Bulgaria: Human Rights in 1998 (BHC)
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Subject: Bulgaria: Human Rights in 1998 (BHC)
From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>
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Bulgaria: Human Rights in 1998 (BHC)
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BULGARIAN HELSINKI COMMITTEE
HUMAN RIGHTS IN BULGARIA IN 1998
Throughout 1998, Bulgaria was ruled by the government of the United
Democratic Forces (UtDF) which was formed after the coalition won the
elections in April 1997. In contrast to previous years, 1998 was not
marked by political or economic upheavals. The government continued
its policy of reform and reiterated its willingness to abide by
advanced European human rights standards. This created a favourable
public climate both for legislative reforms in this sphere, as well as
for the activity of nongovernmental human rights organisations.
The actual development of the human rights situation in Bulgaria in
1998 however was contradictory. Some positive legislative changes were
made and the authorities continued their dialogue with nongovernmental
human rights organisations. The opinions of a number of them were
sought by different government institutions, including the cabinet and
the Constitutional Court. Some progress was also made into the
investigation of past crimes. On 11 February, four former militiamen
were sentenced for the murder of Bilian Hadjiev from the village of
Dobroplodno during the protests of the Bulgarian Turks in May 1989.
The highest sentence, however, was only two and a half years
imprisonment. Although it was scheduled for hearing in January, in
early May the criminal case against a number of senior Communist Party
and state leaders, charged in connection with the campaign to forcibly
change the names of the ethnic Turks, was once again returned for
further investigation by the Supreme Court of Cassation. On the whole,
the situation in most of the spheres of human rights violations, by
now traditionally problematic for the country, did not change, and a
setback was even observed in some of them.
1. The Right to Life, Death Penalty
..............
2. Torture and Ill-Treatment, Excessive Use of Force by Law
Enforcement Officials
..............
3. Independence of the Judiciary and Fair Trial
..............
4. Freedom of Thought, Conscience, Religion and Belief
..............
5. Freedom of Expression, Freedom of the Media
..............
6. Freedom of Association and of Peaceful Assembly
..............
7. Conditions in Places of Detention
..............
8. Protection of Minorities, Problems of Citizenship, Aggressive
Nationalism and Xenophobia
No changes were made in the basic legal framework for the protection
of the identity of minority ethnic communities in Bulgaria in 1998.
The Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities of
the Council of Europe, despite being signed in 1997, was not ratified.
The periodical ratification debates revealed a mixture of unfounded
and xenophobically motivated opposition, generated by broad public
circles, but mainly among circles of the Bulgarian Socialist Party and
IMRO, to the actual idea of recognising the existence of minorities in
the country.
No legislative changes were made during 1998 affecting the protection
ethnic identity of the minorities in Bulgaria. The attitude of
authorities to their education and culture did not improve and the
position of the expert on Romani at the Ministry of Education
continued to be vacant.
A number of conflicts between local groups of Bulgarians and Roma were
brought to the public's attention during the year, evidencing the
discrimination to which this minority is subjected in all spheres of
public life. On several occasions Roma organised demonstrations,
demanding to receive their due social assistance payments which were
often delayed for several months. In May and June, Roma in Lom
organised and staged a series of protest actions, causing sharp
conflicts with the local government. Similar protests against
irregular social assistance payments were also organised by Roma in
Oryahovo in early July. In December, about 300 Roma from Chirpan
blocked the road in protest of delayed social assistance payments. One
of the demonstrators, the 25-year-old Angel Shmilev, was shot by ?
warden in the local Labour Correctional Hostel.
In several other cases Roma communities and individual Roma suffered
from the violent actions of racist groups, local mobs and groups of
private security guards. On 4 March, Minka Stoyanova, a 10-year old
Roma from the village of Rozino, near Karlovo, was shot and killed by
a carbine, presumably by guards of the local farm co-operative who
were chasing thieves. The investigation was still going on by the end
of the year. In early March, peasants in Hadji Dimitrovo, near Yambol,
organised a pogrom against the local Roma neighbourhood, members of
which were suspected of having committed crimes in the village. At
least 13 houses were raided, people were beaten and furniture was
broken. The District Prosecutor's Office in Yambol did not bring
charges against the perpetrators throughout the whole of 1998. On 16
May, a gang of skinheads assaulted and beat up eight Roma children in
an abandoned house in Sofia. One boy was killed after falling from or
being pushed out a window. Until the end of the year the perpetrators
had not been caught and punished.
9. Political Asylum
There were no changes in refugee legislation in Bulgaria during the
year. The much needed and very belated refugee law was voted on first
reading in Parliament, but was not passed before the end of the year.
The procedure for granting refugee status continued to be settled by
the 1994 Ordinance for Granting and Regulating Refugee Status. Its
provisions are highly insufficient and create possibilities for
administrative arbitrariness.
