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Text File | 1994-05-02 | 16KB | 318 lines

<text> <title> Bulgaria: Human Rights Watch </title> <article> <hdr> Human Rights Watch World Report 1992 Helsinki Watch: Bulgaria </hdr> <body> Human Rights Developments Despite a consolidation of many human rights achievements, Bulgaria experienced continuing political tensions. As minorities faced important obstacles to the enjoyment of equal rights, legal reforms did not sufficiently address minority concerns, and bills in Parliament to extend human rights to minorities received little support. The National Assembly approved a new Constitution on July 12, which provides broad protection of fundamental liberties. The Constitution significantly curtails the powers of the executive and establishes a Constitutional Court to interpret the Constitution and rescind laws determined to be unconstitutional. However, many Bulgarians view the Constitution as far from perfect, and the final vote was marked by heated debate and protests, especially regarding its provisions on minorities. Among the Constitution's deficiencies is its ban on registering political parties organized along ethnic, racial or religious lines. Both as drafted and as applied, this prohibition violates the right of peaceful association. For example, on August 7, the largely ethnic Turkish Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) organized a parallel political party, which was denied registration by the Sofia City Court. The court claimed that the Rights and Freedoms Party was unconstitutional because it would "pursue a political division of the citizens of this country into communities on an ethnic, religious and language basis." The Supreme Court upheld the City Court's decision on August 28. The Constitution also bans associations or religious societies that have political aims or engage in political activity. Again, such a narrow view of freedom of association has no place in a democratic society. Although the MRF ran in the June 1990 elections as a "movement," fears were expressed that this constitutional provision could be interpreted to prevent it from running in future elections. Rejecting the complaint filed by fifty-four members of parliament opposing the participation of the MRF in the October 1991 elections, the Supreme Court approved MRF's registration on September 20. However, organizations representing the concerns of Macedonians and Gypsies were not allowed to participate in the elections. The Macedonian organizations Ilinden and Ilinden Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO)-Independent, both named after the Ilinden uprising of August 12, 1903, have been denied registration because the Supreme court determined that they are separatist organizations that threaten the security of Bulgaria. The decision restricted their ability to gather petition signatures and precluded them from participating in the October 13 elections. However, these organizations specifically disavow the use of violence and state that they respect the territorial integrity of Bulgaria. Helsinki Watch takes the position that organizations cannot be prohibited from advocating territorial autonomy for ethnic or national minorities, unless these organizations use or incite violence to achieve their purpose. Although the Bulgarian Constitution guarantees the right of all citizens to study their mother tongue, the Turkish minority's demand that Turkish be taught in public schools was adamantly contested by nationalist groups. Blockades and hunger strikes occurred after the Minister of Education announced that experimental Turkish classes would start in March. The National Assembly backed away from its initial schedule and, on March 8, voted to postpone Turkish language classes until September. On October 1, the National Assembly passed a law prohibiting the teaching of minority languages in Bulgarian schools. Alternative legislation to make Turkish classes optional was rejected. Shortly after the October 13 elections, Bulgaria's departing coalition government lifted the ban on Turkish language education. This step was taken in an effort to reduce ethnic tensions in areas with a large Turkish minority where many Turkish children had been boycotting classes since the beginning of the school year on September 15. On November 21, the newly elected government issued a decree that minority students in the third through eighth grades may receive minority language instruction as an optional subject four hours a week. In 1989, at the height of the campaign in Bulgaria to assimilate ethnic Turks, thousands of ethnic Turks fled to Turkey to escape persecution. Many of these Bulgarian citizens are now returning, but their property has been sold by the government to ethnic Bulgarians, and their jobs are no longer available. In July, the government announced that it will provide financial compensation in the amount of approximately 170-180,000,000 leva ($9,000 to $10,000) to ethnic Turks who have returned to Bulgaria and taken up permanent residence. A "Bill Against Ethnic Discrimination," introduced by the environmental group EcoGlasnost in January 1991, has not been adopted and is unlikely to be passed by the current Parliament. The bill includes provisions which track international human rights law. Gypsies continue to be the targets of discrimination in contemporary Bulgaria, as they have been throughout the country's history. Most Gypsies attend segregated schools where they are denied an equal opportunity to learn the Bulgarian language and, in turn, to advance through the university system. Gypsies also suffer from discrimination in employment, housing and public services, and from the prohibition on political parties formed along ethnic lines. By and large, Bulgarians enjoy freedom of the press. A wide range of newspapers and journals flourish without governmental censorship. However, the Bulgarian Socialist Party has been accused repeatedly of using its influence to limit access to newsprint by the opposition press. A Parliamentary Committee for Radio and Television was organized in early 1991 to draft new legislation for restructuring and regulating the national broadcast media. The committee has been deadlocked over such issues as whether a parliamentary committee or the government itself should have ultimate control over radio and television. In July, the committee announced that it would listen to all radio broadcasts that month to evaluate journalists' competency "to work in the national mass media." Independent journalists viewed this step as an effort to intimidate the press and restrict its freedom. No member of the former government of Todor Zhivkov was tried during 1991 for serious human rights violations under Zhivkov's rule. Instead, former high-level officials were tried for their abuse of power and accumulation of wealth. In June, for example, Stoyan Ovcharov, former minister of the economy, was convicted of illegally arranging university study in Switzerland for Zhivkov's grandson, and was sentenced to two years in prison. Meanwhile, those responsible for serious violations of human rights, such as the forced assimilation of ethnic Turks during 1984 and 1985, and the government's violent suppression of peaceful demonstrations by ethnic Turks in 1989, are not being prosecuted. The trial of Zhivkov, the former communist dictator, began on February 26 and soon revealed that the Bulgarian government was not committed to investigate and prosecute crimes of serious human rights abuse. Rather than being charged, for example, with crimes related to the harsh imprisonment of dissidents in concentration camps in the late 1950s or to the forced assimilation of ethnic Turks, Zhivkov was charged with misappropriating state funds and abusing state power by granting favors to friends and relatives. The testimony of the many witnesses called during the first two months of the tri