From: Chrys Pelegris <chrysp@zooid.guild.org>
Subject: H.N.I.N. - EDITION 3  1/2
X-To: ALL
Organization: The Zoo of Ids
Date: Fri, 11 Dec 1992 19:25:53 GMT

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                                H.N.I.N.
                  Hellenic News & Information Network

                       " Greek News from Abroad "
                  Edition 3 - Thursday December 10/92

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Article from the "Toronto Sun" - Monday December 7, 1992
Reprinted without permission.
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BASHED!
By: George Christopoulos and Mark Stewart

    Mayor Mel Lastman was kicked and punched in a melee that killed a day of
multicultural festivities outside North York City Hall yesterday.
    Lastman pleaded with about 1,000 Macedonians and as many Greeks to avoid
confrontations that have disrupted previous celebrations by both communities.
    Metro Police Staff-Sgt. John Sillaots said Lastman was "pushed, punched
and kicked" as he tried to reach the stage to address the angry crowd.

        A STRANGER
    "I don't know the man, I haven't seen him until today, but I did see
his face," said an agitated Lastman later.
    "I think what has happened here is terrible, and is definitely not the
Canadian way," he said.
    Lastman, who didn't require medical attention, also told reporters, "I
didn't think there was any difference between Greeks and Macedonians" since he
believed they went to the same churches and ate the same foods.
    Earlier, about 3,000 people showed up at Mel Lastman Square - with some
in their own cultural dress representing more than 30 ethnic communities -
to celebrate Christmas.
    The day's festivities came to a violent end when a planned raising of the
flag of the newly proclaimed Macedonian republic was cancelled.  The
cancellation prompted about 250 men (Macedonian) to start fighting.
   Lastman had earlier granted civil premission for the flag-raising.
   About 10 battlers were hurt.
   There were no arrests in the three-hour melee.
   Fighting began as members of Metro's Macedonian community tried to hoist
their national flag at the festival in defiance of a city order.
    Fists flew in about a dozen areas of the square.  Const. Brian Weston
was kicked in the groin.
    Another constable "had to use pepper spray" to break up the crowd that
ringed Weston, Sillaots said.
    "Officers tried to pull the crowd off the copper but it was impossible."
    Some spray his Weston's eyes as he lay on the ground.  He was treated
at hospital and released.
    Macedonians - from the breakaway Yugoslav republic - and Greeks have an
ongoing dispute, partly over the use of the name Macedonia.

        GIVEN PERMISSION
    "We are Macedonians and we have every right to be here because we were
given permission to raise our flag," said Mike Stovanovski, 35, of Toronto.
    But Greeks thought the incident had been mishandled by officials.
    "We believe that the external affiards deparment should be making
decisions of this magnitude and not the mayors of cities," said Than Foussias,
president of the Greek Community of Metropolitan Toronto.

                                                With files by Ian Robertson.


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Article from the "Globe and Mail" - Monday December 7, 1992
Reprinted without permission.
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FLAG-RAISING TURNS TO FRACAS
Macedonians and Greeks scuffle at Christmas festival
By: Danielle Bochove

