News from Bulgaria, 96-10-03

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

EMBASSY OF BULGARIA - WASHINGTON D.C.

BTA - BULGARIAN TELEGRAPH AGENCY

3 October, 1996

CONTENTS

[01] FORMER PM ANDREI LOUKANOV ASSASSINATED

[02] CONDOLENCES ON LOUKANOV'S DEATH

[03] REACTIONS TO LOUKANOV'S MURDER

[04] EYEWITNESSES ABOUT LOUKANOV'S ASSASSINATION

[05] BULGARIA JOINS W.T.O.

[06] FOREIGN MINISTER PIRINSKI ADDRESSES U.N. GENERAL ASSEMBLY

[07] MEETINGS OF FOREIGN MINISTER PIRINSKI IN NEW YORK

[08] MEETINGS OF BULGARIAN DEFENCE MINISTER IN BRUSSELS

[01] FORMER PM ANDREI LOUKANOV ASSASSINATED

The MPs honoured Loukanov's memory with a minute's silence. The Chairman urged them to remain calm, after which he closed today's sitting.

At this point there is no official information about the circumstances related to the death. According to unofficial sources, the MP was murdered by his home a little before nine a.m. today. According to witnesses, he was killed by two shots in the heart, at point-blank range, while going out of the building. The murder was committed by a professional, say experts quoted by national radio.

Police began an investigation on the case. The area around the building was cordoned off. Interior Minister Dobrev arrived on the spot.

Loukanov, 58, was prime minister of Bulgaria's first post- communist government from February to August 1990; that same year he headed another Socialist government. He has since been a member of Parliament for the Democratic Left.

Loukanov was born in 1938 in Moscow where his parents were living at the time, and graduated from the Moscow Institute of International Relations. He started work at the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry and later moved to the Ministry of Trade. His career record includes service as first secretary of Bulgaria's permanent representation at the United Nations, deputy minister of foreign trade, deputy prime minister, minister of foreign economic relations and Bulgarian permanent representative at COMECON. Before 1989 Loukanov also held senior posts in the Bulgarian Communist Party, and after the ouster of communist leader Todor Zhivkov he remained in the leadership of the Bulgarian Socialist Party. He was considered a reformer in the BSP and was one of the masterminds of Zhivkov's ouster in 1989. Loukanov was the first senior BCP official to negotiate with dissident organizations. He was strongly in favour of a coalition government after the Socialist victory at the 1990 elections. A coalition government, however, was only formed after his resignation as prime minister. Though he held no high-ranking posts in the BSP, Loukanov was believed to have a strong influence in the party.

In the last few years, the opposition often claimed Loukanov was a major culprit for Bulgaria's huge foreign debt and for the March 1990 moratorium on foreign debt payments. The Prosecutor General's Office conducted a prolonged investigation into his share of responsibility for the economic catastrophe in Bulgaria.

In 1995 Loukanov headed the Topenergy Bulgarian-Russian gas joint venture. He announced plans to withdraw from politics but never dropped his seat in Parliament. Much to everybody's surprise, last summer he resigned from Topenergy, claiming he was the target of a dirty politically-motivated media campaign.

A scandal erupted between Loukanov and an official of the press office of Zhan Videnov's cabinet in 1995, who accused him of scheming and blackmail and of being the spiritual father of the "wrestlers" - newly-rich groups that made their money by illegal means. For quite some time rumours linked him to the influential Multigroup, but recently reports appeared in the press that Loukanov and Multigroup were at war.

The first unofficial reactions by MPs of the Left, who asked not to be named, were that this is the first assassination of an MP in Bulgaria. The assassination may lead to postponing the presidential elections and to the establishment of presidential rule. Others associated the murder with Loukanov's economic activities. "Andrei Loukanov's murder is by no means accidental, but nothing can be said before all facts are known," said Democratic Left deputy floor leader Stefan Gaitandjiev after a brief meeting of the faction's leaders.

