Bulgaria
Bulgaria is a parliamentary republic ruled by a democratically elected
government. President Zhelyu Zhelev, former chairman of the Sayuz demokratichni
sili (SDS, Union of Democratic Forces), was elected in 1992 to a five-year
term in the country's first direct presidential elections. Petar Stoyanov
of the SDS won new presidential elections in autumn 1996 and succeeded Zhelev
in January 1997. The Bulgarska sotsialisticheska partiya (BSP, Bulgarian
Socialist Party), heir to the Communist Party, and two nominal coalition
partners won an absolute majority in pre-term elections in December 1994
and have ruled since then.
The post-communist economy remains heavily dependent on money-losing state
enterprises, although the private sector now accounts for about 45 per cent
of economic activity. The transformation of the economy into a market-oriented
system has been retarded by continued political and social resistance. The
government is now implementing a mass privatization programme that, if successful,
would partially address this problem. Annual inflation is 270 per cent.
There is no strong tradition of antisemitism in Bulgaria. During the
Second World War, when Bulgaria was a Nazi satellite state, persecution
of the Jews began with the Law for the Defence of the Nation, which was
modelled on Nazi Germany's Nuremberg laws and adopted in January 1941.
About 12,000 Jews from Bulgarian-occupied territories in Greece and former
Yugoslavia were deported to Nazi death camps under German pressure and with
the authorization of the Bulgarian government and King Boris III. In spring
1943 the Jews from Bul-garia proper were also ready for deportation but
were rescued at the last moment because of domestic and international pressure.
King Boris III postponed, and later revoked, their deportation altogether.
At the time of Stalin's anti-Jewish measures in the USSR in the late 1940s
and early 1950s, Jews were expelled from the Bulgarian interior ministry
and security services.
Since the collapse of the communist regime at the turn of the 1980s-1990s,
the rights of the Jewish minority have been fully respected.
The most common targets of racist attacks were Roma, ethnic Turks, blacks,
Arabs and Asians.
On 29 January a seventeen-year-old Rom died while in police custody in Razgrad,
apparently as a result of a beating.
In March the investigation into the September 1994 case of a detainee who
died one day after being taken into police custody in Pleven was suspended
by the district prosecutor's office. In July, after a local human rights
organization appealed against the district prosecutor's decision, the chief
prosecutor's office ordered the investigation to be resumed.
There was little progress in the investigation of the March 1995 killing
of a twenty-two-year-old Rom by a police sergeant in Nova Zagora.
Although they have an insignificant following, a number of ultra-nationalist
organizations remain in existence. They are: the Bulgarska natsionalisticheska
radikalna partiya (BNRP, Bulgarian National Radical Party); the Liberalno-demokraticheska
partiya (Liberal Democratic Party) (a sister to Vladimir Zhirinovsky's Liberal
Democratic Party of Russia-see Russia); the Obshtonaroden komitet za zashtita
na natsionalnite interesi (OKZNI, People's Committee for the Defence of
National Interests); the Dvizhenie za vuzrazhdane (DV, Revivalist Movement);
and the Bulgarski demokratichen forum (BDF, Bulgarian Democratic Forum),
founded in 1989 and claiming to be the successor to the pre-war pro-fascist
Bulgarian Legions.
In October an organization calling itself Greater Bulgaria was discovered
in Pleven. Police found in the home of its leader a programme for the liquidation
of 1 million Roma and communists. One member of the group so far has been
arrested for fascist propaganda and a case has been filed against the group's
leader for illegal possession of arms.
On 9 September, the anniversary of the communist takeover, anti-government leaflets bearing Hitler's portrait were distributed in Blagoevgrad by Youth League activists of the Bulgarian National Socialist Union.
Antisemitic books published in the last few years remained on sale. A
second part of Svetovna konspiratsiya (The World Conspiracy) by Nikola
Nikolov and Bozhidar Palyushev appeared.
The ruling Socialist Party nominated as its candidate for the autumn presidential
elections the then foreign minister, Georgi Pirinski. The Central Electoral
Commission did not accept his papers, as he failed to specify the circumstances
in which he had acquired Bulgarian citizenship and did not satisfy the constitutional
requirement that a head of state must be a native-born Bulgarian. Pirinski
was born in New York in 1948 to a Bulgarian emigré father and a Slovak-American
mother of Jewish origin. This development gave rise to articles in the Bulgarian
press claiming that Pirinski was being promoted by the "American Jewish
lobby". The daily 24 Chasa claimed on 3 July that David Rockefeller
and a powerful lobby in New York supported Pirinski's candidacy. The daily
Kontinent stated on 26 August that, according to a secret report,
Pirinski came from a Jewish family and had been adopted by his Bulgarian
father and Slovak mother; it also claimed that on a visit to Bulgaria over
twenty years previously David Rockefeller had told the then Bulgarian leader,
Todor Zhivkov, that Pirinski would one day be president.
On 10 December the nationalist weekly Zora (Dawn) condemned Solomon
Passi, a leader of a pro-NATO organization, for allegedly possessing dual
nationality and thus betraying Bulgaria.
Against a background of traditionally good Bulgarian-Jewish relations
and notwithstanding the incidents described above, antisemitism remained
a marginal problem. On the other hand, the extent of racism against other
ethnic minorities, in particular Roma, is deeply worrying.
© JPR 1997