Toronto - A Multicultural Christmas festival erupted in violence yesterday as
Macedonians and Greeks attacked each other over a flag.
    Fighting broke out in Mel Lastman Square in North York between about
1,000 Macedonians raising their flag and 1,000 people from Metropolitan
Toronto's Greek Community, Metro police said.
    Police Constable Steve Nevill said he was appaled by the violence.
    "I have been here since 10 a.m. and I have been punched and kicked by
both sides," he said.  "I am absolutely disguested."
    Constable Nevill said he assisted one plainclothes police officer who
was kicked in the groin, squirted in the eyes with pepper spray and then
taken to the hospital with a badly bleeding nose.
    Staff Sergeant John Sillaots said between 50 and 100 officers, including
members of the Public Order Unit, were called, but made no arrests.  Only two
injuries were reported: North York Mayor Mel Lastman and the plainclothes
officer.
    "The Public Order police formed a heavier line between the two groups to
stop the fighting and move the Macedonians out," said photographer Mark
Rozitis.
    "Most were out of the square when I saw three or four police rush over
to a man.  I saw it was North York Mayor Mel Lastman.  He was down on the
ground, and it looked like someone had hit or kicked him, but I wasn't sure,"
Mr. Lastman was cut on the shin.
    The backdrop for the violence was a "Round the World Christmas Festival"
at the North York Civic Centre.  Initially there were only five patrol officers
on duty as a precaution, since both Macedonians and Greeks were participating
in the festival, Constable Nevill said.  The Macedonians were scheduled to
raise their flag at 3 p.m.
    However, by 11 a.m., almost 500 Greeks had arrived and "basically they
said, 'Over our dead body is that flag going up,'" said the constable.
    Police called for reinforcements after fights broke out in the square and
inside the food courts.  Shortly after noon the building was closed.
    "There was no violence," said Bob Moutousidis, vice president of the
Pan-Macedonian Association, a group which opposes Macedonian independence.
    "They [the Macedonians] were coming closer and closer and pushing the
Greeks in here," he said, gesturing to the south end of the square's lower
level.  "If there was violence it wasn't on the part of the Greeks because
they were in here."
    William Gouzelis, also a member of the association, said the violence
started when a Macedonian grabbed a Greek flag and swung it at someone.
    John Bitove, chairman of the Canadian Macedonian Federation, said Greek
Canadians showed up hours before Mayor Lastman was scheduled to raise the
flag and started trouble.
    "The Greeks wouldn't permit the Macedonians to get near the flag pole.
And if anyone carrying a Macedonian flag came by, they ripped it out of his
hands."
    "Mel Lastman was going up to say there would not be a flag-raising so
the crowd would disperse, but the Greeks kicked and punched and hurt him
as he was trying to get up there."

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Article from the "Toronto Star" - Monday December 7, 1992
Reprinted without permission.
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FLAG-RAISING SPARKS BRAWL
North York's Lastman hurt as police quiet crowd.
by: Dale Brazao and Jim Rankin

* Frontpage picture: * Packed for trouble: Rival fractions of Macedonian
origin - Greek and Slavic - fill Mel Lastman Square yesterday for a disputed
flag-raising ceremony, leading to clashes.  Despite a heavy policy presence
at the scene, several people received minor injuries.
  (..aside note, I happen to be in this picture if anyone is interested. )
>>> Continued to next message
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 * SLMR 2.1a * * SYSOP stands for: Sent Your Spouse Obscene Pictures
    An estimated 3,000 Macedonians - some Greek and some Slavic - kicked,
punched and hurled insults at each other yesterday as a scheduled flag-raising
ceremony in North York turned into a public free-for-all.
    The Metro police public order unit and more than 100 officers were called
in to restor order.  Eight ambulances were rushed to the scene.
    North York Mayor Mel Lastman took a blow to his shinbone when he was
caught in the brawl between the two ethnic groups, who both claim the right
to call themselves Macedonia.
    "I think it's absolutely terrible.  This is not the Canadian way," said
Lastman, who needed police protection to finish his working day at city hall.
    An undercover police officer was punched in the face and kicked in the
groin when he went to the aid of two uniformed officers who were being
punched, kicked and struck with placard sticks.
    Several people were injured when police used pepper spray to get the
attackers off the fallen officers.
    There were no arrests made.
    The brawl was a local outbreak of a political dispute between the
republic of Macedonia, newly independent of the former Yugoslavia, and Greece
- whic has a province of the same name - over the use of the Macedonian name.
    A heavy turnout of disruptive Greeks forced cancellation of a scheduled
raising of the new republic's flag, a ceremony that North York had
routinely approved as part of civic Christmas celebrations at the square.
    Greeks hung around afterwards seeking an apology from Lastman for
allowing the ceremony in the first place.
    The mayor refused, saying: "Apologize for what?  For democracy?  For
freedom of speech of allowing people to raise their flag in the city hall?"

continued on A6.

