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1994-05-02
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<text>
<title>
Bulgaria
</title>
<article>
<hdr>
Human Rights Watch World Report 1992
Helsinki Watch: Bulgaria
</hdr>
<body>
<p>Human Rights Developments
</p>
<p> 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.
</p>
<p> 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.
</p>
<p> 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.
</p>
<p> 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.
</p>
<p> 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.
</p>
<p> 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.
</p>
<p> 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.
</p>
<p> 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.
</p>
<p> 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.
</p>
<p> 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.
</p>
<p> 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.
</p>
<p> 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.
</p>
<p> 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.
</p>
<p> 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 trial
focused on the s