Ta nea toy BTA 27-Feb-95[**] Ta nea apo thn Presbeia ths Boylgarias sthn Washington, D.C. . Synanthsh toy Prouyp. me toys dieyuhntes twn megalwn dhmosiwn kai idiwtikwn trapezikwn organismwn. ** Dhlwseis toy Z Zhelev se ekdhlwsh twn paragwgwn kin/fikwn taineiwn ths Boylgarias. Diamaxh gia thn tainia "Burn, Burn Little flame" poy exei uema thn afomoiwsh toy Moysoylmanikoy plyuhsmoy sthn epoxh toy Kommoynistikoy kauestwtos. . Meleth gia ton daneismo xrhmatikoy posoy apo thn Dieunh Trapeza poy ua xrhsimopoihuei gia thn anabaumish toy dyktioy parwxhs neroy. ** O arxhgos toy Genikoy Epiteleioy En. Dynamewn ths Boylgarias episkeptetai thn Ellada. . O Yp. Eswt. maxetai to egklhma sthn Boylgaria. . O nyn Yp. Ej. kathgorhse twn Yp. Ej. ths prohgoymenhs kybernhshs oti pragmatopoihse politikes ekkauariseis sto Ypoyrgio to 1992. . Anamenetai oti h Boylgaria ua paralabei $100 ekatom. gia agora ulwn paragwghs energeias. ** H Ellhnikh trapeza Xios skopeyei na epekteinei tis emporikes ths synallages sthn Boylgaria. Giwrgos Kapodistrias ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ From: bulgaria@access.digex.net (Embassy of Bulgaria) Subject: BTA inf/ Feb. 27, 95 Date: 27 Feb 1995 16:42:05 -0500 EMBASSY OF THE REPUBLIC OF BULGARIA - WASHINGTON D.C. BTA - BULGARIAN TELEGRAPH AGENCY BULLETIN OF NEWS FROM BULGARIA FEBRUARY 27, 1995 PRIME MINISTER VIDENOV MEETS WITH BANKERS Prime Minister Zhan Videnov held a three-hour meeting today with the governors of the big private and state-owned commercial banks. "We discussed the current state of the banking system and the possible alternatives for settling the problems of bank decapitalization," Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economic Development Roumen Gechev told reporters at the Government's press office. The participants described the meeting as exchange of information. They said that the difficulties of individual private or state-owned banks were not discussed. According to Finance Minister Dimiter Kostov the banks are basically facing problems with the macroeconomic situation and with their debtors. Mr. Gechev said that several alternatives for stabilization of the banking system were discussed. One of them, envisages that the Exhequer supports the banks in trouble. This alternative, however, is not backed by the Government. Mr. Gechev explained that this does not mean the Government would not support these banks, but that it use such measures that would avoid the accumulation of bad debts in the future. Mr. Gechev said that the second alternative, discussed today, envisages restructuring of the banking system and strengthening of bank supervision. He said that over the next few weeks the Government will hold meetings with a number of banks and will come up with a decision after that. The National Bank of Bulgaria (BNB) purchased this month 100 million US dollars on the foreign currency market, BNB Governor Todor Vulchev said after the meeting. He described this as quite unusual act, as the National Bank is normally at zero in February. The bank is now concerned that the operation may press the marked and result in price hikes. All commercial banks are selling US dollars, Mr. Vulchev said. At the meeting he asked where the money came from but was not given categorical replies. Mr. Vulchev explains the fact with a number of factors: the banks cancel their long dollar positions because of the unstable exchange rate between the dollar and the Bulgarian lev and because the January inflation is lower than the interest rates on deposits. Another factor, in his view, is the trade surplus the country showed last year and probably the foreign capitals which are just transferred through Bulgaria. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Sofia, February 24 -"[There is a] tendency towards restoration - it is another question whether it will be called 'recommunization,' and a tendency of trespassing on the spiritual freedoms which our people has gained since 1989," said President Zhelyu Zhelev, addressing Bulgarian film- makers here today. The meeting was occasioned by the controversy over the film "Burn, Burn Little Flame," which was aired on national television about a fortnight ago. The film focuses on the forced assimilation in the communist era of Muslim Bulgarians living in the south of the country. Representatives of the Socialist Party, prominent public figures, historians and ordinary people have been quoted in the press as arguing that the film distorts its subject and threatens national security. The Rev. Boyan Saruev, who has gained popularity in the last few years as initiator of mass conversions of Muslim Bulgarians into Orthodox Christianity, believes that the film is part of a scenario to create a Muslim nation in Bulgaria after the model of Bosnia. "The circulated statements insinuating that the film 'Burn, Burn Little Flame' poses a threat to our national security make me think that the campaign is a carefully thought-out and pre-planned political provocation," President Zhelev