site.btaViolence Mars Night of Anti-Government Protests, Police Remove Tent Camps Blocking Busy Junctions in Sofia

September 3 (BTA) -  After an anti-government protest at
the building of Bulgaria's Parliament escalated into violent
clashes with law enforcers, police removed the tent camps that
have been blocking vehicular traffic at three busy junctions in
central Sofia for more than a month now.

Around 9 p.m. on Wednesday, a group of protesters responded with
 even greater aggression to an appeal by police to cease
breaking the peace. Riot police then split the crowd (estimated
at over 20,000) into three and pushed it from the square between
 the Administration of the President, the Council of Ministers
and the National Assembly. The move was prompted by violent
demonstrators who hurled various objects at the officers: glass
bottles, metal rods and pipes, rocks and paving stones, chunks
of concrete planters, plastic tables and chairs. Over 100
pyrotechnics were fired at the enforcers, including large fire
crackers, flare rockets and dangerous improvised explosive
devices, one of which was thrown through the smashed window of a
 police van and went off inside.

The Sofia police chief Georgi Hadjiiski told a news briefing on
Thursday morning that 80 policemen sustained injuries during the
 skirmishes, including bone fractures, face burns and
lacerations. A total of 126 persons were detained, of whom 60
had a criminal record and some proved to be football hooligans.
Fifteen fast-track police proceedings have been instituted. The
Senior Commissioner said that the situation "crossed a threshold
 of tolerance". Tensions did not subside until after midnight.

Hadjiiski's deputy Anton Zlatanov said at a news briefing at 1
a.m. that the police had adopted a passive tactic, entirely
focused on sparing peaceful protesters' life and health at the
risk of the officers' own life and health. A water cannon was
deployed on site but was not fired. "We only used our bodies,
helmets and shields," Zlatanov explained. He described what
happened as "a marathon of rioting".

Photos and videos on social media show scenes of police
brutality while the protest was being suppressed: demonstrators
and journalists sprayed with pepper gas, kicked in the head and
hit with brass knuckles.

The tent camp at Parliament building was eliminated during the
night as the gendarmerie broadened the security perimeter there,
 and the debris was cleared on Thursday morning. The only tent
remaining there is of the disabled children's mothers of The
System Is Killing Us initiative. It stands on the sidewalk by
permission from the authorities.
 
After explosive devices were found hidden in the protesters'
tent camps and a Molotov cocktail was confiscated from a person
at a checkpoint near Hotel Balkan, at 3 a.m. on Thursday police
removed the two other tent camps, at Eagles Bridge and Sofia
University. The protesters staying there did not resist the
operation and no arrests were made. The junctions were reopened
to traffic, and public transport services in Sofia have been
normalized along their usual routes.

Deputy Prime Minister for Public Order and Security Krassimir
Karakachanov said in a Facebook post during the night that he
firmly backs the action taken by the Bulgarian police to
restrain the provocateurs and called on the Prime Minister to
order the lawful measures needed to restore order and on the
President to take a stand in defence of the police "that was
subjected to unprecedented terror by paid groups of people who
have nothing to do with the protests of normal Bulgarian
citizens".

In a position circulated to the media on Thursday morning, the
Trade Union Federation of the Employees in the Ministry of
Interior supported all actions taken by their colleagues within
the law so as to safeguard public order and frustrate attempted
provocations. RY/LG
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