IN the past year, the Bulgarian Government "generally respected" the human rights of its citizens, but there were problems in several areas, according to the US State Department 2002 Human Rights Practices Report on Bulgaria, released on March 31.
Security forces commonly beat suspects and prisoners, and beat and mistreated minorities, and arbitrary arrest and detention were problems, the report said. Security forces harassed, physically abused, and arbitrarily arrested and detained Roma street children.
The Government restricted the freedom of religion of some non-Orthodox religious groups. The report said "societal discrimination and harassment of nontraditional religious minorities persisted, but were less frequent than in the previous year". "Discrimination, harassment, and general public intolerance toward religious minorities, which included the great majority of Protestant denominations, remained a problem; however, the number of reported incidents decreased during the year," the report said.
Constitutional restrictions on political parties formed along ethnic, racial, or religious lines effectively limited participation in government for some groups. Violence and discrimination against women remained serious problems. Conditions for children in state institutions were poor, and because of a lack of funds, the social service system did not assist homeless and other vulnerable children adequately, notably Roma and children with mental disabilities. There was some discrimination against people with disabilities and discrimination and societal violence against Roma were serious problems.
The report noted that ethnic Turks were represented on the boards of state-owned companies, such as Bulgartabac Holding.
Dimitar Georgiev, programme consultant with the Human Rights Project NGO, told The Echo that forms of discrimination were different in each society and added that people usually spoke about Roma people when the word discrimination was mentioned.
"This is not because only Roma people are being discriminated but because only Roma people talk openly and freely about this".
He said that Roma people talked about these issues not because they were eager to make politics, but because "when you have no law or a legal basis you cannot protect yourself".
"If you are not let into a certain club or cafe and you are not accordingly treated and not even told why, different organisations come and explain that they have no law to punish the institution," Georgiev said.
"This affects the whole society and not simply the Roma," he said.
The State Department report said there were no reports of lethal police assaults on Roma, but police harassed, physically abused, and arbitrarily arrested some Roma street children.
"Beginning in late 2001, the Interior Ministry reserved 20 to 30 places in the Police Academy for minority candidates to address the serious under-representation of ethnic Turks and Roma in the police agencies."
Georgiev expressed doubts about the effectiveness of such a step.
The report said problems of accountability persisted and inhibited Government attempts to address police abuses. Conditions in many prisons and detention facilities were harsh. This was illustrated by the six-year-prolonged court case filed by Mariana Ilieva in Kyustendil.
Georgiev said that Ilieva's husband died in 1996 after being beaten up by police.
"The Interior Ministry and the courts continue to neglect cases in which there are rights abuses," Georgiev said.
The report said that there remained some instances of prolonged pre-trial detention, although the Government continued to improve its performance in preventing periods of pre-trial detention from exceeding the statutory limit of one year.
Georgiev said his organisation had been pursuing the problem of abuses of the human rights of Roma since 1994.
"The Human Rights Project has informed society about this problem," Georgiev said adding that the problem of brutality has spread to ordinary ethnic Bulgarians in the country since 1999 and 2000.
"Security forces commonly beat suspects and inmates and beat and mistreated minorities."
The Bulgarian constitution prohibited torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment, but police commonly beat criminal suspects, particularly members of minorities, to extract false testimonies.
The report quoted the case of 26-year-old Seval Sabakhtin Rasim who died while in the custody of the border police near Sladun, Svilengrad municipality. In the other two cases, involving the deaths of Jordan Asenov Yankov and Radka Koleva Markov, the authorities found insufficient grounds for prosecution, according to the Military Prosecutor's office.
The report said that in March a three-member panel of the Sofia Military Court acquitted two police officers who had been accused of inflicting injuries on Milotin Mironov, also known as Mehmet Myumyun, who died in police custody in 2001. Reportedly, the Interior Ministry, in spite of a nationwide search, could not locate two reliable witnesses. This resulted in the court's inability to consider potentially relevant evidence. Mironov's relatives had said that they would appeal.
The report emphasised that last year "the judiciary was underpaid, understaffed, and had a heavy case backlog; corruption of the judiciary was a serious problem".
It said that in July the National Assembly had amended the Judicial Systems Act, empowering the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) to vote on removing the immunity of the Prosecutor General, who previously had been without accountability, and judges. Some members of the judiciary had promptly challenged the amendments, and in December the Constitutional Court had overturned them.
"Observers noted modest improvement in the efficiency of moving cases through the criminal system, although many serious systemic flaws remained," the report said. "Local observers contended that organised crime influenced the prosecutor's office"
According to the National Service for Combating Organised Crime, as quoted in the State Department report, about 110 organised crime groups were operating in the country. Domestic NGOs estimated that between 25 and 35 per cent of the economy was linked to or controlled by organised crime.
"Conditions for children in state institutions were poor, and because of a lack of funds, the social service system did not assist homeless and other vulnerable children adequately, notably Roma and children with mental disabilities," the report also said.
"At the end of 2001, according to the State Agency for Child Protection, there were approximately 35 000 children confined to 360 state or municipal institutions that were under the jurisdiction of five different government ministries."
Societal discrimination against persons with disabilities persisted, according to the report.
"A survey during the year by the Centre for Independent Living found that about 82 percent of public buildings were inaccessible to persons with disabilities."
"Child labour, and trafficking in women and girls were serious problems, although the Government had taken steps to address it," the report found.
