artdoc July=1995
01 January 1991
artdoc July=1995
23 March 1994
BULGARIA: AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL CONCERNED BY ATTACKS ON ROMA
COMMUNITY
Amnesty International is gravely concerned about reports of
racially motivated attacks on the Roma community in the village
of Dolno Belotintsi that started on 25 February 1994 and have
continued sporadically ever since. The human rights organization
is particularly concerned by reports that most of the Roma
community have been forced to abandon their homes and flee from
the village after authorities failed adequately to protect them.
According to the reports received by Amnesty International
the attacks and harassment of the Roma in Dolno Belotintsi began
on 25 February after a soldier, who had deserted from his unit,
robbed and murdered a resident of the village. The soldier, who
is a member of the Roma community, was caught by the villagers
and handed over to the police.
That evening a series of attacks against Roma homes began
in order to force the Roma community, numbering around 20
families, to leave the village. Roma homes were broken into, the
windows were smashed and furniture and other household belongings
were deliberately destroyed. Many of the homes broken into were
empty at the time, their inhabitants having fled in fear. Later
in the night a group of men from the village, armed with guns,
knives, axes, pitch forks and stakes, forced around 30 Roma to
leave their homes and ordered them to march to Nikolovo, a
village some three kilometers away, and back. The majority of the
Roma forced on this march were women with children and elderly
people who had not fled from the village. One of them, Vania
Nikolova, marched together with her 10-day-old baby. During the
march they were insulted with racist slurs, threatened that they
would be thrown off a bridge and some of the women were
threatened with sexual assaults.
The attacks reportedly continued with the same intensity
for the next two days. Following a village meeting on 27
February, a letter was sent to the President of the Republic
demanding both the expulsion of the Roma from the village, and
the lifting of the moratorium on the carrying out of the death
penalty. Only three of about 20 Roma families were given
"permission" to remain in the village. It was decided that the
others would be expelled. Although complaints were filed by the
victims of the attacks several times, including after the forced
march and again after the village meeting, they reportedly
failed to receive protection from the Regional Police Department
and the County Prosecutor at any time. A local police officer,
stationed in the village, claimed that he had not been present
when the forced march and the village meeting took place. The
officer also reportedly said that during the other attacks on
Roma homes, which he had witnessed, he had called the Regional
Police Department for reinforcements but was not sent any and had
been afraid to intervene by himself. As a result of these attacks
most of the Roma have now fled the village.
Amnesty International believes that the alleged lack of
adequate protection from racial violence for the Roma community
in Dolno Belotintsi represents a flagrant violation of the
international human rights standards to which Bulgaria is a
party. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
states that each State Party undertakes to respect and to ensure
to all individuals within its territory and subject to its
jurisdiction the rights recognized in the Covenant, without
distinction of any kind, such as race, color, sex, language,
religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin,
property, birth or other status.
Amnesty International has frequently written to the
Bulgarian Government expressing its concern about reports that
Roma had been tortured or otherwise ill-treated by police
officers. Each time the organization has urged th