THE death of Gurdi Gurdev, the eighth Bulgarian soldier to die in Iraq, sparked major controversy, including a revival of the debate on Bulgaria’s continued military participation in Iraq.
Gurdev, 31, was shot on March 4 while on patrol on the so-called Tampa road near the town of Hamza, 40 km from the Bulgarian base in Diwaniya.
Reports that initial statements that Gurdev was killed in an ambush by Iraqi rebels were wrong, and that he was apparently killed by friendly fire coming from a US post guarding a radio tower, caused waves of shock and resentment.
Allegations that the military leadership was hiding information followed an anonymous letter supposedly sent by a colleague of Gurdev’s in Iraq and published on the forum of the website of the military newspaper Bulgarska Armia.
In the letter, entitled The Truth About Private Gurdev’s Death, the author alleged that on March 2 the battalion headquarters received an invitation from the US forces in the area to discuss measures to prevent similar incidents.
“Because of the preparation and the holiday mood preceding the national holiday March 3, the commanders did not pay enough attention to it,” the letter read.
According to the letter, due to a breakdown in the GPS system, the three Hummer armoured vehicles of the Bulgarian patrol stopped and the personnel got off to call the base and report they were coming back.
The Bulgarians tried to wave down a fast approaching Iraqi civilian car and after it did not, they shot twice in the air.
“They simply got off in the darkness and nobody used the night vision goggles to look at the area or they would have seen the US radio tower,” the letter said. “At the same time the soldier guarding the tower saw the headlights of the stopping vehicles and then heard the shots. He did not know who, at what or why, there was shooting, and opened fire at the vehicles. This shooting killed our colleague.”
Several hours after the letter was published on March 7, Defence Minister Nikolai Svinarov held a news conference to say that Gurdev had been killed by friendly fire coming from the US post at the radio tower.
Svinarov confirmed the parts of the letter containing information about the actual incident but said that it was an “unfortunate accident” and the commanders of the battalion should not be held responsible.
Svinarov and Bulgarian armed forces chief Nikola Kolev, who was also present at the news conference, refused to answer any questions.
The behaviour of Svinarov and Kolev provoked a wave of speculation and allegations about when they knew the truth about Gurdev’s death, and whether they would have told the truth had the letter not been published.
President Georgi Purvanov, commander in chief of Bulgaria’s armed forces, held an urgent meeting with US ambassador James Pardew and Polish ambassador Slawomir Dabrowa. In Iraq, Bulgaria’s military personnel are under Polish command.
The Presidency media office quoted Purvanov as saying that confirmation of the details of the death of Gurdev, who was posthumously promoted to candidate officer, led to the conclusion that there were serious flaws in the operational co-operation among the coalition partners.
Purvanov also demanded full information from the American side and said that Bulgaria was conducting an investigation and would demand that those responsible be punished. Purvanov expressed his expectations that the US would apply the same seriousness in its investigation.
After paying his respects to Gurdev’s family at the funeral on March 8, Kolev said that the letter accusing the battalion commanders of incompetence was not written in Iraq but by someone at headquarters or the ministry in Sofia. He pledged to find the culprit by the end of the day. According to Kolev, the goal of the letter was not to disclose the truth but to discredit the army command.
At a March 8 special meeting of the parliamentary committee on foreign policy, defence and security, Kolev said that it was not true that the military and the civic leadership of the army had known at the weekend that Gurdev was killed by American fire and that they had tried to cover up the truth.
Kolev said that even though Gurdev was wearing a flak jacket, the bullet had entered through the side, which is unprotected and thus killed the solider.
Opposition parties demanded the resignations of Svinarov and Kolev.
The Democrats for Strong Bulgaria (DSB) demanded a public explanation, the Union of Democratic Forces (UDF) and the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) accused the Government and the army command of irresponsibility and cluelessness.
At the March 9 news conference, Svinarov and Kolev repeated that Gurdev’s death was an “unfortunate accident” and refused to take any responsibility.
The BSP, however, accused the Government of systematically hiding information about the battalion in Iraq.
“The entire behaviour of the Cabinet can be defined as totally irresponsible towards society and the fate of the Bulgarian soldiers,” said BSP leader Sergei Stanishev.
He said that the left-wing would insist that Bulgarian battalions would be withdrawn from Iraq.
UDF deputy leader Nikolai Mladenov said that the party’s parliamentary group would demand the setting up of an independent commission. He accused the Government of irresponsibility.
Prime Minister Simeon Saxe-Coburg addressed the issue on March 9.
“It must be clear that the Government acts responsibly and is not led by rumours, on hearsay, and this is why we had to control matters, and we still await clarification,” he said.
Saxe-Coburg rejected allegations that authorities were knowingly hiding the truth about Gurdev’s death, describing such allegations as “absurd”.
Meanwhile, the Focus internet agency reported that US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice told Foreign Minister Solomon Passi in a telephone conversation that the US would conduct a full investigation into the incident and the Bulgarian authorities would be duly informed.