High life
Murder most foul
Taki
imo, my illiterate sailor who gets his news from the radio, woke me up early Tuesday morning with the bad news. Pavlo Bakoyannis, a New Democracy member of parliament and son-in-law of the party's leader, Constantine Mitsotakis, had min- utes before been murdered in Athens. The assassins who took responsibility for this barbaric act claimed to be members of the terrorist group 17 November, but I have my doubts.
The last time I had seen Pavlo was at my father's funeral and, ironically, he and Costa Mitsotakis had returned from Myko- nos' for it. I am doing the same as I write this, for it would be indecent to remain sunning oneself on a sex island while a brave and patriotic man like Bakoyannis lies murdered in an Athens morgue.
Pavlo seems a strange target. He was neither rich nor an extremist. He had been at the forefront of the resistance against the Colonels during the 1967-1974 period, and was a journalist of note. He was as middle-of-the-road as any politician in Greece, with impeccable democratic credentials. His Achilles heel must have been his honesty. He was press secretary of the New Democracy party and the man responsible for drafting 'Catharsis' — a New Democracy slogan against the most dishonest group ever to rule a European country in this century.
What is even stranger is that that same Tuesday morning parliament was to debate the Koskotas scandal. Under a 1971 law, cabinet ministers and prime ministers can- not be prosecuted except during the term of the government immediately succeeding the one in which they held office. The current government will be dissolved 30 days before the elections scheduled for 5 November. Delays are of the essence for those who are being judged. And among the latter is the former head of the Greek CIA, Kostas Tsimas, a man who trained in Lebanon and Libya for his role as . . . head of Greece's anti-terrorism unit.
But what I find incredible is that such people can still walk around without shame, enjoy parliamentary immunity, laugh at the laws of the land and thumb their noses at every decent citizen. For example, last week I ran into Socrates Kalkanis, a man I used to know as a child, and one whose $6 million debt Papandreou is alleged to have arranged to be forgiven in exchange for the use of his villa when he still needed a hideout from his wife. Kalkanis was in the boat next to mine and greeted me like his oldest friend. When I told him I wouldn't speak to him he began to threaten me and went so far as to say that when Pasok returned to power I'd be taken care of.
Needless to say, I am very angry and sad about Pavlo's death, and my heart goes out to Dora Bakoyannis and their children, but Pavlo at least is now at rest, while his killers had better not rest.
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