In October, the National Assembly amended the Penal Code to make trafficking in people a criminal offence.
Security forces commonly beat suspects and prisoners, and beat and mistreated minorities, and arbitrary arrest and detention were problems, the report said. Security forces harassed, physically abused, and arbitrarily arrested and detained Roma street children.
The Government restricted the freedom of religion of some non-Orthodox religious groups. The report said "societal discrimination and harassment of nontraditional religious minorities persisted, but were less frequent than in the previous year". "Discrimination, harassment, and general public intolerance toward religious minorities, which included the great majority of Protestant denominations, remained a problem; however, the number of reported incidents decreased during the year," the report said.
Constitutional restrictions on political parties formed along ethnic, racial, or religious lines effectively limited participation in government for some groups. Violence and discrimination against women remained serious problems. Conditions for children in state institutions were poor, and because of a lack of funds, the social service system did not assist homeless and other vulnerable children adequately, notably Roma and children with mental disabilities. There was some discrimination against people with disabilities and discrimination and societal violence against Roma were serious problems.
The report noted that ethnic Turks were represented on the boards of state-owned companies, such as Bulgartabac Holding.
Dimitar Georgiev, programme consultant with the Human Rights Project NGO, told The Echo that forms of discrimination were different in each society and added that people usually spoke about Roma people when the word discrimination was mentioned.
"This is not because only Roma people are being discriminated but because only Roma people talk openly and freely about this".
He said that Roma people talked about these issues not because they were eager to make politics, but because "when you have no law or a legal basis you cannot protect yourself".
"If you are not let into a certain club or cafe and you are not accordingly treated and not even told why, different organisations come and explain that they have no law to punish the institution," Georgiev said.
"This affects the whole society and not simply the Roma," he said.
The State Department report said there were no reports of lethal police assaults on Roma, but police harassed, physically abused, and arbitrarily arrested some Roma street children.
"Beginning in late 2001, the Interior Ministry reserved 20 to 30 places in the Police Academy for minority candidates to address the serious under-representation of ethnic Turks and Roma in the police agencies."
Georgiev expressed doubts about the effectiveness of such a step.
The report said problems of accountability persisted and inhibited Government attempts to address police abuses. Conditions in many prisons and detention facilities were harsh. This was illustrated by the six-year-prolonged court case filed by Mariana Ilieva in Kyustendil.
Georgiev said that Ilieva's husband died in 1996 after being beaten up by police.
"The Interior Ministry and the courts continue to neglect cases in which there are rights abuses," Georgiev said.
The report said that there remained some instances of prolonged pre-trial detention, although the Government continued to improve its performance in preventing periods of pre-trial detention from exceeding the statutory limit of one year.
Georgiev said his organisation had been pursuing the problem of abuses of the human rights of Roma since 1994.
"The Human Rights Project has informed society about this problem," Georgiev said adding that the problem of brutality has spread to ordinary ethnic Bulgarians in the country since 1999 and 2000.
"Security forces commonly beat suspects and inmates and beat and mistreated minorities."
The Bulgarian constitution prohibited torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment, but police commonly beat criminal suspects, particularly members of minorities, to extract false testimonies.
The report quoted the case of 26-year-old Seval Sabakhtin Rasim who died while in the custody of the border police near Sladun, Svilengrad municipality. In the other two cases, involving the deaths of Jordan Asenov Yankov and Radka Koleva Markov, the authorities found insufficient grounds for prosecution, according to the Military Prosecutor's office.
The report said that in March a three-member panel of the Sofia Military Court acquitted two police officers who had been accused of inflicting injuries on Milotin Mironov, also known as Mehmet Myumyun, who died in police custody in 2001. Reportedly, the Interior Ministry, in spite of a nationwide search, could not locate two reliable witnesses. This resulted in the court's inability to consider potentially relevant evidence. Mironov's relatives had said that they would appeal.
The report emphasised that last year "the judiciary was underpaid, understaffed, and had a heavy case backlog; corruption of the judiciary was a serious problem".
It said that in July the National Assembly had amended the Judicial Systems Act, empowering the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) to vote on removing the immunity of the Prosecutor General, who previously had been without accountability, and judges. Some members of the judiciary had promptly challenged the amendments, and in December the Constitutional Court had overturned them.
"Observers noted modest improvement in the efficiency of moving cases through the criminal system, although many serious systemic flaws remained," the report said. "Local observers contended that organised crime influenced the prosecutor's office"
According to the National Service for Combating Organised Crime, as quoted in the State Department report, about 110 organised crime groups were operating in the country. Domestic NGOs estimated that between 25 and 35 per cent of the economy was linked to or controlled by organised crime.
"Conditions for children in state institutions were poor, and because of a lack of funds, the social service system did not assist homeless and other vulnerable children adequately, notably Roma and children with mental disabilities," the report also said.
"At the end of 2001, according to the State Agency for Child Protection, there were approximately 35 000 children confined to 360 state or municipal institutions that were under the jurisdiction of five different government ministries."
Societal discrimination against persons with disabilities persisted, according to the report.
"A survey during the year by the Centre for Independent Living found that about 82 percent of public buildings were inaccessible to persons with disabilities."
"Child labour, and trafficking in women and girls were serious problems, although the Government had taken steps to address it," the report found.
In October, the National Assembly amended the Penal Code to make trafficking in people a criminal offence.
