News from Bulgaria, 96-06-26

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From: Embassy of Bulgaria <bulgaria@access1.digex.net>

EMBASSY OF BULGARIA - WASHINGTON D.C.

BTA - BULGARIAN TELEGRAPH AGENCY

26 June, 1996

CONTENTS

[01] BULGARIA, SOUTH KOREA: ACADEMIC CONTACTS

[02] UPCOMING VISITS TO BULGARIA

[03] FOREIGN MINISTER PIRINSKI MEETS GREEK AMBASSADOR

[04] BULGARIA, CROATIA: ECONOMIC COOPERATION

[05] BULGARIAN ARMED FORCES DELEGATION VISITING BELGRADE

[06] INTERNATIONAL FINANCE CORPORATION INVESTS IN BULGARIA

[07] BUSINESS PRESS

[08] POLITICAL, STATE LEADERS DIVIDED OVER DEATH PENALTY

[09] 13TH CENTURY PALL, INTERWOVEN WITH GOLD, ON DISPLAY AT NATIONAL HISTORY MUSEUM

[10] AN ARTIST BURNS HIS PAINTINGS IN PROTEST

[01] BULGARIA, SOUTH KOREA: ACADEMIC CONTACTS

Prof. Byong-man Ahn announced plans to open a Bulgarian department at Seoul university, said a Zhelev adviser, Rayna Karcheva, after the meeting. She recalled that during a South Korean visit last year Zhelev received an honorary doctor's degree from Hankuk University. President Zhelev showed interest in possible ways of future unification of the two Koreas and possibilities to use German unification experience on the Korean peninsula.

[02] UPCOMING VISITS TO BULGARIA

Mr Berndt Schmidbauer, Minister of State at the German Federal Chancellery will visit Sofia on July 3 - 5. He is expected to meet with President Zhelyu Zhelev, Foreign Minister Georgi Pirinski, Interior Minister Nikolai Dobrev and the parliamentary committees on foreign policy and national security.

A meeting of the political directors from the foreign ministries of the states due to participate in the meeting of foreign ministers of Southeastern Europe will be held on July 5 in Sofia. The meeting is expected to particularize on the organization of the forum scheduled for July 6 and 7 in Sofia.

State Minister of the German Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs Werner Heuer will be on a visit to Sofia on July 8-9. He is expected to have talks with Prime Minister Zhan Videnov, Foreign Minister Georgi Pirinski, Minister of Trade and Foreign Economic Cooperation Atanas Paparizov. The key topic of his talks will be Bulgaria's association with the European Union.

Former German Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher will pay a visit to Bulgaria on July 10, 11 at the invitation of the Bulgarian Parliament. He is scheduled to have meetings with President Zhelyu Zhelev, Prime Minister Zhan Videnov, Foreign Minister Georgi Pirinski and the leadership of the Bulgarian National Assembly.

Director General of the Information and Documentation Centre of the Central European Initiative Paul Harting will have talks in Sofia on July 26, 27.

[03] FOREIGN MINISTER PIRINSKI MEETS GREEK AMBASSADOR

The Greek Ambassador reportedly said in response that the Greek government has never supported the above idea. He pledged to brief Athens on Bulgaria's concern and ask the Greek government to come out with an official stand. During the meeting, Foreign Minister Pirinski stressed the lack of any grounds whatsoever for advocating theses seeking the formation of a Pomak nation, the Foreign Ministry also says.

[04] BULGARIA, CROATIA: ECONOMIC COOPERATION

The protocol says that the commercial exchange between Bulgaria and Croatia is below their economic potential. The document lists a number of sectors of the economy with untapped opportunities for expanding commercial exchange between Bulgaria and Croatia, which include shipbuilding, electrical engineering, electronics, chemical industry and pharmaceuticals, processing industry and tourism. The protocol envisages the setting up of a joint expert group which will present the Commission with concrete proposals to boost the trade relations between Bulgaria and Croatia.

