INCREASED VIOLENCE AGAINST ROMA
Racist anti-Roma attitudes are on the rise in Bulgaria. This is confirmed by a series of reports communicated to the FECL by the Bulgarian Committee of the Helsinki Citizen's Assembly.
Violence reached a peak in March and April, with unprecedented police brutality, racist attacks by youth gangs and press campaigns directed against the Roma minority.
Based on these developments the Bulgarian Committee of HCA suggests that "in spite of real though limited democratic achievement in some spheres, and contrary to official declarations...Bulgarian society at present has racial discrimination against the Gypsies as one of its constitutive elements."
Violence against homeless children in Sofia
At least 150 homeless Roma children between ages 5 and 18 live in downtown Sofia, begging or gathering leftovers from restaurants in order to survive. Many of these children are orphans, others say they have lost their parents or not seen them for months.
The children sleep in two places in Sofia, a subway area and an underground vault under the square in front of the Sheraton hotel. The latter is part of a construction site where work was interrupted some time ago. The way leading into the vault is a small secret hole, accessible only through the unfinished structures of the subway. Under the ground there are long concrete corridors with a temperature higher than outside. The vault is not penetrated by daylight and is full of rats.
The children have become the target of harassment on the part of organised groups of young people. Several children were seriously injured in various attacks carried out by teenaged schoolboys of the nearby German Language School and two racist skinhead-style gangs. The attackers used iron bars, metal chains and knives. In one case, unidentified perpetrators poured liquid bronze on the face of a 17 year old homeless youth, causing serious eye injury. In another incident on March 3, four young men, Bulgarians, threw Yanko Sacha, 16, down a ventilation shaft. The shaft is about 10 meters deep. Firemen brought the child out of the shaft in a state of coma. The HCA-Committee was unable to find out, if Yanko survived the incident.
According to the report of the Bulgarian Committee, the problems of homeless Roma chldren have been neglected by the police and other responsible administrations.
The children even complain that they have often been chased by policemen and that girls haved been sexually abused by policemen. The children were reluctant to talk about this, but they were positive that policemen wanted oral sex from girls.
Police brutality in Novi Pazar...
Another report names 9 cases of police harassment in the town of Novi Pazar, ranging from verbal abuse to heavy brutality. In several cases, policemen in plain cloth and camouflage broke into homes and terrorised the inhabitants, on the grounds that they were searching for delinquents.
In one case, a man with a black mask and another in plain clothes broke into a house to arrest Anton Khristov Assenov, 21. His mother explained that he no longer lived at home but had moved to the village of Tsonevo near Varna. Assenov was arrested there the same day. he was beaten during his stay in the regional police station in the town of Shoumen. He received medical assistance on the spot but there is no information about his state. The prosecutor in charge told his mother: "I won't release your son. Our people are going to beat you every other day. You don't even have a state, dirty Gypsies!"
...and in Stara Zagora
On March 24, three Roma men were caught by police, when preparing a theft. 7-8 policemen jumped from three police cars, with their guns drawn. Two of the Roma managed to escape, but Khristo Nedialkov Khristov, 33, was caught and cruelly beaten and kicked all over his body. Several hours later, two police cars stopped in front of Khristov's house. The heavily armed policemen shouted offences against the Roma people. Then a policeman opened the luggage carrier of one of the cars, where Khristov was lying folded. After being identified by his parents, Khristov was taken to the police. On the next morning, Khristov was released. He had been heavily beaten during the night and as a result felt strong pain in his chest and was unable to stand on his feet when he was thrown out of the building.
Toward the evening, Khristov's physical condtion sharply deteriorated and he was taken to the hospital.. When two representatives of the HCA visited him at the hospital on March 26, Khristov could hardly breath or speak. His body bore signs of torture. Medical diagnosis showed that seven ribs were broken, leading to pneumothorax. The left lung had been in a state of collapse at the moment of hospitalisation. On March 28, Khristov's condition sharply deteriorated making urgent surgical intervention necessary. Part of his lungs were removed. Only half a month later, hospital staff informed the family that during this operation, one kidney was taken out too. Weeks after surgery, Khristov's speach was very disturbed, he has tung tumefaction, and, according to relatives, "speaks like someone who is very drunk, not fully conscious".
The report underlines that Khristov feared that the police would kill him if he complained to somebody and notes that in similar cases of police violence against Roma people who had been caught on some offence in Stara Zagora, "usually a bargain settled the matter: the police promised not to send the case to court, while the detained promised to remain silent.
Sources: HCA - Bulgarian Committee: Report on the Progress of the Human Rights Project of the Helsinki Citizen's Assembly, February 1 - April 30, 1993, Sofia, Bulgaria, 10 p., in English; Violence against homeless Roma children in Sofia, 18.3.93, report 4 p., in English; Description of several cases of violence in Novi pazar, as witnessed by the victims, April 93, report 2 p., in English; Police violence against a Roma man in Stara Zagora, April 93, report 4 p., in English.
Contact: Helsinki Citizen's Assembly - Human Rights Project, ul. Odrin 29, block 14, en.G.apt.34, Sofia 1303, Bulgaria. Tel: +359/2 35 561; Ms Pravda Spassova, Tel: +359/2 595495, Fax: +359/2 570657