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News from Bulgaria / Jan. 4, 1996

From: bulgaria@access1.digex.net (Embassy of Bulgaria)

Bulgarian Telegraph Agency Directory

CONTENTS

  • [01] PRESIDENT ZHELEV RETURNS GOVERNMENT FINANCIAL CONTROL ACT.

  • [02] PRESIDENT ZHELEV MEETS NATIONAL BANK GOVERNOR VULCHEV.

  • [03] POLICE OFFICERS GO ON TRIAL.

  • [04] ANDREI LOUKANOV INTERVIEWED ON RADIO FREE EUROPE.

  • [05] ORION VS. LOUKANOV.

  • [06] CONTINGENCY RESERVE GRAIN ON THE MARKET.

  • [07] BUSINESS PRESS.


  • EMBASSY OF BULGARIA WASHINGTON D.C.

    BTA - BULGARIAN TELEGRAPH AGENCY

    BULLETIN OF NEWS FROM BULGARIA

    [01] PRESIDENT ZHELEV RETURNS GOVERNMENT FINANCIAL CONTROL ACT

    Sofia, January 3 (BTA) - Bulgarian President Zhelyu Zhelev today signed a decree returning the Government Financial Control Act for reconsideration in Parliament. The head of state disputes the provision that all juristic persons in which central or local government have a share, regardless of the size of this share, are subject to control, the President's Press Office said tonight.

    The Government-sponsored act passed in Parliament on December 21, 1995. Under the law, the task of the institutions of state financial control shall be to protect the property interests of central and local government in the course of transformation and privatization of companies. They shall be authorized to carry out tax audits, without duplicating the tax authorities.

    The act expands the range of government financial control. Such control, so far exercised over state-owned companies, shall be exercised over joint-stock companies, cooperatives, nonprofit corporations and foundations, regardless of the source of financing. According to the sponsor's reasoning, this would ensure more effective safeguards against financial and economic crime and more effective protection of individuals' property interests.

    In his reasoning, the President says the new law revives some communist-time principles. According to him, it does not strengthen, or provide new, safeguards or effective control mechanisms for units which the government owns fully, or in which it has an over 50 per cent stake.

    The extension of government control to units the larger part of which is in private hands, is unjustified, and runs counter to the principle of inviolability of private property, the head of state says. The President sees in the law a danger of inadmissible government infringement of the right to private property.

    According to him, the government financial control institutions would duplicate other institutions. The law would put a brake on foreign investment in joint ventures and privatization in Bulgaria, the President also says.

    [02] PRESIDENT ZHELEV MEETS NATIONAL BANK GOVERNOR VULCHEV

    Sofia, January 3 (BTA) - President Zhelyu Zhelev and National Bank Governor Todor Vulchev today discussed Bulgaria's relations with the international financial institutions.

    In the first quarter of 1996 a mission of the International Monetary Fund will visit Sofia. World Bank officials are also scheduled to come here. A new standby agreement will be negotiated. In an interview in today's "Novinar" the central bank Governor says three missions of the World Bank and the IMF are expected in Bulgaria in 1996. Vulchev told the press today that Bulgaria has the resources required to meet its commitments in "the year of large payments" to its foreign creditors but the National Bank of Bulgaria (BNB) is facing the difficult task to use these resources thriftily and at the same time support the lev-dollar exchange rate.

    Zhelev and Vulchev discussed the BNB governorship. Different schools of thought mention three possible dates as the end of Vulchev's term of office: this January 9, the fifth anniversary of his appointment; June 1996, five years after the passage of the BNB Act; or 1998, five years after Parliament voted for his remaining in office on his request.

    Vulchev, who has been at the helm of the central bank since 1991, today assured Zhelev of his intention to quit, expressing a hope that Parliament would grant his request. Vulchev, referred to as a possible Socialist presidential nomination, today denied rumours that he would go into politics, diplomacy or business. "It does not befit a former BNB chief to start a private company," he says in an interview in "Novinar".

