Sofia, June 6 (BTA) - Bulgarian President Zhelyu Zhelev received a letter from Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos who expresses his gratitude for Bulgaria's participation in the Angolan peace-keeping mission, BTA learned from the President's Press Office.
In February 1995 ten Bulgarian officers left for Angola as observers for a term of one year at the invitation of the United Nations. Deployed in the buffer zones, the Bulgarian peace-keepers perform tasks in connection with the demobilization of fighting groups for the purpose of completing the 1992 electoral process. The Bulgarian officers attended courses for military observers in Bulgaria and abroad. Three of them participated in UN peace- keeping missions in Cambodia in 1992 and 1993. In March 1995 ten Bulgarian police observers also left for Angola, having received special training at the Interior Ministry schools.
Sofia, June 6 (BTA) - A delegation of the European Union observers mission in Zagreb, led by mission leader Albert Zureau, is paying a protocol visit to Bulgaria. Today it was received by National Assmebly Chairman Blagovest Sendov.
The decision of the United Nations to form rapid reaction forces in the former Yugoslavia is yet another UN effort to help settle the military conflict peacefully, the EU mission leader said. The guests informed the Chairman of the Bulgarian National Assembly about the developments in rump Yugoslavia.
The delegation will acquaint itself with the consequences the strict application of UN sanctions against Serbia and Montenegro carries for Bulgaria's economy. Mr Sendov stressed the enormous losses this country suffers as a result of the Yugoembargo. Bulgaria is one of the countries most badly hit by the embargo. From July 1992, when sanctions were imposed, to September 1994 its losses amounted to 159 million US dollars. Over 1,200 economic units operating in trade, industry, agriculture, transport and tourism are affected by the Yugoembargo.
Sofia, June 6 (BTA) - Ten companies won a tender for import of ice cream, "24 Chassa" writes citing the Ministry of Trade. 100 tonnes of icecream will be imported by Ermis of Greece and Darko of Finland.
Hunting grounds in the regions of Shoumen and Turgovishte, Northern Bulgaria, total 61,000 ha. Over 1,000 are placed under animal feed crops each year. Some 2 million leva go for providing food for the animals in the winter.
The summer season started at the Roussalka holiday village. The first groups of Western tourists will come around June 20. French tourists this year are expected to be some 500.
90 per cent of the coloured sanitary ware produced by Faience of Kaspichan, Eastern Bulgaria, go to foreign markets. The firm has shops in 12 towns across Bulgaria.
Stara Zagora, Southeastern Bulgaria, is expecting US$ 1 million in US grant aid for gasification, writes "Standart News". The money will be distributed to families in the form of interest-free credits to help them switch to gas for household needs.
Sofia, June 6 (BTA) - Bulgarian Defence Minister Dimiter Pavlov declared himself for Balkans without axes and spheres of influence.
In an interview for TANJUG, published in today's "Bulgarska Armiya," the daily of the Bulgarian Defence Ministry, Pavlov says that Bulgaria's policy in the region is aimed at achieving stability. "We are for solving disputes by political means, against the formation of 'axes' and 'spheres of influence' and for ethnic and religious tolerance," Minister Pavlov says, stressing Bulgaria's stand for a quick cessation of hostilities in Bosnia-Hercegovina and for seeking a peaceful solution to the conflict.
Minister Pavlov says further on that the issue of armaments imbalance is part of an emerging tendency of growing differences in the levels of security of the separate states in the region.
According to Minister Pavlov, this tendency is manifested in two ways. The first is related to the "cascading" of weapons and combat equipment towards Greece and Turkey, which changes to a considerable extent the qualitative potentials their armies within the "ceilings" set by the Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty. The second is related to the different degree of involvement of the separate Balkan countries in major international and international law structures and mechanisms of a military political nature. "The fact that the entire territory of the former Yugoslavia remains outside the scope of the Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty, which confirms the inequality among the Balkan states along key security problems, is hardly optimistic," Minister Pavlov says. He sees a solution in the adoption of measures for a lasting cease fire and separation of the warring parties in Bosnia- Hercegovina, in the introduction of a system of confidence- building measures among all Balkan states, in negotiating armaments and armed forces control measures after the model of the Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty, and in working out an efficient mechanism for a gradual elimination of the accumulated armaments and armed forces imbalances.
The Bulgarian Defence Minister reiterated his support for the Bulgarian idea for holding a meeting of the Balkan states' defence ministers and chiefs of the general staff to exchange views on the risk factors in the region and ideas for eliminating them. In his talks with representatives of the Balkan countries so far Minister Pavlov has not encountered any disagreement in principle on the motives for holding such meetings. "This gives us grounds to persevere in our joint efforts for their realization," Minister Pavlov says.
