      “The scene ended with me thinking I don’t want to do this again because they were not trying to get to the bottom of the truth. They were trying to pick a couple of guys and accuse them of being people smugglers.”

      All of these accusations were put to the Greek authorities by the BBC - but we have received no response. Our request for an interview with Greece’s minister of maritime affairs - who oversees the coastguard - was also rejected.
      Greece previously accused of human rights violations

      Kalamata lawyer Chrysanthi Kaouni says she has seen other criminal cases brought against alleged people smugglers which have troubled her.

      She has been involved in more than 10 such cases, she tells us.

      “My concerns are around the translations, the way evidence is gathered and - later on - the ability of the defendants to challenge this evidence,” she said.

      “Because of these three points, I don’t think there are enough safeguards according to the international law, and in the end I don’t believe justice is done.”

      A new study has found that the average trial in Greece for migrants accused of people smuggling lasted just 37 minutes and the average prison sentence given was 46 years.

      The study, commissioned by The Greens/European Free Alliance group in the European Parliament, looked at 81 trials involving 95 people - all of whom were tried for smuggling in eight different areas of Greece between February 2020 and March 2023.

      The study claims verdicts were reached often on the testimony of a single police or coastguard officer and, in more than three-quarters of the cases, they didn’t appear in court for their evidence to be cross-examined.

      Ahmad says he and the other survivors now want authorities to recover the shipwreck and the people that went down with it, but they have been told it’s too difficult and the water is too deep.

      He compares this to the vast amounts of money and resources spent on searching for five people on the Titan submersible in the North Atlantic in June.

      “But we were hundreds,” he says. “It’s not just a ship. It’s our friends and family.”

      https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-66154654

    • Italy warned of dead children on migrant ship hours before it capsized

      The findings of an investigation by Welt am Sonntag and

      POLITICO raise questions about whether the authorities knew the boat was in distress earlier than they admitted.

      Early on the morning of the Adriana’s final day at sea, the Italian authorities sent a troubling warning to their EU and Greek colleagues: Two children had died aboard the overloaded migrant boat.

      The alert was sent at 8:01 a.m. UTC, just over an hour after the Italians initially spotted the vessel at 6:51 a.m., an investigation by Welt am Sonntag and POLITICO found. The ship would later stall out in the ocean and capsize that night, killing hundreds of migrants on board.

      The new details are revealed in an internal document at the EU border agency Frontex and seen by Welt, part of a “serious incident report” Frontex is compiling on the tragedy.

      The findings raise questions about whether the authorities knew of serious distress on the boat much earlier than they have admitted. The document further complicates the timeline European authorities have given about the boat — Frontex has said its own plane was the first to discover the Adriana at 9:47 a.m., while the Greek government has said it was alerted around 8 a.m.

      According to the internal document, Rome’s warning went to both Frontex and the Greek coast guard’s central office for rescue operations in Piraeus, which sits on the coast near Athens. Yet despite the alert, the Greek authorities did not send a coast guard vessel to the boat until 7:40 p.m., nearly 12 hours later. The boat then capsized around 11 p.m., roughly 15 hours after Rome’s notice first came through, leaving approximately 600 people dead.

      Survivors have said the Greek coast guard’s attempts to attach ropes to the ship caused it to capsize — accounts Greek officials say are not definitive. Only 104 people were brought to shore alive.

      Frontex declined to comment on the internal document showing the Italian warning, citing the “ongoing investigations” and referring to a June 16 statement. That statement lists a chronology of events starting at 9:47 a.m. with the Frontex plane spotting the boat.

      Dimitris Kairidis, Greece’s newly appointed migration minister, told POLITICO in Brussels that he had not seen the Frontex note, and he neither confirmed nor denied that Athens had received the Rome alert mentioning dead children.

      There is, he said, an “independent judicial investigation,” and if anyone is found responsible, “there will definitely be consequences.”

      “But until then,” he added, “we should not rush to conclusions and bow to political pressure.”

      Asked for comment, the Greek government referred to a statement on its coast guard website from June 14, which mentions information coming from Rome around 8 a.m. It doesn’t say whether that information included a warning about dead children on board.

      The Italian government did not respond to a request for comment.

      Greece has faced mounting political pressure over the tragedy.

      German lawmaker Clara Bünger, a member of The Left, is pushing for a review of the drama that unfolded off the shore of Pylos.

      She told Welt that “upon sighting such an overcrowded boat, Frontex should have immediately issued a mayday distress signal; even more so if Frontex knew that there were already Tuesday morning about two dead children on board.”

      That this didn’t happen, she added, is “outrageous and unforgivable.”

