Bulgarians: dirty nigger Condi get lost
Arash
April 27, 2006
Bulgarians protest U.S. base deal
By Veselin Toshkov
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Banners "Condi we do not want your bombs"
http://images.news14charlotte.com/media/2006/4/27/images/0127-bulgaria.jpg
Supporters of Bulgaria's nationalist Attack party hold banners and shout slogans
against NATO meeting in Sofia.
Sofia, Bulgaria -- Thousands of Bulgarians demonstrated Thursday against a deal to
allow U.S. troops to use military facilities in the country.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who was expected to arrive in Bulgaria
later Thursday for a meeting of NATO foreign ministers, is to sign the agreement
Friday with her Bulgarian counterpart, Ivailo Kalfin.
Under the deal, seen as part of a broader U.S. military strategy of shifting troops
based in Europe farther east, up to 2500 U.S. troops would be deployed in the Balkan
country on a rotational basis.
The rally against the plan was organized by an ultranationalist party called Attack
and drew several thousand people to a park a few hundred meters from the venue for
the NATO meeting.
The protesters shouted, "Yankees Go Home", and waved banners that read, "Condi, ask
the Bulgarian people" and "U.S. bases War".
In a declaration, protesters called on the government to put the issue of to a
referendum.
According to the Attack party, 200,000 Bulgarians have signed a petition against the
deployment of foreign troops to Bulgarian military bases.
Officials expect the first U.S. troops to arrive at the end of the year or early in
2007.
The agreement would give U.S. troops access to three bases in southern Bulgaria for
training and logistical operations. The locations are the Bezmer and the Graf
Ignatievo air bases and the Novo Selo training area.
Attack party leader Volen Siderov told the rally that "from Bulgarian airports, U.S.
military jets will take off to attack other countries".
"Bulgaria is preparing to enter a new dirty war, this time against Iran", Siderov
said.
Protester Lyuben Bozhilov said opening Bulgaria's territory to U.S. troops could make
the country a target for terrorists.
Foreign Minister Ivailo Kalfin recently tried to downplay such fears, saying that
weapons of mass destruction would not be deployed to the facilities used by U.S.
troops.
"The agreements between the United States and Russia on non-deployment of nuclear
weapons in the new NATO member states guarantees that there will be no nuclear
weapons in Bulgaria", Kalfin said.
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