In urma tentativelor de pogrom din satul Katunita, regiunea Plovdiv, de sambata 24 septembrie si apoi si in alte regiuni din Bulgaria, initiativa anti-rasista HoRa trage un semnal de alarma in legatura cu escaladarea conflictului social dintre sateni si interlopi intr-un atac la nivel national impotriva romilor si turcilor :
Hello to all of you,
Unfortunately, the news that I am contacting you with is not good. On the 23rd of September a child died in the Bulgarian village of Katunitza. He was killed by people that work for the mafia boss Kiril Rashkov. The murder happened after a scandal over property in the village. What we know is that this mafia boss has been appropriating municipality lands for quite some time. After the murder the people in Katunitza went out on the streets to protest against the mafia boss and the injustice served to them. They wanted him and his family out of the village. Everything started as a class conflict, however the media, the right-wing parties in Bulgaria, and the neo-Nazis were quick to react and they framed the conflict as “ethnic.”
Around 2000 neo-Nazis went to Katunitza. They joined the people for the wrong reasons as you can imagine and turned the whole thing into a racist protest. They are mobilizing throughout the entire country and organizing anti-Roma protests.
We have no idea what will happen but for right now things do not look good at all.
Attached you will see a statement written by the anti-racist initiative XoPa. Please distribute widely! Also, if you think that you can put people from the initiative in radio shows, have interviews with them, build up reports with them, etc., please do not hesitate to contact them at: stopnazi.bg (at) gmail.com; http://stopnazi-bg.org/
—————————————– Comunicatul de presa al initiativei anti-rasiste : On 23rd and 24th September two kids lost their lives. One was 16 and the other one – 18 years old. They fell victim of the notorious mafia boss from the village of Katunitsa, near Plovdiv, Bulgaria. The name of the mafia boss is Kiril Rashkov, a.k.a. “Tsar” Kiro, famous for his successful illegal alcohol trade.
One of the children died after his killers run him over with a minibus and dragged him for more than 10m. That took place in the village of Katunitsa. After the letal incident the local people of Katunitza went out on the streets to protest against the criminal – Tsar Kiro. The parents of the dead child have warned the police many times in the past that Rashkov is threatening them, yet the police never reacted. The murder played crucial role in unleashing people’s anger and they went out to seek justice against the mafia boss. Over 200 armed gendarme officers intervened in order to protect Tsar Kiro’s property. During the protests that have taken place for two whole days, another boy died. He had heart problems and the stress caused by the events worsened his condition fatally.
What is extremely indicative of the situation is a paper found in one of Rashkov’s cars. The document is signed by the local municipality and it basically allows the mafia boss to move freely out in the streets without having to comply with the law.
This story clearly shows that the conflict is between the ordinary citizens (their “ethnicity” does not matter) and a mafia boss who enjoys the benefits of never being punished for his actions, including actions that involve murder; because he knows that no matter what he does he will be protected by the elite police of Bulgaria. Clearly, this story has nothing to do with ethnic conflicts. In Bulgaria there are mafia bosses belonging to multiple ethnicities. Their victims belong to different ethnic groups, as well. Hence, it’s not ethnicity that matters. What matters here is the fact that the actions of mafia bosses are tolerated by the police and by the state.
What is clear in this case is that the revolt of the people of Katunitza is aimed against the painful social inequalities; against the fact that the state defends wealthy criminals but is unwilling to assure basic security (both physical and social) for its citizens. The inability to deal with these problems in a legal way leads to violent acts on the part of the people; acts that are justifiable in the context of the lawless deeds of such protected criminals against them. Because the system gives privileges to the mafia bosses and puts them before the people.
This is exactly why the authorities are afraid to “politicize” the events and they refuse to point out to the obvious, namely, the unequal treatment of citizens based on their social status. This is exactly why the Prime Minister, Borisov, announced that the events in Katunitza are not political but criminal.
As is most often the case, the blame was shifted through means of “ethnicizing” the social conflict. This means that the incident and the conflict that escalated after it were presented as a problem between “Bulgarians” and “Romas.” This is the basis of racism. One example of the letter is the decision of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization’s (IMRO) to organize an anti-Roma protest right after the incident. This is such a convenient position having in mind that the mayor of Plovdiv is part of IMRO and is, in turn, supported by GERB (the leading party in Bulgaria). Therefore, it should be IMRO that should take the direct responsibilty for what is happening in the village of Katunitza.
Moreover, the leader of the youth IMRO, Angel Djambaski (known for his frequent racist deeds) was fast to name the problem an “ethnic conflict.” This same man serves as a municipal counselor in Sofia and was elected as part of GERB’s ballot.
This is a typical case of escaping direct responsibility through racist references of ethnic conflicts where they, in fact, do not exist. The mafia boss Rashkov used the same exact tactic when he claimed that the protests against him are based on “ethnic discrimination.” It is people like him who feed racism and gain from it because this allows them to do whatever they want by transferring the blame on the already hated Roma people.
The real problem with such lies is that they are an attempt to displace the justified demands of the common people with racial prejudice and, thus try to shift the attention from these demands to ethnic conflicts and hatred. Ethnic hatred not only does not solve existing problems but is, in itself, suicidal for the society at large.
Not only the politicians but also some media presented the problem as ethnic conflict. The way they presented the events was that, on one hand the clashes are between ordinary Bulgarians and the Romas and. on the other hand, between the ordinary people and Rashkov’s family and the cops that defend him. In the police, however, there are people from different ethnic background. Thus, the conflict is not between representatives of different ethnic groups but between people angered by a criminal and the police that defends this criminal’s property. Beside all this, the fact that the local Roma population not only does not defend Rashkov but is actually standing against him, as we can see from BTV’s (one of the major TV stations) reports, is omitted from the story.
This misrepresentation of the truth is not a new phenomena. Just the fact that the media call Rashkov “the Roma boss,” “the Roma leader,” etc, is indicative. Roma people do not see Rashkov as their “boss” or their “leader” and surely not as their “Tsar.” “Tsar” is a word that Rashkov uses himself in his attempt to construct himself as a feudal: an attempt that has worked pretty successfully so far.
We, the people of the anti-racist initiative XoPa (People against Racism), are devoted to point out to the instances of racism in our society. This is exactly why we cannot ignore this emblematic case that clearly shows the roots of the problems and how racism is often used as a tool to divert attention from the just demands of the people. This is a process that, apart from everything said above, could have extremely dangerous social consequences and is a process feeding aggressive neo-Nazi formations. A clear proof of the latter is that the soccer hooligans were quick to join IMRO in their racist actions. We do believe that the media have a great deal in the responsibility for the massive neo-Nazi mobilization that occurred in Katunitza by presenting the incident as an ethnicity-based attack.
We would like to plead to all citizens not to be fooled by these racist attitudes because this is not going to solve the problem with Bulgaria’s organized crime. The mafia in Bulgaria has no “ethnicity” and nobody is secured against the mafia’s deeds.
For further information about what is happening in Katunitza you can watch the following videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emcDRspEQe8
(the neo-Nazis are screaming “all the Turks under the knife”)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaMi5-818YY
(the title of the report is “Ethnically based insult set on fire Katunitza”)