The sides agreed to start preliminary talks, as soon as possible, on concluding a free trade agreement based on the European practice and on the model of the Central European Free Trade Agreement. Banking settlements between Bulgaria and Croatia will be conducted through the Austrian Raiffeisen bank, which has branches in both Zagreb and Sofia.

Speaking to a BTA reporter, Gechev said that the potential for cooperation with Croatia is larger than he expected. Gechev said that he will continue to insist on the further promotion of business contacts between Bulgarian and Croat officials. The Bulgarian Deputy Prime Minister extended a personal invitation to his Croat counterpart Stern to visit the 1996 autumn Plovdiv Fair with a business delegation. The Croat side invited Bulgarian officials to take part in the autumn fair in Zagreb.

At his meeting with Croat Prime Minister Zlatko Matesa, Gechev was given the Croat approval for the Bulgarian Government to start negotiations with Zagreb on a free trade agreement. Speaking about the favourable conditions for implementing various projects in the region, Matesa stressed the successful enforcement of the Dayton Agreement, signed by Croat President Franjo Tudjman. In addition to that, the imminent normalization of the relations between Zagreb and Belgrade will resolve the transport problems between Bulgaria and Croatia, Matesa said.

[05] BULGARIAN ARMED FORCES DELEGATION VISITING BELGRADE

[06] INTERNATIONAL FINANCE CORPORATION INVESTS IN BULGARIA

Interlease Inc. will sign two to four-year deals worth $50,000 to $500,000. It will sell equipment to the light and food industry, transport, agriculture and other sectors of the economy. The first agreement is expected in September. The company will support Bulgarian firms with good prospects for development, says Stevan Strauss, Executive Director of Interlease.

Foreign investment in Bulgaria in the first quarter of 1996 amounted $60 million. This is two times up from the same period of 1995. Total foreign investment in Bulgaria runs at $850 million. According to Economic Development Minister Roumen Gechev, the amount should top $1,000 million by year-end. The biggest foreign investor in the Bulgarian economy is Germany, which accounts for 38%.

[07] BUSINESS PRESS

The financial daily "Pari" says that a Bulgarian-German consortium will work out projects for fruit and vegetable wholesale markets and agriculture markets in Bulgaria under a programme of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). The project dates back to 1992 and a 35 million US dollar loan will be granted for its realization. The project is for 3 wholesale markets in Sofia, Plovdiv and Varna and 7 markets of agriculture products. The Bulgarian Government provided state guarantees on the loan which is to be ratified by the National Assembly, the daily writes. 11 wholesale markets of that kind are already operating in the former Socialist states. Their construction was financed by the EBRD.

"Standart News" writes that the European Union has approved another two Bulgarian meat-processing plants to make exports to the European markets, Chief of the National Veterinary Medical Service Dr Yordan Kostadinov said. These are the slaughterhouses in Shoumen (North-eastern Bulgaria) and in Svishtov (Northern Bulgaria). The EU's permission has come too late, the daily says. The export contracts have long been signed. Customs duties are too high in Europe and make the Bulgarian products expensive and thus difficult to sell. The EU initially allowed Bulgaria to import 640 tonnes of meat at reduced customs duties. The ban on exports of live animals from Bulgaria to the EU is valid this year too, the daily writes. In early March the EU granted Bulgaria a quota for another 500 tonnes of meat at preferential terms as compensation for the banned exports.

[08] POLITICAL, STATE LEADERS DIVIDED OVER DEATH PENALTY

The last person executed in Bulgaria, in November 1989, was a repeat offender who killed two women. At the time of lifting the moratorium, there were six people on death row. In the last six years the courts continued to pass death sentences for especially atrocious crimes- twelve people were on death row in April 1996.