LASTMAN KICKED IN PUBLIC BRAWLING
    Mel Lastman didn't know the difference between a Greek and a Macedonian,
and yesterday he found out the hard way.
    The North York mayor found himself in the middle of a flag-raising riot
as an estimated 3,000 people belonging to rival Macedonian factions clashed
in his square - and he's sporting a 15-centimetre (6-inch) welt on his shin
to prove it.
    The Macedonians - some of Greek origin and some of Slavic origin - kicked
punched, spit and called each other names over who has the right to claim
Macedonian origin.
    The public order unit and more than 100 police officers wer called to Mel
Lastman Square to restore order.  Eight ambulances were sent to the scene.
There were no arrests but several people, including police officers, were
treated for minor injuries.
    "Hey, I didn't even know the difference between Greeks and Macedonians
until today," Lastman said.  "But I've had a few people explain it to me
(since).
    "I thought they spoke the same language, that they all lived in Greece,
that they ate the same foods and they go to the same churches," he said.
    "I didn't know there was a difference."
    But Lastman got a modern history lesson when he ventured out to cancel
the flag raising at the request of the police, who feared a full-scale riot.
The mayor was jostled and kicked in the shins as he walked through the crowd.
    North York had approved the request some weeks ago to raise the flag
for the republic of Macedonia, newly independent from the former Yugoslavia,
during the week's Christmas celebrations in the square.
    However, Greece has a province called Macedonia and makes strong claim to
the name and heritage.  As a result of Greek pressure, the world community
has withheld recognition of the new republic.
    Last Thursday, Greek Macedonians met with Lastman to say the republic's
flag-raising ceremony would be a great provocation to their community and
should be cancelled.
    Lastman refused, although his office did issue a disclaimer the next
day saying council didn't wish the flag raising to be seen as "an endorsement
of the Macedonian position on the world stage."
    It didn't work.
    About 2,000 Greeks carrying blue-and-white Greek flags, arrived at the
celebration ahead of the Macedonian Slavs and flooded the area where the red-
and-gold Macedonian flag was to be raised.
    When the Macedonian Slavs showed, trouble started brewing.  More than
50 police cruisers, riot police and horseback units arrived around 2:30pm
to try and separate the two groups.
    Provincial Greeks, on the lower portion of the square, hurled insults and
threw the odd snowball at Macedonian Slavs on the mezzanine and upper-east
half of the square.
    They, in turn, threw snowballs back, yelled and threw a few half-filled
garbage bags at the crowd below.  About 10 people and several police were
injured, none of them seriously.
    Two hours into the confrontation, with the crowd chanting in Greek "get
your hands off of Macedonia," Lastman appeared on a ramp above to announce:
"There will be no flag raising today.
    "If we weren't here it would have happened," yelled one Greek.
    "Go home and have dinner and be with your families," said Lastman as
booing drowned out his words.
    The visibly ruffled mayor, surrounded by police in riot gear, then
started making his way back into the city hall where he was kicked in the legs,
leaving a huge bruise in his left shin.
    Police on horseback pushed the two oppoing groups to either end of the
square and finally succeeded in dispersing the crowd.
    George Dimitrakopoulos, past president of the Pan-Macedonian Association,
said Lastman had shown poor political judgement in approving the flag raising
ceremony.
    "The Canadian government doesn't recognize the republic of Macedonia but
Mel Lastman does," said an angry Dimitrakopoulos, calling himself a "pure"
Macedonian.  "If the PLO (Palestinians) had wanted to raise their flag I don't
think the mayor and the council would allow it."

END.

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    Chrys Pelegris  |  ===__-+-                          WWIVNet:35@4650
    Toronto Canada  | Internet: chrysp@zooid.guild.org   FidoNet:1:250/338
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 * SLMR 2.1a * * SYSOP stands for: Sent Your Spouse Obscene Pictures
Newsgroups: soc.culture.greek