"There can be no doubt that the murder of Andrei Loukanov will cast a shadow over the forthcoming presidential elections," BSP deputy leader Georgi Purvanov said in the parliamentary lobby. It will influence the political and socioeconomic situation but will not affect the forthcoming elections, said Stoyan Denchev, deputy floor leader of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms. Democratic left floor leader Krassimir Premyanov described the murder of the former prime minister as an act taking Bulgaria 60 years back.

[02] CONDOLENCES ON LOUKANOV'S DEATH

"Bulgaria lost an outstanding politician and statesman whose name will rank among the first motor forces of transition to a better, more humane society," Videnov said in his telegram.

In his address to the UN General Assembly today Foreign Minister Pirinski informed the organization of the terrorist act against Loukanov and of Parliament's declaration which voiced the will of all political forces to prevent political and social destabilization by such provocations, the Foreign Ministry's press office said. The delegations to the session held a minute of silence. Boutros-Ghali offered his condolences to Pirinski in person.

[03] REACTIONS TO LOUKANOV'S MURDER

At an extraordinary sitting of Parliament, held in the early afternoon hours and attended by Prime Minister Zhan Videnov and cabinet ministers, the representatives of all parliamentary forces and the independent MPs adopted unanimously a declaration. (see yestredays bulletin). The document condemns Loukanov's murder and describes it as "a brazen terrorist act which made a target of a politician". The national representatives said they oppose similar attempts to destabilize the political situation. The MPs state in the declaration they will not allow introducing of a state of emergency and postponing of the presidential elections scheduled for October 27, 1996.

"We unanimously condemn the vicious murder of MP Andrei Loukanov," President Zhelyu Zhelev said in an address joined by the Consultative Council on National Security which the President called at an emergency sitting today. The sitting was attended by Prime Minister Videnov, General Totomirov, Chief of the General Staff of the Bulgarian Army and representatives of all political forces. Interior Minister Nikolai Dobrev who met with Zhelev earlier in the day did not attend because at that time he was at a simultaneous sitting in his Ministry.

In his address the Bulgarian Head of State urged all state institutions and political forces to commit themselves not to allow implementation of emergency measures or state of emergency. The President stated that tightened security should not be to the detriment of the citizen's rights. The tragic incident with Andrei Loukanov once again shows that to combat terrorism and organized crime all institutions should unite their efforts and seek cooperation with the other countries, Zhelyu Zhelev said.

The parliamentary groups also came up with declarations denouncing the assassination. The Democratic Left described the killing as a serious provocation against the democratic processes, lawfulness, security and stability in Bulgaria. In a declaration of the parliamentary group of the Union of Democratic Forces the murder of the MP is described as a heavy blow against parliamentarianism and democracy. "It is a continuation of the impotence and chaos of the public and economic life, the fierce clash of economic and financial interests of the incumbents and the destabilization of the institutions," the declaration says. In a declaration the Bulgarian Business Bloc states that Andrei Loukanov's murder once again proves that human life is not valued in a country where the state institutions cannot guarantee it. The Popular Union (a coalition of the Democratic Party and Anastasiya Moser's Bulgarian Agrarian National Union) issued a declaration stating that the incident will not be used to prompt a political crisis in the country: postponing of the presidential elections and introducing of extraordinary measures which will restrict citizen's rights and freedoms.

Most presidential candidates and their running mates cancelled their campaign activities planned. Defence Minister Dimiter Pavlov who is on an official visit to Belgium will return to Bulgaria earlier than scheduled.

[04] EYEWITNESSES ABOUT LOUKANOV'S ASSASSINATION

A lady living nearby is supposed to have seen the killer. The lady told BTA she had seen a tall man with a bag and a piece of rolled-up paper some time before the assassination. He was rummaging his bag at the entrance of the buidling Loukanov lived in. A little later the lady saw Loukanov himself, lying on the ground with his face down. According to the police, for the time being that lady is the most important eyewitness. However, she said she had seen the wife and the daughter of the assassinated MP. But other sources said they both were outside the country.

