Greece announced on Tuesday that 70 000 security personnel will watch over the summer Olympics in Athens — outnumbering athletes by almost seven to one — amid worldwide concerns of possible terror attacks at the world’s biggest sporting event.
The Games’ security bill is swelling along with the number of guards involved, possibly reaching €1-billion, which would be an Olympic record, Greek Public Order Minister Yiorgos Voulgarakis said on Tuesday.
”We have taken a political decision not to make any discount in safeguarding the security of the Games,” Voulgarakis told a news conference.
The minister’s statements come 94 days before the August 13 to 29 Olympic Games’ opening ceremony, and a week after three small bombs exploded in Athens, causing no injuries but sparking security fears for the Games.
”Regardless how small, isolated or indifferent they are, such incidents constitute, in my view, high treason against the country,” Voulgarakis said, accusing the perpetrators of exposing Greece to ”pressure from abroad”.
Australia heightened its travel warning for Greece in the wake of the bombings on Tuesday, but Voulgarakis said the Australians’ reaction was ”exaggerated” and ”empty of substance”.
However, human rights groups voiced fears that the security alert could lead to a crackdown on civil liberties during the Games.
”Human rights must not be violated in order to ensure more security,” Nikos Mastrakoulis, spokesperson of the Greek chapter of human rights group Amnesty International, told a news conference on Tuesday.
”The Games must not be militarised,” said local Amnesty member Costis Papaioannou.
Thousands of security cameras being installed in the capital ”are needed only for the Games and only under certain conditions”, Papaioannou said.
”You might wonder what is to become of the cameras after the Games and what use is to be made of the data they gather,” he said.
”The cameras are here to stay,” Voulgarakis vowed in his press conference, clarifying they will help police control traffic in the notoriously congested Greek capital.
More than 1 000 cameras have been installed above downtown Athens avenues ahead of the Games. Part of them will feed a direct sight-and-sound signal to central security command in Greek police headquarters.
While security dominates the debate, fears that Olympics-related construction might not be finished in time for the August 13 opening ceremony eased on Tuesday, as a key operation to slide the main Olympic stadium’s controversial roof into its final place continued without glitches — under the eyes of visiting International Olympic Committee inspectors.
One of the two giant arches supporting the roof has been slid about half the distance to its final destination, according to state television NET.
”The only thing that worries us is that there are no problems at all,” an engineer at the worksite said.
Dozens of Greeks stopped to watch the work.
”It’s important for us — once the roof is in place we’ll be sure the Games will really take place,” music professor Christos Georgiou said.
”It takes a long to line up Greeks for work, but once that happens, they do 10 years’ work in six months,” said Alexandros Antoniou, an engineer unconnected with the project. — Sapa-AFP