Sat, Feb 11 2012

University students want more security, end to violence

Fri, Dec 12 2008 18:33 CET

byPetar Kostadinov

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University students want more security, end to violence

Several hundred people marched in Sofia's Studentski Grad neighbourhood to protest against violence on the streets, Bulgarian-news agencies reported on December 12 2008.

The march was organised in the memory of 20-year-old university student Stoyan Baltov, who was beaten to death in the early hours of December 5 2008 by a group of drunk men in the neighbourhood.

Baltov was leaving a night club when he and his friends were attacked, for not reason as they claimed, by a group of other studnets. In the ensuing fight, Baltov suffered serious damage to the head and died in hospital.

The attackers were arrested and are awaiting their trial. The incident happened in front the Amnesia night club in a populated area and, as witnesses claimed, no one interfered to stop the fight: neither the club's bodyguards, nor any of the passers-by.

The murder shocked the country and voices were raised against the street violence in general and the way Studentski Grad is being organised.

Currently, it serves as home to thousands of university students coming to Sofia from all over the country for their studies. Because of their young age, the area is full of night clubs, taverns, bars and restaurant working around the clock, providing much opportunity for entertainment. In total there are 37 restaurants and 19 night clubs working in the borough.

After the death of Baltov, his friends and university colleagues, supported by deans of various universities, asked for increased police presence, tighter control on traffic and night clubs as well as a ban on the sale of alcohol in the area.

The plan would turn the borough into one big university campus, but to do so, the Cabinet would have to expropriate large swathes of real estate in the area, which were restituted to their previous owners, who had it seized after 1946.

Police said that they were working on a scheme that will allow more police officers to patrol the area but the local police department had difficulties appointing police officers in the area as it has proven unpopular place for work.

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