      Frontex has been trying to rehab its reputation under new Director Hans Leijtens, but Bünger argued he is on a doomed mission. Frontex, she argued, should just be dissolved.

      “This project has failed miserably,” she said.

      Erik Marquardt, a German European Parliament member from the Greens, pointed out that Germany chairs the Frontex Management Board.

      “I expect the German government to enforce full transparency here,” he said.

      The European Commission, the EU’s executive, said it does not comment on “ongoing investigations” or “leaks.”

      But the Commission stressed: “The facts about the tragic incident off the coast of Pylos must be clarified. That is the priority now.”

      https://www.politico.eu/article/italy-warned-greece-of-dead-children-on-migrant-ship-hour-before-it-capsize

    • Frontex und Athen wussten 15 Stunden vor Bootsdrama von toten Kindern an Bord

      Mitte Juni starben vor der griechischen Küste 600 Migranten, als ihr Boot kenterte. Über die Verantwortung für die schlimmste Katastrophe seit Jahren im Mittelmeer wird seitdem gestritten. Nun kommt heraus: Eine wichtige Information zu den wahren Abläufen wird nach Informationen von WELT AM SONNTAG bewusst zurückgehalten.

      Die EU-Grenzschutzagentur Frontex sowie die griechische Regierung verschweigen die wahren Abläufe eines Bootsdramas im Juni mit rund 600 Toten. Wie WELT AM SONNTAG und das ebenfalls zum Axel-Springer-Verlag gehörende Nachrichtenunternehmen „Politico“ erfuhren, muss die hochdramatische Situation vor der griechischen Küste Athen und den Grenzschützern viel früher bewusst gewesen sein als bislang bekannt.

      Frontex hatte in einer Stellungnahme mitgeteilt, als Erstes habe ein agentureigenes Flugzeug das völlig überladene Boot um 9.47 Uhr (UTC) entdeckt. Allerdings soll das Boot – so geht es aus einem internen Frontex-Dokument hervor – bereits um 6.51 Uhr erstmals gesichtet worden sein – und zwar durch italienische Behörden.

      Um 8.01 Uhr alarmierte die Seenotrettungstelle Rom demnach sowohl Frontex als auch die Leitstelle in Piräus, von wo aus Rettungseinsätze der griechischen Küstenwache gesteuert werden. Noch brisanter: Bestandteil dieses Alarms war die Information, dass an Bord des Bootes bereits zwei Kinder verstorben seien. Wie Italien an seine Informationen zu der Existenz des Bootes und den toten Kindern gelangte, ist unklar.

      Der Alarm ist nach Informationen von WELT AM SONNTAG Teil der Notizen des noch in Arbeit befindlichen „Serious Incident Report“, der das Aktenzeichen 12595/2023 trägt. Trotz des Alarms aus Roms unternahmen die griechischen Behörden lange nichts. Erst gegen 19.40 Uhr traf ein Schiff der Küstenwache in der Nähe der Migranten ein.

      Das Boot kenterte schließlich gegen 23 Uhr, 15 Stunden nach dem Alarm aus Rom. Unmittelbar davor hatten griechische Küstenwächter Seile an das Boot angebracht, was – so berichteten Überlebende – zum Kentern geführt habe. Nur 104 Menschen wurden lebend an Land gebracht.

      WELT AM SONNTAG konfrontierte Frontex mit den Informationen zu dem Alarm aus Rom. Wann ging dieser ein? Was war die Reaktion der Agentur? In einer schriftlichen Antwort hieß es, man könne „aufgrund von laufenden Ermittlungen“ kein Statement abgeben, das über jenes vom 16. Juni hinausgeht. Darin wird die Chronologie der Ereignisse geschildert – mit 9.47 Uhr als Startpunkt, der Sichtung des Bootes durch ein Frontex-Flugzeug.

      Der neu ernannte griechische Migrationsminister Dimitris Kairidis sagte in Brüssel, er habe die Frontex-Notiz nicht gesehen; weder bestätigte noch dementierte er, dass Athen diese Information aus Rom erhalten hat. Er erklärte, dass „eine unabhängige gerichtliche Untersuchung“ stattfinde. Sofern jemand für schuldig befunden werde, „wird es definitiv Konsequenzen geben.

      Bis dahin solle man „keine voreiligen Schlüsse ziehen und sich dem politischen Druck beugen“. Am Freitag verwies Athen auf ein Statement auf der Küstenwache-Webseite vom 14. Juni, in dem eine Info zu dem Boot aus Rom gegen acht Uhr erwähnt wird. Von toten Kindern kein Wort. Die italienische Regierung beantwortete eine Anfrage zu dem Sachverhalt nicht.