In 1994 MPs, mostly of the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), asked the Constitutional Court to interpret a constitutional provision about "the universal right of life" and rule on Penal Code provisions on capital punishment. The people and institutions who expressed a stance on the issue were Prosecutor General Ivan Tatarchev (who spoke for the death penalty), the Committee on Human Rights and Religious Faiths chaired by Velko Vulkanov MP of the BSP (against) and the Supreme Lawyers Council (which said a decision is within the competence of Parliament). Parliament remained the only institution to resolve the problem, balancing between demands to combat soaring crime and Bulgaria's international commitments.

Bulgaria has not signed the Sixth Protocol to the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights ad Fundamental Freedoms which recommends that nations abolish the death penalty, except for war crimes. If Bulgaria resumes executions, it has no chance of joining the European Union, diplomats say.

On June 6 1996 Interior Minister Nikolay Dobrev called on the MPs to lift the moratorium until the issue gets finally resolved by a law. Justifying his request he quoted unprecedented crime levels and emphasized that in the period of transition severe punishment cannot be viewed as a factor restricting human rights. About one million crimes were committed in the last five years, the Interior Minister stressed. He was supported by Prosecutor General Ivan Tatarchev.

The step they sponsor was categorically opposed by Prime Minister Zhan Videnov and Justice Minister Mladen Chervenyakov. The Prime Minister said if the measure passed in Parliament, the Government would move a draft law deleting the death penalty from the Penal Code.

Capital punishment has no place in the penal legislation of a modern nation, argues the Minister of Justice, who declared himself against the death penalty as early as the start of his term. He believes the death penalty reveals the helplessness of a country in dealing with crime. "I think Mr Dobrev's statements were in response to both public pressure and the injustice done to the people on death row. They have spent years in jail, not knowing their future," Chervenyakov said. Many polls in the last few years have indicated the majority of the public favours repealing the moratorium, but some contain contradictory data.

"The national and world practice shows that the death penalty itself does bring down crime levels. Statistics shows the death penalty imposed for rape and major economic crimes in 1952-1968 did not lead to a decrease in these kinds of crime," the Justice Minister said recently. He recalled that according to a Penal Code provision adopted in 1968, the death penalty is a temporary measure. "The practice in all European countries shows the moratorium as well as life in prison (introduced in Bulgaria in 1995) precede the abolition of the death penalty," Chervenyakov said.

[09] 13TH CENTURY PALL, INTERWOVEN WITH GOLD, ON DISPLAY AT NATIONAL HISTORY MUSEUM

The thin crimson silk has an exceptionally exquisite multi- coloured embroidery which depicts the four Evangelists and Christ, laying on shrouded bed. Two angels hover above the figures. According to Teofana Mitakieva of the National History Museum, the drawing's stylistic merit is similar to the two palls known so far: the Thessaloniki shroud and the Serb one of the library of the Chiliandari monastery on Athos, kept in Greece.

"The pall is priceless; however, its possible price at a world auction would start from USD 50 million," National History Museum Curator Bozhidar Dimitrov said. The museum cannot display the masterpiece immediately since none of its 560 display windows is big enough to hold it.

[10] AN ARTIST BURNS HIS PAINTINGS IN PROTEST

Roumen Boudev turns 33 in July. His paintings are known to West European connoisseurs. His 20th one-man exhibition is on in Mannheim, Germany. "I chose this form of protest myself and do not want to involve anyone in it," the artist said. He expressed resentment at the abccense of a state fund supporting culture and a law giving tax breaks to companies and institutions investing in art and culture.

Most Bulgarian artists accept Boudev's motives but are against the extreme form of his protest. The famous artist Svetlin Roussev fully supports Boudev's reasons for taking this desperate step to call the attention of the policimakers to the plight of Bulgarian culture. The people in government have no conscience and dignity, Roussev said in short statements in "24 Chassa". "It would not mean a thing to them if they delivered a funeral oration for their own people and our paintings; they would not be moved if we set ourselves alight," Roussev said. Being an artist himself, Roussev said it was not worth destroying one's spiritual offspring for undeserving people. One can find a better way, according to him.

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