Bulgaria: Amnesty report
01 January 1991
Bulgaria: Amnesty report
artdoc July=1995
22 APRIL 1994
BULGARIA: AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL URGES AUTHORITIES TO ENSURE
POLICE OBSERVANCE of INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS STANDARDS
Amnesty International is urging the authorities to ensure that
police abide by international human rights standards at
tomorrow's ethnic Macedonian commemorative assembly, following
the violent events which overtook the assembly last year.
The commemorative assembly at Rozhen Monastery is an annual
event, traditionally organized by OMO "Ilinden" (United
Macedonian Organization "Ilinden") to commemorate the death of
Jane Sandanski, a local hero of the struggle against Ottoman rule
at the turn of the century.
On 24 April 1993, dozens of ethnic Macedonians, many of
them members of OMO "Ilinden", were ill-treated by police
officers in Lozenitsa and Spatovo after attempting to visit
Rozhen Monastery.
"Special police units beat them with truncheons and rifle
butts; they dragged people from their cars and knocked them to
the ground", Amnesty International said. "We are concerned that
the apparently unprovoked attack by officers of the special
police units on the people who gathered in Lozenitsa and Spatovo
represented a flagrant violation of international human rights
standards, including the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights (ICCPR), to which Bulgaria has acceded."
Amnesty International is particularly concerned by the
reported statement from the Regional Security Service of
Blagoevgrad that the police are undertaking "all appropriate
measures to surround the area around the Rozhen Monastery on 23
April and to prevent the OMO "Ilinden" assembly from taking
place".
Three ethnic Macedonians are already reported to have been
detained in Blagoevgrad while peacefully exercising their right
to freedom of expression. On 15 April, Stoyan Machkarov, Khristo
Yanev and Lubomir Vasilev were reportedly arrested by members of
the Regional Security Service of Blagoevgrad and charged with
putting up posters to announce Saturday's assembly. All three
were allegedly beaten while in the police station before being
released that day.
Amnesty International considers their detention and alleged
ill-treatment to be a violation of the ICCPR. As a State Party
to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or
Degrading Treatment or Punishment, Bulgaria is bound to initiate
a prompt and impartial investigation wherever there is evidence
that torture or other ill- treatment has occurred.
Amnesty International has written to Zhelyu Zhelev, the
President of Bulgaria, urging him to initiate an independent and
impartial inquiry into the alleged beatings in Blagoevgrad, to
make public its findings and to bring to justice anyone
responsible for human rights violations.
The human rights organization has still not received any
reply to its letter of July 1993, to Minister of the Interior,
Viktor Mikhaylov, that expressed its concern at the police
violence at last year's assembly. The human rights organization
called on the Bulgarian Government to initiate an independent and
impartial inquiry into the alleged ill- treatment of people in
Lozenitsa and Spatovo, to make public its findings and to bring
to justice all those found responsible. Amnesty International is
not aware whether such an investigation took place.
The human rights organization is urging President Zhelev to
ensure that the police in the area of Rozhen Monastery on 23
April abide by relevant international human rights standards
including UN Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms
by Law Enforcement Officials.