      Der Druck aus der Politik auf die Behörde und Athen wächst derweil. Die Linken-Bundestagsabgeordnete Clara Bünger, die auf eine Aufarbeitung des Pylos-Dramas drängt, sagte WELT AM SONNTAG: „Beim Sichten eines derart überfüllten Bootes hätte Frontex sofort einen Mayday-Notruf machen müssen. Das gilt umso mehr, wenn Frontex wusste, dass es am Dienstagmorgen bereits zwei tote Kinder an Bord gab.“ Dass das nicht geschehen ist, sei „ungeheuerlich und unverzeihbar“. Frontex-Direktor Hans Leijtens hätte angekündigt, er wolle Vertrauen wiederherstellen und Menschenrechte achten: „Dieses Vorhaben ist krachend gescheitert.“ Bünger sagte, Frontex sei nicht reformierbar – und forderte die Auflösung.

      Der EU-Parlamentarier Erik Marquardt (Grüne) verwies darauf, dass Deutschland den Vorsitz im Frontex-Verwaltungsrat hat: „Ich erwarte von der Bundesregierung, dass sie hier vollständige Transparenz durchsetzt.“ Derartige Versprechen seitens Leijtens würden bislang nicht eingehalten.

      Die EU-Kommission ließ verlauten, man äußere sich „weder zu laufenden Untersuchungen noch zu Leaks“, machte aber klar: „Die Fakten über den tragischen Vorfall vor der Küste von Pylos müssen geklärt werden. Das ist jetzt die Priorität.“

      https://www.welt.de/politik/ausland/article246382076/Migration-Frontex-und-Athen-wussten-15-Stunden-vor-Bootsdrama-von-toten-Kindern

    • Pylos shipwreck: the Greek authorities must ensure that effective investigations are conducted

      In a letter to the Prime Minister of Greece, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, published today, the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Dunja Mijatović, stresses that Greece has the legal obligation to conduct effective investigations into the Pylos shipwreck, which resulted in the death of more than 80 persons with many hundreds still missing, to establish the facts and, where appropriate, to lead to the punishment of those responsible.

      The Commissioner expresses concern about reports of pressure having been exercised on survivors and about allegations of irregularities in the collection of evidence and testimonies, which may have led to a minimisation of the focus on certain actors in this tragedy, including the Greek Coast Guard. In the case of Safi and Others v. Greece, the European Court of Human Rights spelled out the parameters of an effective investigation into a similar event. Among those parameters, the Commissioner notes that independence is critical to securing the trust of the victims’ relatives, the survivors, the public and Greece’s international partners. While stressing that investigations cannot be limited to the role of alleged smugglers, she requests clarifications on the scope of the investigations initiated after the shipwreck.

      Referring to the right of missing persons’ families to know the truth, the Commissioner seeks information on the efforts made to ensure that the remains of deceased migrants are located, respected, identified, and buried.

      Expressing concerns at restrictions on survivors’ freedom of movement and the way asylum interviews have been conducted, she requests information on the concrete measures that Greece has taken to abide by its human rights obligations regarding reception conditions and access to the asylum procedure.

      "In my view, the shipwreck of 14 June is unfortunately not an isolated incident”, writes the Commissioner. This should prompt a reconsideration of the approach to refugees and migrants arriving by sea at the political, policy and practical level. In this context, the Commissioner urges the Prime Minister to ensure that Greece abides by its international obligations regarding search and rescue, both under maritime law and human rights law.

      Finally, the Commissioner reiterates her call for the Greek government to actively create and maintain an enabling legal framework and a political and public environment which is conducive to the existence and functioning of civil society organisations and to the work of human rights defenders and investigative journalists, and to stop their criminalisation and other forms of harassment.

      https://www.coe.int/en/web/commissioner/-/pylos-shipwreck-the-greek-authorities-must-ensure-that-effective-investigations

      Pour télécharger la lettre:
      https://rm.coe.int/letter-addressed-to-the-prime-minister-of-greece-by-dunja-mijatovic-co/1680ac03ce

      #conseil_de_l'Europe

    • Après le naufrage d’un bateau avec 750 personnes à bord au large de la Grèce, une enquête de la médiatrice européenne sur le rôle de Frontex

      #Emily_O’Reilly, dont le rôle est de demander des comptes aux institutions et aux agences de l’Union européenne, a annoncé avoir ouvert cette procédure à la suite du naufrage survenu en juin, le pire en Méditerranée depuis 2016.

      Un peu plus d’un mois après le pire naufrage d’un bateau de migrants depuis 2016 en Méditerrannée, survenu mi-juin au large de la Grèce et qui a fait des centaines de morts, la médiatrice européenne a annoncé, mercredi 26 juillet, avoir ouvert une enquête afin de « clarifier le rôle » de Frontex, l’agence de l’Union européenne (UE) chargée des frontières, dans les opérations de sauvetage.

