BULGARIA: Racism and fascism
01 January 1991
BULGARIA: Racism and fascism
artdoc August=1994
Villagers force Romany to flee
Amnesty International has expressed concern about racial violence
against Roma in the village of Dolno Belotintsi. On 25 February,
a soldier, who had deserted from his unit, robbed and murdered
a villager. The soldier, a Roma, was caught by the villagers and
handed to police. That same evening, homes belonging to Roma -
many of the inhabitants of which had already fled - were
ransacked, furniture destroyed. Later, villagers armed with guns,
knives, axes, pitch forks and stakes, forced around 30 Romany,
mostly women and children, out of their homes and ordered them
to march to a village three kilometres away, and back,
threatening and abusing them with racial and sexual insults along
the way.
Then, on 27 February, villagers sent a letter to the President
of the Republic demanding both the expulsion of the Roma from the
village and the lifting of the moratorium against the death
penalty. Meanwhile, the persecution of the Roma continued.
The Roma say that although they complained to the authorities
at the time, neither the Regional Police Department or the County
Prosecutor intervened. A local police officer claimed that he had
been afraid to intervene and that the Regional Police Department
had failed to send reinforcements when asked. The present
situation seems to be that all but three of the twenty Roma
families living in the village have been expelled (Amnesty
International 23.3.94).
Background to violence
The attack at Dolno Belotintsi is not the first incident against
the Roma in recent years. The Sofia-based Human Rights Project
on Legal Defence of the Gypsies says that throughout 1993 there
were many anti-Gypsy pogroms, including one in Cherganova led by
the mayor of the village. In December 1993, an attack on Gypsies
in Malorad, by men armed with guns and sticks, left 7 wounded and
1 man, Tsvetan Khristov, dead. Six men arrested were later
released uncharged. Other attacks in big cities such as Sofia
seem to be orchestrated by the far-Right.
The Human Rights Project also cite the involvement of the police
in violence, and the treatment of Gypsies in police custody. One
man, Khristo Khristov of Stara Zagora had 7 ribs broken during
a police interrogation and had to have a kidney and part of his
lung removed (Roma News 31 May 1994, no. 2).
IRR European Race Audit no 9, July 1994. Contact: Liz Fekete
Institute of Race Relations, 2-6 Leeke Street, London WC1X 9HS
Tel: 071 837 0041
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