site.btaAsenovgrad Mayor to Fellow Townspeople: "Resist Provocations during Sunday Evening Protest"

Asenovgrad, South Central Bulgaria, July 2 (BTA) - In a Facebook status, Asenovgrad Mayor Emil Karaivanov called on his fellow townspeople to resist provocations during a civic protest planned in the town on Sunday evening. "Our town is expected to be a focus of attention and emotions. Passions will flare up, and there will be voluntary or involuntary provocations, just demands or a desire to show strength," the Mayor wrote. He does not rule that there are forces which "deliberately are readying themselves to stir up riots", but he believes that citizens' rights to react and insist on how to live better and what to resent "should not be a pretext for unnecessary tensions, brought from the outside or intentionally provoked in the town."

"I do believe that the law-enforcement authorities will take best care to secure a peaceful event, without outbursts and manhandling," Karaivanov points out. "Let us keep provocations away from us. Those who will bring them will leave, while we will continue to live here and to want shared security, calm and safeguards for law and order."

Since Wednesday, Asenovgrad has been the scene of daily civic protests sparked by a June 26 incident in which a group of Roma men clashed with youths from a rowing club in Lake Forty Springs near the town. The conflict escalated and moved to the centre of Asenovgrad later in the day, where the Roma reportedly assaulted the young rowers, their coaches and parents. Some rowers sustained unspecified injuries. Nine of the attackers were arrested and charged with hooliganism, of whom two with aggravated battery. Some of the suspects were found to have a criminal record. On Friday the Asenovgrad Regional Court decided to remand all nine suspects in custody. The judge said that more people had been involved in the clashes but had not yet been identified. During the hearing, all nine detainees pleaded not guilty.

The local people demanded that the assailants get their just deserts, that the Roma without local registration be removed from Asenovgrad, that the unlawful buildings in the Roma neighbourhood be pulled down, and that a municipal police force be set up. Sunday's protest may be backed by football fans and bikers, bTV reported.

The Director of the Plovdiv Regional Directorate of the Interior Ministry, Chief Commissioner Atanas Ilkov, said on National Television that police from ten regional directorates have been mobilized so as to ensure security and public order "on a far more massive scale" in Asenovgrad.

In a statement on Friday, the United Patriots urged for measures to ensure public order. On behalf the parliamentary group, Milen Mihov said that the tensions in Asenovgrad were provoked "by the outrageous deeds of an arrogant group of Gypsies who attacked Bulgarian children with poles, stones and shovels". "This blatant act is a consequence of a nearly 30-year long State policy tolerating the crimes and granting unlimited rights to this ethnic group without imposing any obligations. Tolerance for any crimes today will explode tomorrow, just as we see it in Europe," he warned.