      « Alors que le rôle des autorités grecques fait l’objet d’une enquête au niveau national, celui de Frontex dans les opérations de recherche et de sauvetage doit également être clarifié », a souligné dans un communiqué Emily O’Reilly. Le rôle de la médiatrice est de demander des comptes aux institutions et aux agences de l’UE.

      « Il a été signalé que Frontex avait bien alerté les autorités grecques de la présence du navire et proposé son assistance ; mais, ce qui n’est pas clair, c’est ce qu’elle aurait pu ou aurait dû faire d’autre », a-t-elle ajouté.

      Le patron de Frontex, Hans Leijtens, a salué l’ouverture de cette enquête, assurant être prêt à coopérer « en toute transparence » pour expliquer le rôle de son agence. « Si nous ne coordonnons pas les opérations de recherche et de sauvetage, sauver des vies en mer est essentiel. Nous apportons une aide aux autorités nationales lorsque cela est nécessaire », a-t-il ajouté dans un message sur X (ex-Twitter).

      Partage d’informations entre Frontex et les autorités nationales

      Le chalutier vétuste et surchargé, qui était parti de Libye, a fait naufrage au large du sud de Grèce dans la nuit du 13 au 14 juin. Il transportait environ 750 personnes à son bord, mais seule une centaine de migrants ont survécu.

      Depuis le naufrage, les interrogations sont tournées autour de la lenteur de l’intervention des gardes-côtes grecs et sur les causes du chavirement de l’embarcation.

      Par cette enquête sur le rôle de Frontex, Mme O’Reilly veut en particulier se pencher sur le partage d’informations entre l’agence européenne et les autorités nationales en matière d’opérations de recherche et de sauvetage.

      Elle la coordonnera aux côtés du médiateur grec, Andreas Pottakis, qui a « la compétence d’examiner » la façon dont les autorités grecques se sont occupées du bateau Adriana.

      Mi-juillet, les eurodéputés ont réclamé l’élaboration d’une « stratégie de recherche et de sauvetage fiable et permanente » des migrants en Méditerranée. Dans une résolution transpartisane, dépourvue de caractère contraignant, ils ont appelé Bruxelles à apporter aux Etats membres de l’UE un « soutien matériel, financier et opérationnel » pour renforcer leurs capacités de sauvetage en mer.

      Les élus du Parlement européen citaient les chiffres de l’Organisation internationale pour les migrations (OIM), selon laquelle plus de 27 600 personnes ont disparu en Méditerranée depuis 2014.

      https://www.lemonde.fr/international/article/2023/07/26/naufrage-d-un-bateau-de-migrants-au-large-de-la-grece-la-mediatrice-europeen

    • Smuggler, Warlord, EU ally

      The lead smugglers behind the Pylos shipwreck are closely linked to General Khalifa Haftar, the Libyan warlord who EU leaders are partnering with to curb migration

      On the night of 13 June, a vessel carrying around 750 men, women and children mainly from Pakistan, Egypt and Syria capsized in Greek waters. Only 104 men survived. All women and children died.

      In an earlier investigation we revealed Greek coastguard efforts to cover up their role in the fatal shipwreck. The country’s naval court has since launched a preliminary investigation into the coastguard’s response to the sinking, with no arrests or suspensions of officers so far.

      The only arrests made were those of nine Egyptians, accused in a separate inquiry of being part of the smuggling network behind the deadly voyage. They were charged with six counts including illegal trafficking of foreigners, organisation crime and manslaughter by negligence.

      Using the contacts and documents already available to us, we pursued a follow-up investigation to establish the truth about any smugglers behind the fatal sea crossing, with the aim of identifying the key players and establishing the extent to which the nine Egyptians in prison in Greece are actually responsible.
      METHODS

      Lighthouse Reports, Der Spiegel, SIRAJ, El País and Reporters United used the previously established relationships with survivors and their families, as well as a network of sources in Libya, to investigate the smuggling network behind the Pylos wreck.

      We also looked into the ongoing court case against nine alleged smugglers, analysing confidential court documents and speaking to five of the families of those arrested.
      STORYLINES

      While investigating the circumstances that led to the shipwreck and Greece’s responsibility in it, we spoke to 17 survivors.

      Many named the key smugglers involved in organising the trip during our interviews with them – none of them were people on board the ship.

      Some were Eastern Libyan nationals with ties to the region’s powerful ruler, Khalifa Haftar.