There are no published written instructions/guidelines concerning
asylum seekers and refugees for border police and officials from the
National Bureau for Territorial Asylum and Refugees (NBTAR). In
practice asylum seekers find themselves in police detention for
periods far longer than the 24 hours prescribed by the Ministry of the
Interior Act. Asylum seekers and detainees in general do not have the
possibility to contact a lawyer or the UNHCR from the places of
detention; also, family cannot be contacted. Interpreters are usually
not available. Thus access to the asylum procedure is hindered.
One of the main problems, which the asylum-seekers continue to face,
is the access to the asylum procedure. In many cases the NBTAR refuses
to accept requests for asylum under different pretexts, especially
when they come from countries that are considered to be safe (e.g.
Armenia) or politically sensitive (e.g. Turkey). This deprives the
asylum-seekers of effective protection of their rights, especially
when the refusal for registration is informal and oral (which it
usually is) and therefore difficult to prove. This results in a lack
of recourse to judicial protection and brings a risk for deportation
for an indefinite period of time.
Asylum seekers are either detained upon arrival in Bulgaria in
detention centres (mainly in Detention Centre in Drujba, close to
Sofia airport, but also in other centres in the country), or in
detention-like situations in the transit zone of Sofia airport. In
addition to that, asylum seekers are detained for prosecution purposes
if they enter or exit Bulgaria illegally (i.e. without a passport, or
with a false passport). Article 279, para. 1 of the Penal Code
penalises the illegal crossing of borders with deprivation of liberty
for up to 5 years and with a fine (the court may also order
banishment). According to Article 279, para. 5 of the Penal Code
nobody who enters the country to avail themselves of the right of
asylum shall be punished. This paragraph, however, is not always
respected and asylum seekers are detained.
As a rule, detained asylum seekers have no access to a lawyer and thus
no possibility to find out their rights. As an exception in August
1998 the Refugee Unit of the BHC was given access for the first time
to the detention centre in Drujba. An agreement was achieved with the
Passport and Visa Department of the Ministry of the Interior that
asylum seekers who have contacted the BHC and about whom the BHC had
reported would not be detained and deported. This happened after
several illegal deportations of registered asylum seekers earlier in
1998 about which the BHC protested. In one of the cases, the Bulgarian
Helsinki Committee was refused timely access to the Drujba Detention
Centre in Sofia to make possible for a Nigerian woman asylum seeker to
appeal the NBTAR refusal for refugee status. The woman was later
deported to Nigeria, where she claimed of being persecuted for
practising "witchcraft". Unfortunately, there are still no guarantees
that expulsions in the short period between rejection of the
application and filing the appeal will not happen.
The lack of governmental reception and/or transit centres of any sort
of shelter for asylum seekers and refugees made it until recently
difficult for border authorities to receive newcomers. As a result of
these practical deficiencies the principle of non-refoulement is not
always respected. Asylum seekers were turned back by the border police
before having had the opportunity to receive access to Bulgarian
territory and the Bulgarian asylum procedure. Border officials conduct
an informal "quick" asylum procedure at the border to determine the
refugee status.
In order to avoid such cases, in 1998 the UNHCR opened three transit
centres at the major border check-points on the border with Greece,
Romania and Turkey, which provide temporary shelter and transport to
Sofia where the NBTAR carries out the asylum procedures. In the
current emergency situation, however, this can remain only a temporary
arrangement.
NBTAR has 110 staff members. However, the Registration and
Interviewing Department, which carries out the most important tasks in
the asylum procedure (registration, interviews of asylum applicants,
country of origin evaluation, writing decisions) has only 9 staff
members, including the head of department. There is no NBTAR official
assigned at the border checkpoints. There are no
guidelines/instructions, which regulate the coordination between the
Ministry of Interior and the NBTAR. There is no 24-hour on-duty
service on the NBTAR in Sofia, nor constant telephone/fax contact
between the border police and the NBTAR, nor transportation
possibilities or any reception facilities for newly-arrived asylum
seekers, apart from the UNHCR-funded and NGO-run transit centres at
the Greek/Romanian/Turkish - Bulgarian border checkpoints.
10. Freedom of Movement
..............
11. Discrimination Based on Political Opinion
..............
This report was written by Mr. Emil Cohen, Mr. Krassimir Kanev, Ms.
Tanya Marincheshka, Ms. Yuliana Metodieva and Mr. Stanimir Petrov.
Materials from Tolerance Foundation and the Human Rights Project were
also used in the course of its preparation.
_______________________________________
Greek Helsinki Monitor
P.O. Box 51393
GR-14510 Kifisia
Greece
Tel. +30-1-620.01.20
Fax +30-1-807.57.67
e-mail: [email protected]
http://www.greekhelsinki.gr
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