BULGARIA will have to solve its problems concerning the integration of minorities. European Union and NATO officials have been chanting this statement as one of the major conditions this country will have to meet on its way to Euro-Atlantic integration.
For years on end, however, Bulgaria seems to have failed to implement the prescription, in spite of there being more than 100 non-government bodies in this country watching over minority rights. The budget these NGOs are operating with is also rather impressive. According to official data from the Council of Ministers' National Council on Ethnic and Demographic Issues, more than 50 million leva is allocated a year for different projects, mostly targeted at the Roma population.
Yet every year at the end of heating season, there are massive strikes around the country launched by Roma whose electricity has been cut due to unpaid bills, usually amounting to millions. After protests and political statements that this is discrimination against the Roma and that they will sue the state in Strasbourg, the power companies have usually responded by turning the electricity back on.
There is another side to the coin, though, which is also worth considering, says Nikolay Zelinski, chairman of the recently established Bulgarian Human Rights Association. "This is also discrimination against all those ordinary Bulgarians who pay their bills without protesting. This is discrimination against all of us, the regular taxpayers, because we are the ones who pay for the electricity of the so-called discriminated minority."
Zelinski told the Echo there are fresh examples that the Roma usually get what they want because they are considered as a minority.
Two weeks ago, a rally of more than 200 Roma from the Plovdiv neighbourhood of Stolipinovo gave an ultimatum to the Plovdiv mayor and the local electricity distribution company to stop the power cuts. They threatened to block major traffic routes and crossroads in Plovdiv. The Roma also demanded that their electricity bills, which now sum up to a little more than nine million leva, should be scrapped.
A similar development was recently witnessed in the Sofia Roma neighbourhood of Fakulteta. The Roma living there also sent a delegation to the electricity distribution company for negotiations. The talks were tough since it transpired 85.5 per cent of the electricity in Fakulteta is actually stolen. Because of unpaid bills, the electricity there was supposed to be cut, but for the price of five leva skillful Roma illegally connect the houses to the power network.
On February 20, the Roma rights foundation Romani Bah told the media they had filed a court action claiming ethnic discrimination by the electricity companies in Sofia and Plovdiv on the behalf of 30 families from Fakulteta who had paid their bills and still did not have electricity.
The Bulgarian Human Rights Association is in turn sending protest declarations to the President, the mayors of Plovdiv and Sofia and the Delegation of the European Commission to Bulgaria, saying there is discrimination by water and power supply companies against ethnic Bulgarians. In Stolipinovo, there are more than 2000 Bulgarians who also suffer the consequences of unpaid bills of their neighbouring Roma.
The situation has led to ethnically-based violence against the ethnic Bulgarians.
Zelinski, citing people who have contacted his association for help, said that in the neighbourhood, organised Roma groups have harassed the Bulgarians, robbing and beating them, with the sole purpose of chasing them away so that the Roma can conquer new habitats. Last year, three women of ethnic Bulgarian origin went on a hunger strike as a last resort in their desperation to seek protection from the state. They wanted assistance in getting out of the ghetto. Their wish had not been heard. A year now, last week, the Bulgarians from the neighbourhood again filed a request to the state administration for assistance, Zelinksi says.
"They have been asking me: What if we set up an NGO too, can we then get funds from the European Commission, just like the Roma get money?"
Article 6, paragraph 2 of Bulgaria's constitution says all nationals are equal before the law, no privileges or restrictions of rights are allowed based on ethnic, religious, social, etc., principle. So, it seems there is a case for court action, Zelinski says, because Roma get privileges based on an ethnic principle.
Opponents of the Bulgarian Human Rights Association may then say that the Roma are caught in a vicious circle since they have been discriminated against by the Bulgarians who decline to give them jobs, for example. Zelinski, however, cited yet another example, which he got from one of the ethnic Bulgarians living in Stolipinovo.
"There was this lady, middle-aged, who one day asked some Roma she knew to give her a hand in moving some furniture. The answer she got was 'we do not work for less than 50 leva a day," he said.
The minimum salary for which many Bulgarians work is 120 leva a month. It is much easier, however, to be on the dole and live on the back of regular tax payers, Zelinski says. More than half the social benefits provided for by the municipal budget in Plovdiv, go to the Roma neighbourhood of Stolipinovo.