      One name stood out: Muhammad Saad Al-Kahshi Al-Mnfi. Three sources identified him as a key player in the smuggling operation: a survivor, a lower level smuggler and a Libyan insider all gave his name.

      Al-Kahshi works for a special forces navy unit called the “frogmen”, run by a family member of his, Bahar Al-Tawati Al-Mnfi. Al-Tawati Al-Mnfi works under the direct orders of Khalifa Haftar.

      One survivor explained that Al-Kahshi Al-Mnfi used his position to issue the licence that allowed the boat (which came from Egypt) to navigate in Libyan waters and made sure the Libyan coast guards were paid to shut off the marine radar devices that detect ship movements to allow the departure.

      We found that the network goes far beyond Al-Kahshi Al-Mnfi.

      Survivors, insiders and analysts explained that the trip was organised with wide ranging support from powerful people reporting to Haftar.

      Libya expert Jalel Harchaoui said the “migrant business” had been flourishing in Eastern Libya in the last 18 months. “Haftar cannot say that he’s not aware,” he added. “He can’t say that he’s not involved.”

      “All trips are overseen by his son, Saddam Haftar” said one survivor. “Saddam leads the cooperation himself or assigns one of the frogmen battalions [this may have been the case for the Pylos trip] or the 2020 battalion, depending on who has more migrants to pay the fees.”

      Five survivors who flew from Syria to Libya describe how immigration officials facilitated their arrival at Benghazi’s military airport. One said: “At the airport, a person took my passport, went to immigration office, put a stamp and took us outside”.

      There was a curfew in Eastern Libya on the night of departure (حظر التجول ليلاً في طبرق الليبية), yet the survivors we interviewed said that it was at night that they, along with hundreds of passengers, were taken to a small bay near Wadi Arzouka, east of Tobruk, and boarded onto the vessel.

      Militias supported by Khalifa Haftar are not only involved in smuggling, they are also active in illegal “pullbacks” of migrants in EU waters.

      At least two pullbacks (in May and July this year) were carried out by a militia (Tariq Bin Ziyad) controlled by Haftar’s son, including one in Maltese waters.

      At least four of the people who died in the Pylos shipwreck were on the boat that was pulled back by the Tariq Bin Ziyad militia on 25 May, according to family members.

      These findings raise serious questions about EU member states’ migration prevention policies.

      It is known by EU authorities that Eastern Libyan militias answering to Haftar carry out both pullback and smuggling operations. The IOM and the UNHCR briefed EU officials on an increase in departures from eastern Libya , describing them as a “lucrative source of income for the eastern Libyan rulers involved”.

      In spite of this, Italy and Malta are making deals with Haftar to prevent migration.

      In May, Haftar met with Italian PM Meloni to discuss migration related issues and in June Italy’s interior minister said they would ask Haftar to collaborate in stopping departures.

      The same month, for the first time, a Maltese delegation met Haftar in Benghazi to discuss security challenges in the region, with particular emphasis on irregular migration.

      Internal EU documents show the commission is looking for ways to curb arrivals from Benghazi’s airport with the collaboration of local operators.

      Harchaoui described Italian efforts to encourage Khalifa Haftar to stop departures as “bribery” and pointed to “a very clear admission of how Italy intends to work and what it promised to Haftar: if you reduce the human smuggling volumes, we will inject capital”.

      Meanwhile, there’s growing evidence that nine Egyptians imprisoned for trafficking in Greece are being scapegoated.

      We spoke to the families of five of the nine Egyptians under arrest – all of them say that they were passengers, not smugglers.

      Three of them provided evidence that their relatives paid for their trip, indicating that it’s highly unlikely that they were involved in organising the smuggling operation.

      We were able to verify the identity of a smuggler who asked one of the accused men for money ahead of the trip.

      We previously found that witness testimony provided to the coast guard had been tampered with, including survivors’ answers to questions about smugglers.

      In the documents, two answers to questions about smugglers contain identical sentences.

      Those who were interrogated by the coast guard mentioned being pressured to place the blame on the nine Egyptians later indicted.

      https://www.lighthousereports.com/investigation/smuggler-warlord-eu-ally

    • Naufrage au large de la Grèce : deux ONG pointent les défaillances des autorités grecques

      Dans un rapport publié le 3 août, Amnesty International et Human Rights Watch reviennent sur les circonstances troubles du drame survenu aux portes de l’Europe dans la nuit du 13 au 14 juin, qui a coûté la vie à au moins six cents personnes. Les associations réclament une enquête « efficace, indépendante et impartiale ».