    It emerged after the meeting that Vulchev did not favour any particular candidate for the BNB governorship. Asked to comment on the nomination of Socialist MP Atanas Paparizov, a former foreign trade minister, Vulchev said he would be pleased at his election. Interviewed in today's press Vulchev said that his successor and his team should have "strong nerves, a well-balanced policy, [and make] no radical changes". "Many things should be changed in the banking system but this should be done smoothly, without unreasonable suggestions which, unfortunately, are not lacking," said Vulchev.

    PRESS REVIEW

    [03] POLICE OFFICERS GO ON TRIAL

    Sofia, January 3 (BTA) Most dailies today front-page stories about the murder charges brought against six police officers of Sofia's Precinct No.7 in connection with the death of Hristo Hristov, 22, who died of his wounds and a ruptured aorta after beating in police custody on April 5, 1995. "Hristo Hristov's Killers Go on Trial," runs the headline in "Douma," the daily of the ruling Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP). The six, indicted on December 27, 1995, will be tried for the murder of a person incapable of offering resistance, a charge which carries 30 years' imprisonment or death on conviction, writes the daily. According to "Demokratsiya" (the daily of the opposition Union of Democratic Forces), the six have been charged with murder, using extrajudicial coercive methods to extort a confession, procuring a crime, abuse of authority and official position, and causing bodily harm in a particularly cruel manner. The daily recalls that the prosecutor's office did not find evidence that Hristov was involved in theft in connection with which he was detained. The six policemen were arrested on April 6, 1995 and for some time refused to give evidence, "24 Chassa" recalls. After the completion of the investigation all six were released under house arrest.

    [04] ANDREI LOUKANOV INTERVIEWED ON RADIO FREE EUROPE

    "Andrei Loukanov: 'A Press Centre Swaps Problems for Crap" ("24 Chassa"), "Loukanov Waits Videnov to Take Clear Stand" ("Douma"), "Loukanov vs Videnov: There Is a Grain Problem" ("Demokratsiya"): these are some of the headlines of coverage of an interview with Andrei Loukanov, aired on Radio Free Europe late last night. In it, the MP of the BSP and former Prime Minister reacted to attacks against him from BSP quarters and government structures. Interviewed on Radio Free Europe in late 1995, Miss Nevena Gyurova, a staff member of the Government Press Office, accused Mr Loukanov of having initiated the "wrestlers" racket in Bulgaria and of blackmailing politicians and herself with secret police files. "Videnov's Government must put its own backyard in order," Mr Loukanov told his RFE interviewer, quoted in "24 Chassa." In his view, indulging into in- fighting whenever possible in an old tradition in the BSP. Mr Loukanov denies allegations of frustrated power-loving ambitions and of trying to conspire against the Videnov Government. Commenting on the grain scam, Mr Loukanov does not believe that with the 1995 harvest the contingency reserves should have been unblocked. He sees cause for worry in the conflicting statements by government ministers on the subject. "There will be a problem, not just with bread grain but with animal-feed grain as well," he predicts. At the end of his interview ("Standart News" is running a full transcript) he wishes the BSP to be quite clear about the commitments it has assumed to the Bulgarian people.

    [05] ORION VS. LOUKANOV

    "24 Chassa" and "Douma" cover an interview with Nikolai Krivoshiev, the new boss of Orion Ltd., which appeared in a provincial newspaper yesterday. According to the interviewee, since the Zhan Videnov Government has been in power, BSP MPs Nora Ananieva and Andrei Loukanov have not helped it but have attacked it and have been dealing with Orion. Mr Krivoshiev claims that "Andrei Loukanov is trying to use economic clout to bring down Zhan Videnov and thus usurp political power as well." In his RFE interview last night, Mr Loukanov said that "a bunch of people is trying to convince public opinion that whoever attacks Orion is attacking the BSP and the Government of Zhan Videnov." Both dailies write that Mr Krivoshiev has a criminal record.