said. He sees the purpose of this campaign in "exculpating the assimilators and the assimilation process in the mind of the Bulgarian public and especially in the mind of the young generation." President Zhelev said that the participants in the name-change campaign, which he described as "criminal," must be brought to justice. The President's Office has nothing to do with the preparation and production of the film, he specified, reacting to allegations that the President's Office is involved with "Burn, Burn Little Flame." "Intellectuals should once again stand up for the civil and political liberties and especially for creative freedom, without which the development of Bulgarian culture is unthinkable," President Zhelev said. The head of state noted that censorship is practiced in national television. "The statement I made after my return from the US last week in order to clear up the misunderstanding over the so-called Balkan summit, which I was reported by the [Socialist Party's] 'Douma,' [the left-oriented] 'Zemya' and other newspapers, in a pre-planned provocation, to have promised in advance to Bill Clinton and Warren Christopher, has also been censored," President Zhelev said. He claims that in reality things were just the other way round, but his explanation in the TV coverage of his return from the US had been edited out so as to keep the effect of the provocation unimpaired. This case gave President Zhelev an occasion to decline the request of national television to tape his statement at today's meeting with Bulgarian film-makers. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ CABINET STUDIES "WATER LOAN" REQUIREMENTS The cabinet is studying the possibilities for signing an agreement with the World Bank on the extending of a loan for the water supply system, Prime Minister Zhan Videnov told Parliament today. His statement was prompted by a question of Anastasia Moser, floor leader of the Popular Union (of Democrats and Agrarians). The 98 million dollars of the so called "water loan" will go for completing construction sites and upgrading Bulgaria's water supply system. Apart from the funds expected to come from the World Bank, the completion of this project will also take another 33 million dollars from the national budget and the Water Supply and Sewerage service. No progress has been made with the loan negotiations for a whole year. The World Bank Board of Directors okayed the loan in May 1994. It was approved by the then cabinet of prime minister Lyuben Berov (from late 1992 until September 1994) but was never signed even though a Bulgarian delegation went to the US to finalize the lending agreement. Press reports at the time alleged the agreement offered terms unfavorable for Bulgaria but an official stand on the matter never came. The issue was again pushed to the fore by the aggravating water crisis in Sofia in late 1994. World Bank officials suggested that the project for upgrading Sofia's water mains enter the Bank's investment project. The World Bank set forth two major requirements to make sure that the loan would be repaid: higher water prices and structural adjustment of Water Mains and Sewerage. The first has already been met: water prices have tripled since January. However, the second requirement might cause another delay of the signing of the lending agreement. Exerts say speedy structural changes are unfeasible for purely technical reasons. Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Regional Development Doncho Konakchiev today met Michael Wiehen, head of World Bank Department on Europe and Central Asia. At the meeting, the sides discussed World Bank projects for financing the reforms in the infrastructure. Particular attention was paid to a World Bank project for restructuring the water supply system. Deputy Prime Minister Konakchiev stressed that serious efforts are now devoted to handling this country's water crisis. The sides were unanimous that this sector should rely more heavily on self-financing, and agreed that it will take a transitional period to make the social price tolerable. Doncho Konakchiev told this World Bank official that the cabinet some time soon would come out with an official stand on the World Bank loan for upgrading the water supply system. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ BULGARIAN CHIEF OF GENERAL STAFF TO VISIT GREECE A Bulgarian military delegation, headed by the Chief of General Staff of the Bulgarian Army, Colonel General Tsvetan Totomirov, will pay an official visit to Greece from February 27 to March 1, the Defense Ministry said in a press release today. During the visit, Bulgarian and Greek officials will survey the results of bilateral military cooperation in 1994 and will sign a 1995 military cooperation program between the defense ministries and the General Staffs of the two countries. Acting within the rights of the Republic of Bulgaria arising from the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe, an inspection team of the General Staff of the Bulgarian Army will inspect an outfit of the armed forces of the Hellenic Republic between February 27 and March 1, 1995, the press center of the Bulgarian Ministry of Defense announced. