MINELRES: Bulgaria: A Roma Man Burnt Himself on The Front of The Building of The Presidency

[MINELRES moderator]

Original sender: Emil Cohen <emilcohen@mbox.cit.bg>

Human Rights Project*

Bulgaria: A Roma Man Burnt Himself in front of the Building of The
Presidency

Sofia, July 30 � At noon on July 26, 02 34 years old Roma Ivan Perov
tried to burn himself on the front of the building of the Presidency in
the center of Sofia. Mr. Perov was taken to the hospital. A six years
old child Rozalinka was prepared by his mother to be burnt but the
intervention of the police prevented the burning up. The burning was
undertaken in order to make a protest against the deportation of the
clan from their place of residency.
 
The described event is one of the subsequences of the odyssey of the
Roma clan Zrunkovi from Vidin (Vidin is located on the river of Danube
in the Northwest corner of Bulgaria). From June 24 till today that clan
which consists of 63 people (30 of them are children) wanders from place
to place in searching of place for residence.

The prehistory. 
The clan of Zrunkovi was expelled from their place of residence after
big riots that took place in the Roma neighborhood �New wave� on June
22-24. On June 16 19 years old Tzvetelin Perov, who was well known as
mentally retired made an attempt to steal some knick-knackery from the
shop of another Roma clan � Markovi. The police arrested the boy and two
hours later he was released. Three days later Tzvetelin was found
killed. Him relatives charged for killing the owners of the shop
brothers Markovi. On June 22 41 old Roma Georgi Markov (member of the
opposite clan of Markovi) was killed in brawl on the front of one3 of
the houses of Zrunkovi.

On 23 and 24 June a big crowd of inhabitants of the neighbor attacked
the houses of Zrunkovi as well as some their shops and coffeehouses.
There were six people wounded. Three houses of Zrunkovi were burned up.
In the night of June 23 against June 24 a special group of 350 people
from the constabulary together with 3 scout cars entered into the
neighborhood. The group was managed personally by general Boiko Borissov
� the Chief Secretary of the Ministry of Interior. At the morning of
June 24 the situation in the neighborhood calmed down.

The deportation. 
On June 24 the Roma clan Zrunkovi (63 persons; about 30 of them are
children) was deported from Vidin. The decision has been taken by a
meeting of the governor of the region, the mayor of Vidin, the chief of
the police and the member of the Parliament Nina Chilova (from the
ruling majority). It has been told to the big Roma family that the
deportation was a temporarily one and that they would have able to come
back when the situation calm down. It has been told to them that the
police could not guarantee their safety and that they have had to leave
the town. A list of seven left military objects has been shown to them
in order they to be able to pick out a place for settlement. For more
than a month they have gone about from place to place seeking
appropriate place for settlement. At every place both local authorities
and local people have made demonstrations against them. The case has
largely been reflected in the media and most of people believe that the
family is too dangerous one. That is why people are afraid of them. At
present parts of the family are scattered at five different places.

The clan. 
Some of the members of that big family are well known in their
neighborhood as moneylenders. They have lent money to poor Roma families
with a too high interest. As a result a lot of people have not able to
repay their debts and thus their houses have became possessions of the
moneylenders. There are a lot of similar cases in all Roma
neighborhoods. The reason is an extremely high level of poverty among
Roma people. Because of this some members of the clan have been hated by
many of their neighbors. As it is practically all places of Bulgaria the
Roma population from �New way� neighborhood is almost completely
unemployed. Indeed in contrast with the situation in a lot of the
neighborhoods Roma people in �New way� have relative solid houses. The
houses are heritage from the past, when the Roma people were in work.

The approach of the authorities. 
The Roma NGO �Drom� from Vidin reported and a lot of independent sources
confirmed the conclusions of �Drom� that the approach of the police
toward the situation in �New way� was extremely inadequate one. There is
not a police station in the neighborhood (the population of it is about
15 000 people) and only three policemen patrol through the neighborhood.
Three days the local police neglected the clear signs that the tension
in the neighborhood increased. According some data that have been
reported by the member of the National Assembly Mr. Stiocho Katzarov
more than four hours after the starting of the disorders the local
police did not interfere with the events because they waited the
arriving of the Chief Secretary of the ministry of the Interior general
Boiko Borissov. Mr. Borissov arrived together with more than 350
soldiers and also with a group of journalists.

There is no a formal warrant for the expelling of Zrunkovi from Vidin
but nevertheless they were interned from the town. The police claims
that the intern was the voluntary one. But in fact according a lot of
data they were forced to leave their hometown. After their leaving the
authorities were not able to provide them with an elementary protection.
They wandered around the country and there was neither local nor
national authority that could provide them with safety. That is the way
they could not stop their roaming at a place. As it was above mentioned
at every place the inhabitants organized different forms of protest
against their settlement at that place.

In that case which received a large reverberation in the media the state
displays again its inability to cope with the tensions and disorders
that emerge among the Roma people in their neighborhoods. Beside this
the state displays also its unwillingness to keep the human rights of
the Roma people. In the Zrunkovi�s case that reluctance was showed too
clearly. It shows also its inability to separate the guilty persons from
the innocent ones and respectively to punish the first ones and to
protect the second ones.

The approach of the state was the final cause of the extreme way of
protest that choose a part of that big family.

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*Human Rights Project was established in the summer of 1992 as a
non-profit organization focusing on monitoring the human rights
situation of the Roma in Bulgaria, and on legal defense in cases of
serious human rights abuses. The HRP monitors the human rights situation
of the Roma community in Bulgaria and reports on the cases which it had
investigated; works with Roma volunteers from all over the country who
report on the human rights observation in their region; conduct
independent extrajudicial investigation into allegations of human rights
violations against Roma; hire lawyers to take up selected cases and
monitors the process of legal defense; advocates legislative and policy
changes in favor of Roma.

Rumian Russinov is Chair of the Board of HRP. Dimitrina Petrova and
Nikolai Gouginski are members of the Board.

Emil Cohen emilcohen@mbox.cit.bg is Executive Director.

Our address: 23 Solunska St., 6th floor; 1000 Sofia, Bulgaria

Tel./fax: (+359 2) 986 35 46 and (+359 2) 981 50 66;
E-mail: hrproject@mbox.cit.bg and hrp@netel.bg