      C’est un naufrage qui a d’abord marqué les esprits de par son ampleur : pas moins de 750 personnes se trouvaient à bord d’un bateau de pêche en bois, L’Adriana, au moment où il a chaviré, dans la nuit du 13 au 14 juin, au large de Pýlos en Grèce. Partie de Tobrouk en Libye pour rejoindre l’Italie, l’embarcation surchargée transportait des ressortissants syriens, égyptiens, palestiniens ou pakistanais, dont de nombreuses femmes et enfants placés dans la cale pour être « à l’abri » des éventuelles intempéries ou du soleil.

      Mais on retient aussi les circonstances troubles dans lequel il s’est produit. Très vite après le naufrage, des premières voix parmi la centaine de rescapés se sont élevées pour pointer le rôle potentiel des gardes-côtes grecs dans ce drame.

      Mediapart a documenté, dès le 17 juin, cette version différente de celle avancée par les autorités du pays. Une enquête de la BBC est venue l’appuyer, puis le New York Times a suivi : des témoignages de survivant·es attestent que les gardes-côtes ont non seulement tardé à organiser un sauvetage, mais ont aussi tenté de tirer le bateau à l’aide d’une corde, pouvant ainsi avoir contribué à le faire chavirer.

      Après un déplacement de neuf jours en Grèce et une vingtaine d’entretiens réalisés avec des exilé·es sur place, Amnesty International et Human Rights Watch ont relevé également les « disparités extrêmement préoccupantes » entre les récits des survivant·es du Pýlos et la version des événements livrée par les autorités.

      Les survivant·es interrogé·es par les deux ONG « ont systématiquement déclaré que le navire des gardes-côtes grecs envoyé sur les lieux avait attaché une corde à L’Adriana et l’avait remorqué, le faisant tanguer, puis chavirer », peut-on lire dans le rapport d’enquête publié conjointement ce jeudi 3 août.

      Aux ONG, les responsables des gardes-côtes ont de leur côté affirmé que leurs équipes s’étaient approchées du bateau, reconnaissant avoir utilisé une corde, mais qu’après de « premières négociations », les passagers avaient repoussé la corde pour poursuivre leur trajet.
      Le rôle des gardes-côtes grecs et de Frontex interrogé

      Une version contredite par le témoignage des survivant·es interrogé·es : « Peu importe leur position sur le bateau, les survivants disent tous avoir ressenti le mouvement du bateau une fois tracté, qui avançait alors très vite alors que le moteur ne fonctionnait plus, précise Alice Autin, chercheuse pour la division Europe et Asie centrale à Human Rights Watch. Tous sont d’accord pour dire que c’est cela qui a fait vaciller le bateau, avant de le faire chavirer. »

      Frontex a par ailleurs déclaré avoir repéré l’embarcation dès la veille du naufrage, ce qui a poussé certains acteurs à s’interroger sur le rôle de l’agence européenne de surveillance des frontières. Pourquoi n’est-elle pas intervenue pour venir en aide aux passagers ? A-t-elle bien alerté les autorités grecques pour qu’une opération de recherche et de sauvetage soit menée en urgence ?

      Dans un communiqué, Frontex a précisé que l’un de ses avions de surveillance « avait immédiatement informé les autorités compétentes », sans toutefois intervenir, au prétexte que les exilé·es avaient refusé « toute aide ». Le lendemain du drame, le patron de l’agence Hans Leijtens était en déplacement en Grèce pour « mieux comprendre ce qu’il s’était passé », et voir comment ses équipes pouvaient aider les autorités grecques, précisant que le fait de « sauver des vies était leur priorité ».

      Une version qui ne semble pas avoir convaincu la médiatrice européenne, qui a décidé, le 24 juillet dernier, d’ouvrir une enquête de sa propre initiative pour interroger le rôle de Frontex dans les opérations de recherche et de sauvetage à la suite du naufrage survenu en Grèce.

      « Il est clair que Frontex a joué un rôle important dans la mission de recherche et de sauvetage du point de vue de la coordination. À ce titre, je pense qu’il est possible de clarifier davantage son rôle dans de telles opérations », a déclaré dans une lettre ouverte Emily O’Reilly, qui occupe le poste de Médiateur européen.

      « Il a été signalé que Frontex avait bien alerté les autorités grecques de la présence du navire et proposé son assistance ; mais ce qui n’est pas clair, c’est ce qu’elle aurait pu ou aurait dû faire d’autre », a-t-elle souligné. Frontex s’est dite prête à coopérer « en toute transparence ».