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ INTERIOR MINISTER LYUBOMIR NACHEV FIGHTS CRIME February 24 - Terrorist acts in Bulgaria have been increasing of late; the ways and means terrorists use have become more sophisticated, that is why the Interior Ministry is working on a whole system of measures for the prevention and rapid clearance of these crimes, Interior Minister Lyubomir Nachev said in Parliament today in response to a question by MPs of the Union of Democratic Forces (SDS) prompted by reports about several cases of explosions, deliberate damaging of vehicles and fires at the homes of public officials who are members of the SDS in 1994 and the first months of 1995 in the region of Blagoevgrad (Southwestern Bulgaria). Fighting terrorism has been reorganized and one of the Interior Ministry secretaries is personally in charge of the control over the respective operations, Interior Minister said. Amendments will be made to the subordinate legislation regulating the Ministry's actions in curbing terrorist acts. The Blagoevgrad Regional Directorate of Internal Affairs is included in the Interior Ministry's thorough inspection conducted in several regions, Mr. Nachev told the MPs. The Ministry wants to know why the number of terrorist acts is growing exactly in that region and will make investigations to find out if there is some connection between these events and representatives of the political forces in the official authorities. Investigators have found that some of the targets of terrorist acts were involved in a dispute over the privatization of enterprises in the area of Petrich (Southwestern Bulgaria). ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ DISMISSAL OF DIPLOMATS IN 1992 February 24 - Today Foreign Minister Georgi Pirinski accused his predecessor of the cabinet of the Union of Democratic Forces (SDS) of a political purge at the Foreign Ministry. In response to an interpellation by Socialist MP Filip Bokov on the day of parliamentary control, he said that a total of 320 employees of the Ministry, of whom 215 diplomats and 105 technical staff, were dismissed in the November 1991 - May 1992 period. Among the dismissed diplomats there were 30 ambassadors, 24 ministers plenipotentiary, 47 first secretaries, 65 counselors, 30 second secretaries, 18 third secretaries and one attache. Twenty-seven of them were reinstated as a result of court rulings and twenty-four after interviews. Eight of the dismissed who won the claims they filed did not wish to return to work at the Foreign Ministry. According to Pirinski, though formal motives were sought and cited, the diplomats were actually dismissed for political reasons. The Foreign Ministry has paid compensations for illegal dismissal to 44 persons totaling 2.7 million leva. But the losses sustained by the state are considerably greater because the training of these cadres cost several scores of millions of dollars, Pirinski said. Opinions are divided on the issue of whether the Ministry of Foreign Affairs may sue the then foreign minister to restore the sum. According to some jurists, there are no legal grounds for such a claim, but according to others it is fully justified. The Foreign Minister himself is in favor of bringing his predecessor to court. "Such actions, which are not only of financial consequences should not be left unpunished so that they are not repeated in the next decades," Pirinski said. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ BUSINESS PRESS February 24 - The central bank Governing Board yesterday had a two-hour meeting with Michael Wiehen, head of World Bank Department for Europe and Asia, "Pari" says quoting an unnamed central bank source. The meeting reportedly focused on the financial stabilization in banking and economy in general. Documents for 33 million US dollar-worth fuel import were approved by the World Bank and the funds are now expected from the Japanese Eximbank, "Pari" says quoting an unnamed Finance Ministry source. Under an agreement with G-24, Bulgaria is expecting to receive 100 million US dollars from Japan for import of energy sources, this daily writes adding that 57 million of them have already come from Eximbank last year. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The Xiosbank intends to extend its activities in Bulgaria, according to the manager of its Sofia branch, Christos Katsanis. In the course of a year the bank attracted deposits worth about 10 million dollars which are 100% guaranteed. It is the ambition of the management of the branch to take over the servicing of the subsidies Bulgaria receives under the INTERREG program, totaling almost ECU 390 million. Some of these will be extended as subsidies for funding investment projects. ==============================================================================