The exact time of the crime is not known for sure. Pupils from the school nearby said that the first police car had arrived at 9:10 am, followed by ambulances and two minibuses with officers of the Central Service for Organized Crime Control. According to the official police statement, Loukanov was assassinated at 9:20 am. Both eyewitnesses and policemen testified that Loukanov's body, shot in the head and the heart, was found in front of the entrance to the building he lived in.

A special issue of "24 Chassa" daily was published in connection with Loukanov's assassination. According to the newspaper, his body was found by a child which was on its way to the nearby school. The child told his family about it and they called the police. The first police cars arrived at the scene ten minutes later. The neighbourhood was cordoned off. According to "24 Chassa", today Interior Minister Nikolai Dobrev told the Democratic Left MPs that two pistol bullets hit Loukanov in the heart and one in the head. Loukanov's wife, Liliya Gerassimova, described the killer as an unkempt, shabby man looking like a hobo, the paper says. The woman cleaning the appartment building the Loukanovs live in also saw the killer's face, "24 Chassa" says. The police has a computerized identikit of the assassin. All the checkpoints were blocked immediately after the killing and the persons crossing the borders were examined for likeness with the identikit.

The special issue of "24 Chassa" carries an interview with Prosecutor General Ivan Tatarchev. "No comment. I don't think this is a political assassination. Maybe the question is about squaring accounts," he said. Tatarchev said the Prosecutor General's Office will take over the supervision, and if necessary, the case itself. Asked if he would insist on investigating the assassination right to the end, Tatarchev said, "Yes, of course. The question is about human life".

[05] BULGARIA JOINS W.T.O.

The decision was taken unanimously at today's WTO meeting. The delegations of the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Switzerland, Turkey, Poland, Argentina, Australia, USA, New Zealand, Norway and Iceland gave clearance for Bulgaria's admission to the organization. The European Union assessed Bulgaria's admission to WTO as a historical moment and a new stage not only in this country's transition to market economy but also in the establishment of WTO, itself, as an universal organization within the multilateral trade system, reads the Foreign Ministry press release.

Minister of Trade and Foreign Economic Cooperation Atanas Paparizov signed the agreement on behalf of the Bulgarian Government. Paparizov expressed the Bulgarian Government's gratitude to WTO and noted the importance of Bulgaria's membership in the organization for the process of reconstruction of this country's economy in compliance with market principles and international practice.

WTO Director General Renato Ruggiero, a former Italian trade minister, said he is sure Bulgaria has the potential and qualified labour force to find a way out of this situation, Minister Paparizov said. In the delegates' shared view Bulgaria is not the first country in transition which is going through such a difficult stage, he added. "They trust our capacities and resolve to overcome the current problems," Paparizov stated. "We are working within the WTO which deals with very specific, practical, and at the same time very complex matters world trade rules - which, if strictly implemented, will guarantee the country's competitiveness in the future," Minister Paparizov said in an interview.

[06] FOREIGN MINISTER PIRINSKI ADDRESSES U.N. GENERAL ASSEMBLY

Elaborating on regional stability in Southeastern Europe, Pirinski linked it to another important issue for the international community - arms control and confidence building within the context of the Dayton/Paris accords. He said the first step would be to adequately widen the scope of the existing European regime of confidence building and arms control with a view to including those countries in the region which still remain uninvolved.

Pirinski also spoke about global issues, stating that Bulgaria furthers the UN goals by assisting UN and other international initiatives at the global level in all four main spheres: peace, security and disarmament; economic and social cooperation; human rights; and prevention of crime and terrorism. He called the signing of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty a historic event, adding that Bulgaria believes the drafting of a convention banning the production of weapons-grade radioactive material would be the next logical step of the Conference on Disarmament. Another priority is the entry into force of the Chemical Weapons Convention in the near future, he said. As to the Biological Weapons Convention, Bulgaria is in favour of strengthening its control mechanism and is ready to make a contribution to this end at the forthcoming conference and afterwards, he said.