Defence Minister Pavlov believes that the lifting of the embargo against the former Yugoslavia would create the necessary conditions for cooperation between the Bulgarian and Yugoslav armies as well. "I see no essential obstacles to our two countries agreeing on the introduction of a broad range of bilateral measures to strengthen confidence and security along our common border, to promoting mutually advantageous military-economic and military-technological cooperation and to expanding bilateral contacts and exchange in the sphere of military training, military medicine, civil defence and elsewhere," Minister Pavlov says.
He says that the two countries' potential in the field of military industry and their experience in cooperation and joint production with other countries favours future cooperation in military-industrial production.
Strasbourg, June 6 (BTA) - Miguel Martinez, President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, will pay an official visit to Bulgaria from June 8 to 10 at the invitation of National Assembly Chairman Blagovest Sendov, the Council of Europe press office said. The programme of the visit includes meetings with Bulgarian President Zhelyu Zhelev, Prime Minister Zhan Videnov, Foreign Minister Georgi Pirinski and representatives of the parliamentary political forces.
The talks are expected to discuss security in the Balkans where, according to Martinez, Bulgaria plays a stabilizing role.
Sofia, June 6 (BTA) - Man-nature relations are in the limelight of the Hom-Eco 1 three-day scientific conference that opened in Sofia yesterday. The forum comes to mark the 50th anniversary of the United Nations and the World Environment Day on June 5; it will also prepare the ground for the forthcoming meeting of the environment ministers of the European countries, the United States and Canada to be held in Sofia in October 1995. Lyuben Koulishev, Chairman of the UN Association of Bulgaria and Yordan Stefanov, a representative of the International Association of Water Quality, addressed the participants in the conference.
Hom-Eco 1 is organized on the initiative of Inter- Eco Club, chaired by Prof. Stefan Mihailov. The Inter-Eco Club was set up in Vienna in 1988 by representatives of 17 countries; at present it unites representatives of 49 countries, Prof. Mihailov said. Now the goal is to establish a Bulgarian Eco-federation.
Increasing death and morbidity rates, and especially of deaths caused by cancer, are a direct result of deteriorated living conditions, Prof. Mihaylov noted. He cited figures which show that the number of children with congenital deformities has increased from 0.03 percent to 5 percent, or 157 times in the last 100 years; this is mainly due to adverse factors of mechanical, toxic, biotic and social nature.
Addressing the conference on the occasion of the World Environment Day, Bulgarian Environment Minister Georgi Georgiev laid stress on global environmental problems and the need to exclude politics when considering ecological problems.
According to Bulgaria's scientists, regional environmental problems that endanger the Balkans's future are by no means less important. Most alarming is soil pollution and the pollution of the Danube and the Black Sea, said Prof. Milan Georgiev of the St. Kliment Ohridski University of Sofia. While the Black Sea sulphuretted hydrogen layer that prevents the establishment of new deep- sea fauna was at a depth of 200 metres in the past, now its depth is 50 to 60 metres, he said. If the pollution problems of the Danube and the Black Sea are not resolved in the next 15 years, the environmental catastrophy is inevitable, Prof. Georgiev warned. The catch of fish in the Black Sea dropped from 700,000 to 100,000 tonnes, data in the annual report of the Worldwatch Institute show. The major sources of pollution are the Danube, the Dnepr and the Dnestr rivers which discharge the chemical and organic waste from half of Europe into the Black Sea.
For two years now the UN has been financing a unique project for the environmental management of the Black Sea. It was endorsed by all the Black Sea countries in Varna in 1993. Environment-protection projects are also financed by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) with the participation of the World Bank, the UN Environment Programme and the UN Development Programme.
The National Environment Club, the International Academy of Architecture and the Club of Rome are among the 25 non-governmental organizations planning a number of events to mark the 50th anniversary of the United Nations: the setting up of a UN Club for sustained development, a conference on "Sustained Development for a Sustained World", the 3rd Music and Earth International Competition, an Earth for Everyone photo competition, the 7th Interarch International Biennial, exhibitions and scientific forums.
Luxembourg, June 6 (BTA) - Bulgaria's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Trade and Foreign Economic Cooperation Kiril Tsochev today spoke at a joint meeting of the trade ministers of the EU members and the Central and East European countries. He stressed that Bulgaria regards regards alignment of legislation as an important stage in the country's preparation for accession to the EU and the White Paper as a major step towards the attainment of this objective. Mr Tsochev outlined Bulgaria's top priorities in the process of approximation of legislation in the area of the internal market, as well as the established structures and the need of increased technical assistance for attainment of the principal objectives in this area, mainly within the framework of the PHARE Programme.
The Bulgarian deputy head of government launched the idea that the White Paper be amended to cover areas such as the Common Agricultural Policy, regional cooperation, the EU Structural Funds, as well as other important aspects of the preparations for accession of the countries of Central and Eastern Europe.