Sofia Under Siege as
Condi Comes to Town
Bulgarians rally against war and empire
by Raina Borisova
Elderly citizens of Bulgaria's capital say they can't
remember anything like this even in the 1970s, the
time of the Brezhnev Doctrine that followed the 1968
Prague Spring events, when the country was gripped by
harsh totalitarian rule.
At 8:00 a.m. on April 25, two days before the arrival
of the U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the
police cordoned off the city center, cutting off its
inhabitants from the rest of the country.
Military choppers hover over Sofia as jet fighters and
armored vehicles secure the informal meeting of NATO
foreign ministers. The capital is blocked, reads the
headline in the Standart daily.
"Each meter of Sofia's boulevards will be secured by
policemen, and snipers will be installed on the roofs
of the buildings around the National Palace of
Culture, where the meeting will be held. The armored
vehicles of the Gendarmerie will be ready for action
in case of threats, protests, or riots", the newspaper
explains.
Some 35 major boulevards and streets in the central
part of the city are deserted. Even parking lots are
empty. No traffic is allowed. People have to walk.
Those living in the central quarters are allowed to
come and go to their homes only upon presenting their
ID cards. Their vehicles are stored in other, more
peripheral parts of the capital, where Sofia's
citizens struggle with hellish traffic.
Some of the measures involve denying basic human
rights. For instance, the home and business phones in
the deserted center are switched off. Even the
flowerpots on the streets, as well as in the lobbies
of hotels, banks, and other office buildings, have
been removed. Shops, banks, and other commercial
outlets are closed for four days with no
compensation for the lost revenue, of course.
Witnesses say that on April 25 a column of military
armored vehicles was paraded along some streets for no
apparent reason other than to scare the annoyed
citizenry into silence.
Why the fuss?
The security measures are for an informal NATO meeting
being held here April 27-28. Informal, because no
decisions are to be made and no agreements are to be
signed. Some 36 delegations arrived. Among the high
guests are Jaap de Hoop Scheffer and the EU's Javier
Solana. But it's the highest guest, Condoleezza Rice,
that the whole fuss is about. The single opposition,
antiwar party in the country the nationalist Ataka
("Attack"), planned a massive protest rally against
the four U.S. military bases conceded by the current
government. While in Bulgaria, Rice will sign the
agreement on the 10-year concession of the Bezmer and
Graf Ignatievo airfields, the Novo Selo compound, and
a munitions warehouse at the Black Sea coast near the
town of Bourgas. The government a coalition of a
socialist party, a neoliberal right-wing party. and a
Turkish ethnic party, all of whom enjoy a notorious
reputation as Washington's puppets, don't want their
puppet master Rice to see how much the local
population loathes having foreign military bases on
Bulgarian soil.
Ever since the nationalist party entered parliament in
June last year, an increasing smear campaign against
its members has been unleashed in the mainstream
media. Spin and libel, most often naïve and easy to
refute, have accompanied every action of the party and
its leader, Volen Siderov, whose popularity in polls
has been growing. In March, he topped an Internet
survey for person of the month.
Repressive measures, meant to thwart the month-long
relay of protests organized by Ataka against the U.S.
bases around the country, have been implemented. A few
weeks ago, a special car "accident" was arranged
against Siderov as he was returning from a protest
rally. About 11:00 p.m. on a rainy night, his car was
hit from behind by a Mercedes jeep driven by a
Bulgarian student studying "intelligence sciences" in
the UK, while another car stopped in front of
Siderov's vehicle to prevent him from leaving. The car
is displayed at the party's parking lot so that
everyone can see it was hit from behind, yet no
official steps have been undertaken to clarify who hit
it or why.
It has been widely alleged that after being hit by the
Mercedes, Siderov's driver came out and punched the
Mercedes owner. After some time, Siderov called the
police and on the next day filed a statement asking
the authorities to investigate if an attempt had been
made on his life. There has been no investigation of
the accident itself, yet Siderov's driver faces triple
charges. Siderov himself was accused of having
instigated his driver to hit the student.
On April 26, a prosecutor announced that detaining
Ataka's leader on April 27 was being considered over
allegations that he lied to the authorities about the
details of the road accident. Citing his colleague,
chief prosecutor Boris Velchev stated he would
consider demanding the revocation of Siderov's
parliamentary immunity a poorly veiled attempt to
prevent Siderov from speaking at the rally.
In the meantime Sofia's mayor, Boiko Borissov, who is
in charge of implementing the above measures, revoked
his permission for the protest rally to be held in
front of the National Palace of Culture, where the
NATO meeting is being held. Eventually people were
allowed to protest, but at a safe, 2-km distance from
the Palace so that the NATO foreign ministers would
not hear the rally's message.
Yet Thursday's rally happened despite all preventive
measures. Some six or seven thousand people managed to
overcome the cordons and convened at a park several
hundred meters from the freshly built U.S. embassy.
Police numbered some 1,500, equipped with machine
guns, dogs, gas masks, etc.
After three hours of speeches stating the American
boot will never be welcome in Bulgaria, and appeals to
the government to resign immediately, the rally
marched to the U.S. embassy to deliver a declaration
and a petition with 200,000 signatures against a U.S.
military presence in Bulgaria. They were kept for an
hour under the rain in front the fortress (it truly
looks like a fortification of sorts). Then someone
came from within and told them their petition cannot
be received by the U.S. embassy.
Protests will continue until the U.S. mission receives
the petition.