Pirinski said Bulgaria hailed the reiterated resolve of the UN General Assembly to work out a comprehensive system of measures to combat terrorism and step up cooperation in the combating of trans- national crime.

Pirinski also spoke about the need for a clear-cut technology to prevent losses to third countries resulting from the enforcement of Security Council sanctions and said that Bulgaria, being one of the countries hit worst by sanctions enforcement, would again put forward a draft resolution on this matter.

[07] MEETINGS OF FOREIGN MINISTER PIRINSKI IN NEW YORK

Minister Pirinski met with his Australian counterpart Alexander Downer. The two exchanged information on the most important political, economic and cultural processes in the two countries. Bilateral relations and the prospects for their promotion were high on the agenda of the talks. Minister Pirinski invited Mr Downer to visit Bulgaria. The invitation was accepted with gratitude.

Georgi Pirinski conferred with Habib Ben Yahia, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Tunisia. The two sides exchanged opinions on developments in their countries and regional problems. Minister Yahia renewed the invitation to his Bulgarian counterpart to visit Tunisia for the signing of the draft bilateral agreements. The date of the visit will be set through diplomatic channels.

At a working lunch Minister Pirinski and his Belarus opposite number Uladzimiz Syanko discussed the condition of bilateral cooperation and the priorities in connection with the two countries' participation in the 51st session of the UN General Assembly. In their shared view it is necessary to activate Bulgarian-Belarus relations.

Bulgaria's chief diplomat had a meeting with US Under Secretary for Political Affairs Peter Tarnoff. Tarnoff expressed satisfaction with the fact that the United States granted Bulgaria a permanent most favoured nation status. Mr Tarnoff praised the progress achieved in the negotiations on Bulgaria's accession to the World Trade Organization. The two sides exchanged opinions on the development of regional cooperation in Southeastern Europe and noted the similarity of their stands that there should be coordination of the initiatives of the United States, EU and the process of multilateral Balkan cooperation launched in Sofia. Peter Tarnoff familiarized Pirinski with some of his views about the application of the peace accords in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The US side raised the question about the control and protection of intellectual property rights in Bulgaria.

Pirinski was received by UN Under-Secretary-General in charge of political affairs Marrack Goulding. The Bulgarian Foreign Minister briefed him on the progress of multilateral Balkan cooperation and the practical implementation of the declaration adopted at the Sofia meeting of the Southeast European foreign ministers. Marrack Goulding familiarized Pirinski with the UN efforts to keep the peace in the hot spots of the planet.

Minister Pirinski met with his Lebanese counterpart Faris Buwayz. The two discussed the promotion of bilateral relations, trade and economic cooperation and investments. Pirinski and Buwayz discussed possibilities to exchange visits so as to give impetus to bilateral ties in this field.

[08] MEETINGS OF BULGARIAN DEFENCE MINISTER IN BRUSSELS

In a one-to-one meeting Pavlov and Solana considered the future enlargement of NATO. Bulgaria cannot take part in such negotiations before its Parliament makes its political decision, Minister Pavlov recalled. But seen from the point of view of European security, this process is an evolutionary one and all countries should feel secure and integrated in it, the Bulgarian Defence Minister said. If there is no security for all in Europe, there will be new division lines and this will throw us back to cold war, Solana and Pavlov were said to have concluded by the BNR correspondent.

Minister Pavlov conferred with Belgian Foreign Minister Eric Derijk. Then he had a meeting with Jose Cutileiro, Secretary General of the Western European Union, behind closed doors. Minister Pavlov informed Cutileiro that as an associate member of WEU, Bulgaria places at its disposal a mechanized battalion, eight transport aircraft, three helicopters, a frigate and two corvettes with the respective crews. This is a sign of Bulgaria's active participation in WEU and fullfledged partnership with it.

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