Unknown perpetrator

Sofia Mel refused to answer Dnevnik’s questions about the sugar factory. "Talk to the city hall. We have nothing to do with this question," was the short comment from the company’s employees. In fact, some time ago, Sofia Mel executive director Pantazis Savopoulos, informed Sofia regional prosecutors that unidentified vandals had started destroying the building. The NIMC also asked prosecutors to begin proceedings against the building’s owner for the same reason. Hence, prosecutors launched an investigation against unknown perpetrators. In reality, these "unknown perpetrators" were a group of Roma who since the beginning of the year had been cutting out the building’s metal supportive columns, tearing down the metal staircases, removing windows and filling in holes in the walls. "During one of our visits to the site, about 40-50 Roma were taking out materials with their horse-carts," Stoyanova said.  

Following the "vandalism", the building’s roof has already collapsed, fortunately harming no one. The city hall and NIMC have asked for police assistance but, as it transpired, with little success because the Roma are minors and cannot be arrested. "The police told us that they go to the site and arrest the Roma but only to free them after some time because they are minors," Stoyanova said.

Speculation has it that, other than selling the metal elements for scrap, the Roma have been asked to damage the building on purpose so that it can collapse on its own and clear the land for construction. Currently, its status as a monument of culture doesn’t allow for its demolition. 

Archives talk
Until recently the sugar factory was the storage site for the entire archive of Bulgarian National Television (BNT), deposited there since 1975.  The public broadcaster was forced to move more than 65 000 films and 100 000 news materials out after the walls started falling around them.

"The archive was about to be destroyed," said Nikolai Nanev, head of BNT’s archive department. He said that in January this year,  BNT received a letter from the Ministry of Culture saying that the building was in a terrible condition. Until then, the section containing the archives was in good condition. Step by step, however, the Roma have managed to reach the BNT premises. One of the walls was brought down and soon the roof in one of the rooms collapsed.

"During all this time, I expected a call telling me that one of my people had been buried in the factory," Nanev said.

Sometimes, the Roma would attack BNT employees with hammers, hence BNT was forced to hire security at its own expense.

"We tried to contract Sofia Mel but they refused to talk to us. In the end, we sent them a letter to which they replied that they are cancelling the contract with us and we had to move out," Nanev said. In just a few months the archive of 750 tons was moved to the BNT’s premises in the town of Blagoevgrad.

And now what?
Institutions can continue to try to salvage the building by sending the new owner letters with recommendations on how to secure the building. The new owners could be found with the help of the Registry Agency that holds records of the property’s ownership transfer. "We will launch this procedure in a month, when I return from leave," Zegova said. The new owner, however, can also appeal against the letters and while the court procedures last,  the building could even collapse.

Dnevnik daily, 15 September