      « Cela posera des questions importantes sur le rôle, les pratiques et les protocoles de l’agence dans le contexte des opérations [en mer] et sur les mesures qu’elle a prises pour se conformer à ses obligations en matière de droits fondamentaux et aux lois de l’UE », estiment Amnesty International et Human Rights Watch.
      Des appels à l’aide ignorés

      Les deux ONG s’interrogent aussi sur l’aide que les gardes-côtes grecs auraient pu apporter aux migrant·es dans les heures ayant précédé le naufrage. De hauts responsables des gardes-côtes leur auraient affirmé que « les personnes à bord du bateau limitaient leur demande d’aide à de l’eau et de la nourriture » et avaient exprimé leur volonté de poursuivre leur route vers l’Italie.

      Mais les survivant·es interrogé·es par Amnesty International et Human Rights Watch ont « déclaré que les passagers avaient demandé à être secourus » et qu’ils avaient entendu d’autres personnes à bord de l’embarcation appeler à l’aide lors d’un échange avec un téléphone satellite, plusieurs heures avant le naufrage. Certains auraient enlevé leur T-shirt pour le secouer en l’air et appeler à l’aide, d’autres auraient hurlé à l’attention des deux navires marchands croisés avant le drame.

      « Des récits concordent pour dire que des personnes ont perdu la vie à bord du bateau avant le naufrage et que l’un des corps a été placé sur le pont supérieur au-dessus de la cabine pour signifier l’urgence de la situation », poursuit Alice Autin d’Human rights watch. Et d’ajouter : « Les gardes-côtes grecs avaient la responsabilité de venir en aide aux passagers du bateau et il apparaît au vu des résultats de notre enquête qu’il y a des doutes sur la manière dont cela s’est déroulé. »

      Plusieurs survivants ont enfin déclaré que les autorités leur auraient confisqué leur téléphone après le naufrage, poursuivent les ONG. Or, certaines personnes auraient « tout filmé ». Ces téléphones pourraient, s’ils réapparaissaient, servir dans le cadre de l’enquête ouverte par la justice grecque.

      « Il est essentiel d’analyser ce qu’ils contiennent pour faire toute la lumière sur le déroulement des faits », conclut Alice Autin. Amnesty International et Human Rights Watch réclament une enquête « efficace, indépendante et impartiale ».

      https://www.mediapart.fr/journal/international/030823/naufrage-au-large-de-la-grece-deux-ong-pointent-les-defaillances-des-autor

    • Greece: Disparities in accounts of Pylos shipwreck underscore the need for human rights compliant inquiry

      Starkly divergent accounts from survivors and Greek authorities around the circumstances of the deadly Pylos shipwreck, underscore the urgent need for an effective, independent, and impartial investigation, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said today. 

      The disparities between survivors’ accounts of the Pylos shipwreck and the authorities’ version of the events are extremely concerning

      The fishing vessel, Adriana, was carrying an estimated 750 people when it sank on 14 June off the coast of Pylos. In the aftermath, accounts from several of the 104 survivors suggest that the vessel was towed by a Greek coast guard boat, causing the fatal wreck.  The Greek authorities have strongly denied these claims.

      “The disparities between survivors’ accounts of the Pylos shipwreck and the authorities’ version of the events are extremely concerning” said Judith Sunderland, Associate Europe and Central Asia Director at Human Rights Watch.

      “The Greek authorities, with support and scrutiny from the international community, should ensure that there is a transparent investigation to provide truth and justice for survivors and families of the victims, and hold those responsible to account.”  

      A delegation from Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch visited Greece between 4 and 13 July 2023 as part of ongoing research into the circumstances of the shipwreck and steps toward accountability. They interviewed 19 survivors of the shipwreck, 4 relatives of the missing, and nongovernmental organizations, UN and international agencies and organizations, and representatives of the Hellenic Coast Guard and the Greek Police.

      The organizations’ initial observations confirm the concerns reported by several other reputable sources as to the dynamics of the shipwreck. Survivors interviewed by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch consistently stated that the Hellenic Coast Guard vessel dispatched to the scene attached a rope to the Adriana and started towing, causing it to sway and then capsize. The survivors also consistently said that passengers asked to be rescued, and that they witnessed others on the boat plead for a rescue by satellite phone in the hours before their boat capsized.  

      In a meeting with Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, senior officials of the Hellenic Coast Guard said individuals on the boat limited their request for assistance to food and water and expressed their intention to proceed to Italy. They said the crew of the Coast Guard vessel came close to the Adriana and used a rope to approach the boat to assess whether passengers wanted help, but that after the first “negotiations”, passengers threw the rope back and the boat continued its journey.

      This preventable tragedy demonstrates the bankruptcy of EU migration policies predicated on the racialized exclusion of people on the move and deadly deterrence

      Greek authorities have opened two criminal investigations, one targeted at the alleged smugglers, and another into the actions of the coast guard. It is vital for these investigations to comply with international human rights standards of impartiality, independence, and effectiveness. 

