[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?

The 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.

[url][/url]
http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=132400

And what it was a local event, is spreading nation-wide
Bulgaria: Ethnic tensions rising after protest

SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP) — Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov has summoned the National Security Council over rising ethnic tensions in this Balkan country.
Parvanov's office said Tuesday the meeting, scheduled for Oct. 1, has to outline "emergency measures to guarantee law and order in the country and prevent and counter ethnic tensions,"

Ethnic riots erupted during the weekend when residents of the southern village of Katunitsa set on fire several houses and cars of a local Roma leader blaming him for the death of a 19-year-old man.

Tensions escalated after the incident with hundreds of protesters taking to the streets in solidarity with the victim.

Police have detained more than 100 violent protesters who had organized protests using Facebook and other social networks

http://www.necn.com/09/27/11/Bulgaria-E ... 0351426df2

Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-r_YYrXV_8&feature=player_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOyNvlh0CiM&feature=player_embedded

[eXpat]

Right wing party attempt to storm the presidential building.
Bulgarian Nationalist Leader Tries to Storm Presidency over 'Ethnic' Clashes

Volen 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.

http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=132412

Mass arrests follow Bulgaria violence

Bulgarian authorities have detained at least 127 people after ethnic clashes broke out in the south of the country following a fatal road accident involving relatives of a Roma leader.

Police and elite national troops patrolled the streets of Katunitsa village in the country's second-largest city of Plovdiv over the weekend after several houses were set alight and cars owned by a local Roma clan leader were trashed.

The clashes between the Bulgarian and Roma communities were ignited on Friday night when a 19-year-old man was struck and killed by a mini-bus driven by a man linked to Kiril Rashkov, a local self-proclaimed "Gypsy Tsar".

The Bulgarian state news agency BTA reported that three policemen and two civilians were hurt in the violence, while a 16-year-old at the scene who suffered from heart problems was taken to hospital, where he later died.

Ingredients for violence

Dimitar Mulchev, a local councillor, said that the ingredients for violence have been around for decades.

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/europe/2011/09/201192653812872853.html
http://85.14.28.164/d/images/photos/0129/0000129768-article2.jpg

Multiculturalism lasts as long as the belly is full...

[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]

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.

I was in Romania in holidays around 5 years ago, I remember that tensions were high there too, against gypsies. All that is needed is an spark.
Tensions are running high in the needed is an Czech Republic also. This is from a few days ago
Czech Xenophobes To Displaced Roma: "Gas The Gypsies!"

Pushed out of Prague, Roma are heading to northern Bohemia. Their arrival has triggered a backlash from native Czechs in the region of Ústí nad Labem, which is also attracting right-wing extremists who come from the city to stoke local anger and shout the ugliest of slogans.
The northern Czech region of Ústí nad Labem is in an uproar, with citizens opposing the organized influx of Roma -- whom they hold responsible for mounting crime -- and radical-right extremists taking advantage of the heated situation.

On recent weekends, the radicals have traveled from Prague and other parts of the country to give incendiary speeches and yell slogans such as “The Czech Republic is for the Czechs – Gas the Gypsies!” The reference to killing the Roma by gas chambers is particularly vile, with estimates of between 500,000 and 1.5 million exterminated by the Nazi regime during World War II.

Roma areas have been cordoned off by police who use water cannons and tear gas if necessary. There are regular tussles and arrests.

The Roma have made their way here from the outskirts of Prague, where their rented living space was bought by real estate developers. So far their housing space has been rent-free, although normally they are charged exorbitant rents. Some who cannot find work -- there are few jobs for the largely illiterate Roma -- turn to crime. “The Roma are in a vicious circle from which they cannot escape,” says sociologist Ivan Gabal.

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.

Locals were also piqued that for weeks, nobody in the federal government seemed to take notice of the situation. A first visit by Czech Premier Petr Necas only came last week. He announced a plan to make people more employable by raising the number of years of mandatory schooling for all Czechs, including Roma. But the changes aren’t set to go into effect until 2015. Roma who do not send their children to school will lose social benefits, he also warned.

http://www.worldcrunch.com/czech-xenophobes-displaced-roma-gas-gypsies/3817
and
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/26/czech-xenophobes-to-displ_n_981735.html

[Pretorian]

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.

"White" Czechs? The author is suggesting that they can be something else? Black? yellow? Brown? interersting

[papa moose]

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.

"White" Czechs? The author is suggesting that they can be something else? Black? yellow? Brown? interersting

IIRC there were two major migrations of ethnic slavic peoples into the Balkan region during the Dark Ages (one group was referred to as White Slav and the other Red Slav) perhaps this is a reference to the modern Czech population identifying culturally with this group?
Of course i know that you weren't seriously asking, just posting bigotted nonsence.

[eXpat]

Still going on...
Bulgarian nationalists stage anti-Roma rally

Hundreds 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.

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2011/10/2011101173254692117.html