    [06] CONTINGENCY RESERVE GRAIN ON THE MARKET

    "Standart News" and "Continent" write that 36 tonnes of wheat of the contingency reserve have been unblocked. The grain will go to mills in Sofia, Shoumen, Rousse and Lom. These dailies quote Nedka Katelieva, manager of Darumel Inc in Dobrich (Northeastern Bulgaria) where the contingency reserve is stored, that the grain crisis was provoked by the mills which did not purchase the necessary quantities of grain in time. The mills delayed the purchase of grain because they did not wish to take new credits from the budget. On the other hand, having no suitable granaries to store their produce in, private grain producers in Dobroudja sought to sell their grain as quickly as possible.

    Citing the BBC, on its front page "Continent" reports of the arrest of six foreigners in West Bengal - five Latvians and a Briton, on charges of dropping arms by parachute to guerrillas in West Bengal. According to an investigation made by British journalist Brian Johnson Thomas of Carlton TV, the Latvian AN 26 aircraft forced to land in India before Christmas was loaded at Bourgas Airport (on the Black Sea). Following allegations by an Indian newspaper last week about a Bulgarian connection in the arms drop, the Bulgarian Government said that contracts for Bulgarian arms deliveries to the Indian Government have always been legal. Brian Thomas is one of the editors of the film on arms transfer from Bulgaria to Rwanda and Burundi, broadcast this summer, "Continent" recalls. This daily adds that the BBC recalled that in West Bengal there are guerrilla detachments until recently subject to a UN arms embargo. Citing reports by Indian media, "Demokratsiya" writes that Radio Free Europe reported that the Indian Central Investigation Bureau has approached the police authorities in Bulgaria, Latvia, Britain, Thailand and Hong Kong for assistance in clarifying the incident.

    The comic Kanaleto TV show was put off the air on New Year's Eve not because of censorship but because of disrespect of the political institutions, Bulgarian National Television chief Ivan Granitski says in an interview for "Continent". In an interview for "Troud", Granitski says that by putting the show off the air he saved the prestige of its authors. He says he is dissatisfied with the TV programme on New Year's Eve.

    "Continent" runs an interview with Klara Marinova, chair of the parliamentary Radio, Television and BTA Committee. Marinova says that there should be rules to the game at the national radio and TV. According to her, there is no censorship in the national electronic media.

    "Continent" reports on its front page of the arrest of the Director of the Sopharma pharmaceutical company, Anton Petrov, on charges of ordering that Tempalgin pills of an expired shelf life be repainted and delivered to the market. This was a consignment returned from Russia in late 1994. The police and the investigation dispose of evidence that pills of expired shelf life are repackaged with a new expiry date at Sopharma, this daily writes citing a lawyer close to the investigation. Anton Petrov was arrested on December 18, 1995 and this is his second arrest since December 1994 when he was charged with smuggling 16 tonnes of formamide.

    A Sofianite won 7.5 million leva in the Toto-2 lottery game on New Year's Eve. Thus he became the 46th Toto-2 millionaire. So far the largest win is 13.6 million leva, the happy winner being from Rousse (on the Danube).

    [07] BUSINESS PRESS

    Sofia, January 3 (BTA) - Bulgartabac Kurdjali has purchased all 4,500 tonnes of tobacco of the 1995 harvest, "Douma" writes. This is the first time in 30 years that the entire tobacco harvest is purchased by the end of the year.

    Vinex Preslav will export 1.5 million bottles of Slunchev Bryag brandy to Russia, according to the deputy manager of the company Georgi Vichev. 140,000 bottles of the Manastirska Izba white varietal wine will be exported to Russia early this year.

    The Purvi Mai ordnance factory in Lom (on the Danube) will sell part of its technological equipment to a company in Sudan, "Douma" writes. Thus it will be able to pay the wages it owes its employees from May last year. The plant owes its 140 employees 12 million leva. It sold expensive equipment to an Italian company in 1992, "Douma" recalls.

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