Bulgaria: A Mob of Bigoted Orthodox Believers Have Attacked a Group of Evangelicals
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Date: Mon, 9 Jul 2001 09:27:49 +0300 (EEST)
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Subject: Bulgaria: A Mob of Bigoted Orthodox Believers Have Attacked a Group of Evangelicals
From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>
Original sender: Emil Cohen <[email protected]>
Bulgaria: A Mob of Bigoted Orthodox Believers Have Attacked a
Group of Evangelicals
TOLERANCE FOUNDATION*
an associated member of the "Human Rights without Frontiers
International"
PRESS RELEASE
Bulgaria: A Mob of Bigoted Orthodox Believers Have Attacked a Group of
Evangelicals
Sofia, July 03, 2001
On June 21, 2001 a mob of bigoted Orthodox believers attacked a group
of evangelicals in the village Ravnogor, district of Plovdiv.
On June 21 small group of evangelicals, who belong to the United
Church of God went to Ravnogor in order to perform some movies on
Biblical topics as well as to make a concert of religious songs. They
had all necessary permissions, issued by the Directorate of Religious
Affairs as well as by the local authorities.
At late afternoon of the same day the local Orthodox priest went to
the camp of the Evangelicals and ordered them to leave the village. He
said that the villagers did not need their faith. Despite of the
treats, the Evangelicals did not leave the village. A little bit later
the priest went again and then he was accompanied by a lot of
villagers. The mob demanded from the young Evangelicals to leave the
village. The bearing of both of priest and mob was very aggressive.
After a long discussion both sides reached mutual understanding. The
guests explored to the attackers that their mission was peaceful and
that it was permitted by all authorities and they will perform their
program only to these people, who wanted to see it. Finally the
assailants came back.
At the evening the guests performed their program before a lot of
people. After the end of the performance, around 10:30 PM a mob of
30-40 people attacked the camp of the Evangelicals. The mob was leaded
by the local priest and by the local leader of VMRO (VMRO is an
abbreviation for the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization
that is political party with strong nationalistic outlooks. That party
has a relatively strong influence in the Plovdiv area.). The crowd
torn the tent of guests and also stole their moveable generating set.
A lot of the evangelicals were brought down on the earth by the
attackers.
It is important to stress that the local police station came to the
place of the camp but refused to fill an appropriate file for the
events. By that way it would be extremely difficult for the
evangelicals to state before the court that they were targets of the
assault.
Tolerance Foundation will give to the young evangelicals all possible
legal help in order they to are able to seek justice before the court.
On the behalf of Tolerance Foundation:
Emil Cohen, President
___________________________________________________________________
* The TOLERANCE FOUNDATION is a human rights group monitoring the
freedom of conscience and the religious freedom practices in Bulgaria,
providing legal assistance to victims of discrimination based on
religion, as well as propagating the idea of toler-ance towards
religious and other convictions.
The group was founded in 1994. Mr. Emil Cohen is President of the
Tolerance Founda-tion. Since April 2001 the organisation has been an
associate member of 'Human Rights without Frontiers International'
Address: 1000 Sofia, 163A "Rakovsky" St.,
Phone/fax: (+359 2) 981 23 57;
Phone: (+359 2) 988 31 36;
E-mail: [email protected]
--
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