No smoke without fire

Greece is the natural home of the Olympic Games

In the first of two features, the BBC's reporter in Athens, Paul Wood, takes a look at the continuing problems surrounding the 2004 Olympics in Greece.

The confusion surrounding the 2004 Olympics in Greece is encapsulated in the debacle over a headquarters for the national Organising Committee, ATHOC.

An expensive new building was acquired in a fashionable quarter of Athens but then abandoned after complaints that the presence of a supermarket in the basement would undermine the high ideals of the Olympic movement.

Supporters of the move say that Greece could not have the world's Press and international Olympic dignitaries fighting their way through queues of shoppers with supermarket trolleys.

Nevertheless, the Prime Minister, Costas Simitis, was reported in the Greek Press to be furious that money had been wasted as the cost of hosting the Olympics continued to escalate.

Greek Prime Minister Costas Simitis is furious that huge sums have been wasted

Greece lost the centenary games in 1996 because the IOC was appalled at the lack of infrastructure and poor state of public transport in Athens.

Some of the those problems have now been addressed - with for instance a new Metro system - but a stinging IOC report back in April still identified serious problems in accommodation, traffic, security, communications, construction, venues and infrastructure.

The IOC gave Greece 100 days to deal with a number of serious criticisms of its preparations for the Games. That deadline falls on August 23 when senior IOC officials will again visit Athens.

However, a new airport to deal with the thousands of extra visitors still has not been finished, an extra 25,000 hotel rooms will have to be constructed by 2004, and the International Olympic village is still a barren tract of scrub-land being grazed by a few goats. In a parliamentary debate, one opposition MP said that Athens was "the capital of sloppiness."

National panic

There has been a national panic at the thought that Greece might be humiliated by having the Games wrested away. "A slap in the face for Greece", was the headline in the leading Greek newspaper Eleftherotypia, about the damning IOC report, its main editorial concluding that "internationally, we are a laughing stock".

The right-wing Greek daily Estia wondered how projects which would have required decades under normal circumstances would be completed in a mere four years. "Neither the government nor the opposition comprehended the enormity of the task which our country undertook to carry out in September 1997."

Greece hosted the 1997 World Athletics Championships

The most important concern is security - heightened following the murder last month of Britain's military attaché, Brigadier Stephen Saunders, by the far-left group November 17.

Not one single member of November 17 has ever been caught in 25 years of politically motivated assassinations. The US State Department's annual Patterns of Global Terrorism report says that Greece is second only to Colombia in the number of "terrorist" attacks against American targets.

The former CIA director, James Woolsey, made the damaging charge that "absolutely nothing" had been done by the Greek government about November 17, because some senior figures in Greek public life might be embarrassed by what would emerge at a trial.

"If not the identities, then at least very strong leads to be able to roll up this organisation have been in the possession of senior Greek governmental officials over the last 25 years. It is something which the Greek government could almost certainly make a great deal of progress on if they put their minds to it," he said.

Corporate risk

The London based analysts Control Risks Group warn of the dangers in a recent confidential briefing for corporate clients, leaked to the financial press.

"Ultra-leftists may stage attacks to mark their opposition to the 2004 Olympic Games," the briefing says. "Such groups - and some sections of the general public - oppose the Games on the basis that they will divert money from public welfare spending. Opposition to the Games will include demonstrations and possibly sporadic attacks."

The Public Order Minister Michalis Chrisohoides - the ultimate head of the police - seemed to admit that Greece did not yet possess the expertise to protect the athletes, officials and visitors at the 2004 Games.

"The security of the Olympic Games is know-how," he said. "It is knowledge that we do not have. We have to acquire it.'' Chrisohoides said an estimated 50,000 police officers - nearly the current strength of the department - would be used during the games.

An article in the Wall Street Journal, suggesting that American corporations such as Xerox might pull sponsorship of the Games because of concerns about security touched a raw nerve here, drawing furious condemnation from the government.

The Greek government's chief spokesman Dimitras Reppas said the article was superficial and rife with inaccuracies and that all necessary measures had been taken to ensure that the Olympics could take place in complete security.

Greece would organise a perfect Olympiad, he told reporters at his regular televised briefing. He added: "I assure you that anyone can drink their coffee anywhere in Greece and in Athens without the slightest hint of danger."