Serb Treatment of Bulgarians Irks Nationalists

Sofia _ Bulgaria's hardline nationalist VMRO-BND party has sounded alarm over what it describes as "the intensifying political repression" of ethnic Bulgarians living in Serbia.

VMRO explains that the repressive measures against the ethnic Bulgarians in the border region of Bosilegrad were currently in the form of the illegal confiscation of cars with licence plates from the Republic of Bulgaria, which are owned by members of the Bulgarian minority in Serbia.

More than 30 cars with Bulgarian license plates had been confiscated by the Serbian authorities only in the town of Bosilegrad without any legal justification, according to VMRO.

The statement of the party adds that the members of the Democratic Union of the Bulgarians in Serbia had sent protest petitions to all relevant state institutions including President Boris Tadic and Prime Minister Mirko Cvetkovic.

VMRO-BND also warns that the present situation is likely to cause ethnic tensions in the so-called Western Outlands, which are populated by about 20,000 Bulgarians. Serbia’s population is around 7.5 million.

"The Bulgarian minority in Serbia, which remained there after the illegal occupation of the Western Bulgarian Outlands, is entitled to protection by all international legal documents dealing with minority rights," VMRO states.

The nationalist party warns the Serbian authorities against the repression of the Bulgarian minority, and calls upon Bulgarian state authorities to react to the present situation.

The Bulgarian political party VMRO-BND is the descendant of the Internal Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organisation, which was founded in 1893 to lead the struggle for liberation and national unification of the Bulgarians who remained in the Macedonia and Thrace regions of the Ottoman Empire after the Berlin Treaty of 1878.

Bulgaria had to cede the "Western Outlands" to Serbia according to the Treaty of Neuilly of 1919 following its defeat in the First World War.