Radovan Karadzic, Sarajevo is not your city, and you have no right to say that it is, just as you do not have the right to say in public, even if it’s in court, that someone has dug up bones around Bosnia and brought them to Srebrenica to make a fake graveyard. This is insulting.
Head of Bulgaria’s Customs Agency Resigns
| 29 May 2008 |
Asen Asenov
However Asenov claimed he faced to no pressure to resign.
"We have realized the task that we came for - to prepare the administration for membership of the European Union. I think we did this successfully," Asenov said, hinting he had had talks with the Finance Minister about a possible resignation earlier but he had to remain on his post to ensure the stabile functioning of the agency during Bulgaria’s first year in the bloc.
The press has frequently attacked Asenov for reportedly allowing contraband. The prosecutor's office is expected to investigate him shortly.
However Bulgaria's former Interior Minister Rumen Petkov commented earlier on Asenov's resignation by saying the Customs Director must be having serious personal motives for this step as his professional record and abilities were impeccable.
Petkov himself was forced to resign on April 13 following the arrest of two high-ranking police officials from his ministry last month. They are accused by prosecutors of passing sensitive information to shadowy businessmen and irregular phone tapping.
Petkov’s ministry has been criticised for failing to root out corruption and curb organised crime. The killings of an author of books on the Bulgarian mafia and the chief of an energy company were killed in two separate incidents in Sofia sparking warnings from the European Union about the country's failure to tackle contract killings.
The EU is due to report at the beginning of July on Bulgaria’s fight against corruption and if Sofia is not seen to be doing enough it could face unprecedented sanctions.
2008-05-30 12:31:39