      To enhance the credibility of judicial investigations both in practice and perception, they should be under the supervision of the Supreme Court Prosecutor’s Office. Further, Greek authorities should ensure that the Greek Ombudsman’s office is promptly provided with information and resources necessary to carry out its functions as the National Mechanism for Investigating Incidents of Arbitrariness, in relation to any disciplinary investigation.   

      Several survivors said that the authorities confiscated their phones following the shipwreck but did not give them any related documentation or tell them how to retrieve their property. Nabil, a survivor of Syrian origin, told the organisations, “It’s not only the evidence of the wreck that has been taken from me, it is my memories of my friends who were lost, my life has been taken from me”. 

      The Greek authorities’ longstanding failure to ensure accountability for violent and unlawful pushbacks at the country’s borders raises concerns over their ability and willingness to carry out effective and independent investigations.

      Lessons should be learned from the European Court of Human Rights 2022 decision about the 2014 “Farmakonisi” shipwreck, in which survivors argued that their boat had capsized because the Hellenic Coast Guard used dangerous maneuvers to tow them towards Turkish waters. The Court condemned Greece for the authorities’ failures in handling rescue operations and for shortcomings in the subsequent investigation of the incident, including how victims’ testimony was handled.  

      In view of the seriousness and international significance of the Pylos tragedy, Greek authorities should seek out and welcome international and/or European assistance and cooperation in the conduct of national investigations as an additional guarantee of independence, effectiveness and transparency.  

      A full and credible investigation into the shipwreck should seek to clarify any responsibility for both the sinking of the ship and delays or shortcomings in the rescue efforts that may have contributed to the appalling loss of life. The investigation should involve taking the testimonies of all survivors, under conditions that guarantee their trust and safety.

      All forensic evidence, such as traces of communications, videos, and photographs, should be collected, assessed and safeguarded to facilitate accountability processes. Any property, such as cell phones, taken from survivors for investigative purposes should be appropriately logged and returned within a reasonable amount of time.  

      All of those involved in or with knowledge of the incident, including the Hellenic Coast Guard, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex), the captains and crews of the two merchant vessels, and others who took part in the rescue operation after the shipwreck should be invited or required to testify, as appropriate, and should cooperate fully and promptly with the investigations.

      To ensure this is the last, and not the latest, in an unconscionably long list of tragedies in the Mediterranean, the EU should reorient its border policies towards rescue at sea and safe and legal routes

      In parallel to the national investigation, the EU Ombudsman has announced that it will open an inquiry into the role of Frontex in search and rescue (SAR) activities in the Mediterranean, including in the Adriana shipwreck. This will pose important questions about the agency’s role, practices and protocols in the context of SAR operations and on what actions it has taken to comply with its fundamental rights obligations and EU laws during this and other shipwrecks.

      Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch are continuing to investigate the Pylos shipwreck and demand justice for all those harmed.

      “This preventable tragedy demonstrates the bankruptcy of EU migration policies predicated on the racialized exclusion of people on the move and deadly deterrence,” said Esther Major, Amnesty International’s Senior Research Adviser for Europe.

      “To ensure this is the last, and not the latest, in an unconscionably long list of tragedies in the Mediterranean, the EU should reorient its border policies towards rescue at sea and safe and legal routes for asylum seekers, refugees and migrants.”  

      Background 

      As part of their ongoing investigation, the organizations have sent letters requesting information to several key entities, including the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Insular Policy, the Prosecutors of the Supreme Court and of the Piraeus Naval Court and Frontex.

      On 13 June 2023, Frontex said its surveillance plane spotted the Adriana at 09:47 UTC (12:47 EEST/in Athens) and alerted authorities in Greece and Italy. In the following hours, two merchant vessels and later a Hellenic Coast Guard vessel interacted with the Adriana. After the boat capsized at around 2 a.m. EEST on 14 June, only 104 survivors, including several children, were rescued.

      The Prosecutor of Kalamata ordered the arrest of nine Egyptian nationals who survived the shipwreck on charges of smuggling, membership in an organized criminal network, manslaughter, and other serious crimes.

      Following an order by the Head of the Prosecutor’s Office of the Piraeus Naval Court, a prosecutor is currently conducting a preliminary investigation into the conditions of the shipwreck and the potential punishable offences by members of the Hellenic Coast Guard. The organizations have sought information with the Greek Minister of Maritime Affairs and Insular Policy about any disciplinary investigation opened into the actions of members of the Hellenic Coast Guard.

      https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2023/08/greece-disparities-in-accounts-of-pylos-shipwreck-underscore-the-need-for-h