OMO "Ilinden"

MHRMI Calls on Bulgarian Authorities to Respect Freedom of Assembly
for Upcoming Macedonian Commemoration

July 21, 2006

Читај ја оваа страница на македонски

Macedonian Human Rights Movement of Canada - http://www.mhrmi.org/

Press Release

On July 30, 2006 in Mosomishkite Banji, Bulgaria, (near the city of Gotse Delchev) Macedonian organizations and their supporters will gather to commemorate Ilinden, the Macedonian uprising against the Ottoman Empire in 1903.

Macedonians in Bulgaria continuously face discrimination and intimidation when asserting their ethnic Macedonian identity and have been arrested, detained, threatened and even beaten. During this event last year, the Bulgarian ultra-nationalist parliamentary party "VMRO-BND" organized a group of armed individuals with clubs and sticks that confronted the Macedonian celebrants evidently with the intent to harass, intimidate and possibly attack, the Macedonians at the event.

MHRMI calls on the international community, and specifically the European Union, to apply pressure on Bulgaria to put an end to its state-sponsored acts of oppression and to immediately recognize its large Macedonian minority and grant it the human rights that it is guaranteed by all international human rights conventions. Moreover, MHRMI calls on the European Union to make Bulgaria's accession to the EU explicitly conditional on its recognition of its Macedonian minority.

MHRMI also calls on international media, human rights organizations and other interested parties to attend this event to monitor Bulgaria's compliance with its legal obligations to protect its minority's rights.

Bill Nicholov
Macedonian Human Rights Movement of Canada
Address: P.O. Box 44532, 2376 Eglinton Ave. East, Toronto, Canada M1K 5K3
Tel: 416-493-9555 Fax: 416-412-3385
E-mail: info@mhrmi.org
Website: www.mhrmi.org

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