Violations of Human Rights in the Army of Bulgaria

Terror for Young Men

AIM Sofia, 30 May, 1998

Despite attempts to modernise it in order to meet requirements for membership in the NATO, the army still strikes Bulgarian young men with horror. It is ruled by racial segregation and death, soldiers often come out of military barracks with psychological disorders. Some of them attempt suicide because they cannot cope with the difficult everyday life behind the walls of the military barracks.

In 1997 there were 12 suicides out of 100 thousand men in Bulgarian army, the official statistics states. In order to defend themselves, the officers state the fact that in NATO, between 12 and 16 out of 100 thousand men attempt suicide, so that according to them, the situation in Bulgaria is not worse. This fact, however, is not at all comforting for Bulgarian mothers. For them, the army is a closed community in which their sons die in often unclarified circumstances. This was the cause for establishing the Committee of parents of soldiers who lost their lives in military barracks.

"Nothing is being done to prevent our sons from dying. The general staff quickly forgets the soldiers who died doing service", declared Jordanka Kjucukova, one of the heads of the Committee.

According to the data of the parents' Committee, there were 105 deaths in the army last year, while the general staff reported only 34. Majority of accidents in military barracks are presented as suicide in order to take the blame for them off the commanders, claims Kjuckova. Investigations launched to find those who are responsible have no sense because the military prosecutor, being part of the closed military system, has no interest to reveal the truth. Such practice exists only in Bulgaria, Romania, Russia and Argentine.

"Army prosecutor's office does not allow victims of violence or their relatives to participate in the procedure. Despite declarations on increased civil control of the army, there is no transparency in the most painful problems", adds Krasimir Kanev, president of Bulgarian Helsinki Committee.

What are the reasons why young men reach for their own lives in the prime of life?

In the past few years, even unprepared, psychologically unstable and physically weak young men, drug addicts and criminals do service in the army. The number is increasing of young men uncapable for military service who are given arms because the number of volunteers is decreasing every year so it is becoming difficult to fill in the ranks of the army. When they find themselvs in a strange environment where the military statute rules normal human relations and in conditions of stress, psychological strain and physical burden, soldiers manifest their negative side. These are conclusions of psychologists who participated at the round table devoted to this problem, together with the high command of Bulgarian army. Some of them cannot endure it and decide to take their own lives. Others manifest the stress they are under by violence.

Majority of murders and suicides is happening while soldiers are on guard at border watchtowers. Soldiers are on guard every day and this drives them crazy, say Jordanka Kjucukova. According to what physicians say, soldiers should not be on guard more than six or seven times a month, but they usually are 13 or 14 times. About 40 per cent of the soldiers are engaged in guarding military facilities. Professional soldiers should be entrusted with guarding facilities, it was proposed by the Committee of parents of soldiers killed in military barracks. Mothers with black scarves on their heads seek stricter selection of young soldiers but also intensified civic control of the army.

As the first step, the command of Bulgarian army tried to introduce alternative military service. It proved, however, that the draft law was so full of weaknesses that it was citicised by Amnesty International. According to the draft law, the Directorate of religion which is part of the government should establish which religious communities ban use of firearms and which do not. Then a special commission would permit a certain number of young men to do military service without having to use firearms. Most of discrepancies in the draft are the result of fear of the officers that young men, horrified by the fact that they will have to do military service, will join various sects.

Everybody has the right to refuse to do military service due to their conscience, or for religious, moral, educational, humane, philosophic or poloutical reasons, Amnesty International claims. Besides, the draft requires that the alternative military service be twice as long as the ordinary, which is a specific punishment for different opinions. According to one article of the draft law, the application for alternative service shall be submitted before entering the barracks. Which means that those who decide to appeal for alternative service on account of conscientious objection later on would not stand a chance. Amnesty International appealed to chairman of the assembly Jordan Sokolov to intervene and demand adaptation of this law with recommendations of the Council of Europe.

"Fear of the officers that the alternative military service will empty the barracks is justified", believes Emil Koen, president of the organization for protection of rights called Tolerance. About 80 young men declare themselves as pacifists every year. In the past few years 11 young men from different sects have gone to court because they refused to carry arms. One of them, Dejan Dimitrov, member of Jehovah's Witnesses spent eight months in jail in Belen.

The problem of racial and ethnic discrimination is especially serious. For decades young men of Romany and Turkish origin have done military service in construction units with spades and picks. As "unfitting" and "inapt", they were rarely given arms in normal military units. In time, construction units transformed into symbols of inhumane exploitation. "Soldiers" constructed factories, built railroads, apartment buildings, because according to some unknown rules they do not have adequate virtues to be normal soldiers. Some politicians consider construction units to be symbols of ethnic segregation in Bulgaria. Apart from everything else they are disloyal competition on the construction market because they use the cheapest manpower and in prganization they are based on military and not working discipline. Declarations introduced a couple of years ago in which young men claim that they voluntarily joined the construction units do not sound logical at all. Many high ranking politicians have already advocated abolishment of such units. But the reform has not even started in other parts of the army.

AIM Sofija

GEORGI FILIPOV