For years on end, however, Bulgaria seems to have failed to implement the prescription, in spite of there being more than 100 non-government bodies in this country watching over minority rights. The budget these NGOs are operating with is also rather impressive. According to official data from the Council of Ministers' National Council on Ethnic and Demographic Issues, more than 50 million leva is allocated a year for different projects, mostly targeted at the Roma population.
Yet every year at the end of heating season, there are massive strikes around the country launched by Roma whose electricity has been cut due to unpaid bills, usually amounting to millions. After protests and political statements that this is discrimination against the Roma and that they will sue the state in Strasbourg, the power companies have usually responded by turning the electricity back on.
There is another side to the coin, though, which is also worth considering, says Nikolay Zelinski, chairman of the recently established Bulgarian Human Rights Association. "This is also discrimination against all those ordinary Bulgarians who pay their bills without protesting. This is discrimination against all of us, the regular taxpayers, because we are the ones who pay for the electricity of the so-called discriminated minority."
Zelinski told the Echo there are fresh examples that the Roma usually get what they want because they are considered as a minority.
Two weeks ago, a rally of more than 200 Roma from the Plovdiv neighbourhood of Stolipinovo gave an ultimatum to the Plovdiv mayor and the local electricity distribution company to stop the power cuts. They threatened to block major traffic routes and crossroads in Plovdiv. The Roma also demanded that their electricity bills, which now sum up to a little more than nine million leva, should be scrapped.
A similar development was recently witnessed in the Sofia Roma neighbourhood of Fakulteta. The Roma living there also sent a delegation to the electricity distribution company for negotiations. The talks were tough since it transpired 85.5 per cent of the electricity in Fakulteta is actually stolen. Because of unpaid bills, the electricity there was supposed to be cut, but for the price of five leva skillful Roma illegally connect the houses to the power network.
On February 20, the Roma rights foundation Romani Bah told the media they had filed a court action claiming ethnic discrimination by the electricity companies in Sofia and Plovdiv on the behalf of 30 families from Fakulteta who had paid their bills and still did not have electricity.
The Bulgarian Human Rights Association is in turn sending protest declarations to the President, the mayors of Plovdiv and Sofia and the Delegation of the European Commission to Bulgaria, saying there is discrimination by water and power supply companies against ethnic Bulgarians. In Stolipinovo, there are more than 2000 Bulgarians who also suffer the consequences of unpaid bills of their neighbouring Roma.
The situation has led to ethnically-based violence against the ethnic Bulgarians.
Zelinski, citing people who have contacted his association for help, said that in the neighbourhood, organised Roma groups have harassed the Bulgarians, robbing and beating them, with the sole purpose of chasing them away so that the Roma can conquer new habitats. Last year, three women of ethnic Bulgarian origin went on a hunger strike as a last resort in their desperation to seek protection from the state. They wanted assistance in getting out of the ghetto. Their wish had not been heard. A year now, last week, the Bulgarians from the neighbourhood again filed a request to the state administration for assistance, Zelinksi says.
"They have been asking me: What if we set up an NGO too, can we then get funds from the European Commission, just like the Roma get money?"
Article 6, paragraph 2 of Bulgaria's constitution says all nationals are equal before the law, no privileges or restrictions of rights are allowed based on ethnic, religious, social, etc., principle. So, it seems there is a case for court action, Zelinski says, because Roma get privileges based on an ethnic principle.
Opponents of the Bulgarian Human Rights Association may then say that the Roma are caught in a vicious circle since they have been discriminated against by the Bulgarians who decline to give them jobs, for example. Zelinski, however, cited yet another example, which he got from one of the ethnic Bulgarians living in Stolipinovo.
"There was this lady, middle-aged, who one day asked some Roma she knew to give her a hand in moving some furniture. The answer she got was 'we do not work for less than 50 leva a day," he said.
The minimum salary for which many Bulgarians work is 120 leva a month. It is much easier, however, to be on the dole and live on the back of regular tax payers, Zelinski says. More than half the social benefits provided for by the municipal budget in Plovdiv, go to the Roma neighbourhood of Stolipinovo.
