[eXpat]

Ethnic clashes started in the city of Katunica when a bulgarian was run over by the car of an allegedly gypsy mafia boss.
Why Did Bulgaria's Cauldron Boil Over?
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')he unprecedented for Bulgaria events were widely described as ethnic clashes, but that is something of, though not entirely, a misnomer.

The violence erupted Friday after a 19-year old teenager was struck and killed by a mini-bus driver linked to the local Roma leader Kiril Rashkov, who piled up his huge wealth thanks to unscrupulous trade in fake alcohol and votes.

Rashkov and the boy, friend of the former mayor's son, had unsettled scores over land plots. Apparently the Roma baron decided to settle scores by killing the boy - an insolent and hideous act, which (accidentally) coincides with the launch of the presidential election campaign.

The issue here is not the bravado of a Roma. The issue here is the bravado of a man - who happens to be a Roma - that he can place himself above the law and terrorize the locals.

The question here is why the (obviously) corrupt police has left this mafia (not just Roma) clan do whatever they want?

"Tsar" Kiro comes from the typical derelict, garbage-strewn streets of Bulgarian Roma ghettos, which are home to most of the country's 375,000 Roma - although unofficial data estimates their true numbers come closer to 750,000, out of a population of 7.8 million. Here he lived together with skinny men rooting through piles of rubbish alongside pigs and fat women in flowing skirts cradling babies.

Today he has turned into a clan chief, one of those who struck it rich after the collapse of Communism, lives in luxury, drives gleaming cars and has replaced his ramshackle house, made of poorly "cemented" bricks of clay and straw, with a true royal palace.

It was this palace that the rioters torched, creating a powerful symbol of what happens when there is no rule of law – people just take the law into their own hands.

[eXpat]

Right wing party attempt to storm the presidential building.
Bulgarian Nationalist Leader Tries to Storm Presidency over 'Ethnic' Clashes
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'V')olen Siderov, the flamboyant leader of Bulgaria's far-right Ataka (Attack) party, has tried to force his way into the country's presidential building and hand out a special declaration to President Georgi Parvanov concerning the recent ethnic tensions in the country.

"The Roma criminal activity is dangerous for the country, for the system of state and for the state's security," Siderov declared Monday, as cited by the Focus news agency. The controversial nationalist leader tried to open the door of the Presidential building's main entrance, only to find out it was closed.

Siderov, who is running for President for a second consecutive time this fall, stated that the presidential building was "a bunker in which Parvanov and his staff are hiding," after he did not succeed in personally delivering his declaration inside. Police officers were quick to lead away the nationalist.

Parvanov, together with Prime Minister Boyko Borisov, was in the southern village of Katunitsa while Siderov tried to contact him. It was Katunitsa where the ethnic tensions in the country erupted late on Friday.

[PrestonSturges]

I was reading an interfiew with a German policeman who had worked for the Nazis during ww2. While he regreted having helped send the Jews to the death camps, he was still proud of sending the Gypsies.

[eXpat]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('PrestonSturges', 'I') was reading an interfiew with a German policeman whgo has worked for the Nazis during ww2. While he regreted having helped send the Jews to the death camps, he was still proud of sending the Gypsies.

[Pretorian]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('eXpat', '
')Crime has risen in the area since the arrival of the Roma, and “white” Czechs are now afraid to let their children go to school unaccompanied. The situation exploded when 20 machete-wielding Roma attacked six “white” Czechs in a disco.

[papa moose]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Pretorian', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('eXpat', '
')Crime has risen in the area since the arrival of the Roma, and “white” Czechs are now afraid to let their children go to school unaccompanied. The situation exploded when 20 machete-wielding Roma attacked six “white” Czechs in a disco.

[eXpat]

Still going on...
Bulgarian nationalists stage anti-Roma rally
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'H')undreds protest in central Sofia as tension with impoverished and ostracised minority group escalates.
Hundreds of Bulgaria's nationalist groups staged a large anti-Roma rally in the capital city as the government called for an emergency meeting to resolve tensions.

Saturday's demonstration came days after a week of nationwide protests and sporadic violence.

At least 15 of the demonstrators were arrested following the protest in central Sofia, the capital, which attracted around 2,000 people.

Several hundred supporters of the far-right Ataka party gathered in front of the presidential palace in T-shirts that read "I don't want to live in a Gypsy state" and with a banner saying "Gypsy criminality is a danger to the state".

The Roma, or Gypsies, account for 9 per cent of Bulgaria's population of 7.4 million, are poorly integrated and often have tense relations with their neighbours.

They live mostly in depressed areas with even higher rates of poverty and unemployment and lower levels of education than the national average.

Volen Siderov, the party's leader, who is running for president on October 23, called for the death penalty to be brought back, for Roma "ghettos to be dismantled" and for the formation of militias.

The protest came as Georgy Parvanov, the country's president, and Boyko Borisov, the prime minister, convened a national security council meeting to discuss ways of reducing tensions.

'Language of hatred'

After the talks Parvanov called on the media and politicians to "put an end to the language of hatred pushed to the extreme" and vowed that the government would probe the finances of people who lived "a life of luxury".

The latest unrest was originally sparked by the killing a week ago of a youth hit by a van driven by relatives of "King Kiro", a Roma clan boss in the southern village of Katunitsa.

After locals and people from the surrounding area went on the rampage on Sunday, rallies with anti-minority and even Nazi slogans have taken place across the southern European country on a nightly basis.

Police have this week briefly detained several hundred nationalist demonstrators, many armed with knives and batons, who chanted racist slogans and tried to infiltrate Roma areas, notably in Varna in the east.

Planned peaceful "Roma Pride" marches this weekend were called off for fear of violence, although young Roma and non-Roma on Saturday handed out flowers to passers-by to express their desire for closer integration.

Combating extremism

Experts say that public frustration against corruption, a widening gap between rich and poor and the weakness of the justice system, has helped to turn people against them, as well as against Bulgaria's Turkish minority.