site.btaParliament Approves Participation of Armed Forces in Border Protection

Parliament Approves Participation of Armed Forces in Border Protection

Sofia, February 25 (BTA) - Parliament voted conclusively and unanimously Thursday to amend the Defence and Armed Forces Act to allow the Armed Forces to participate in border protection. The revisions passed on 137 votes.

The Armed Forces will be tasked with border security missions by a government act which will also provide for the financing and other resources necessary for its fulfillment.

The Defence Minister, on a proposal by the Chief of Defence, will set out the rules for carrying such missions.

The reasoning for the GERB-proposed changes says that the country has been experiencing an increased migration pressure caused by international circumstances. The Interior Ministry is making all efforts to manage this pressure but it needs support from other state bodies. The Armed Forces have personnel and resources that could be used in joint participation in border protection missions, the reasoning goes.

The revisions were voted without debates.

The head of the parliamentary defence committee, Gen. Miho Mihov, said that it remains unclear to him who will command the Armed Forces when they are sent to protect the border. He argued that the government act which will say that the army is going on a border protection mission, should also provide for the coordination and interaction in this mission.

Gen. Mihov said that the Armed Forces are currently experiencing a serious shortage of armament and servicepersons (by slightly more than one brigade). "Obviously, the battalions near the border in the regions of Yambol, Haskovo and Blagoevgrad will have to be urgently manned with well-trained servicepersons," he added.

He believes that it will take the Interior Ministry and the Defence Ministry ten days or more to coordinate all matters, including how they will interact.

Asked whether the servicepersons sent to the border will be armed, he said that, speaking only in his capacity as former Chief of General Staff, his position is that a soldier must not go anywhere without his weapon.

He added that the decision for this will be made by the Defence Minister as he sets out the rules for use of the Armed Forces in border security missions.

Angel Naydenov (Socialist) said there is no doubt to him that the one who should be in command of the armed forces' units sent to the border, must be the Defence Minister and, respectively, the Chief of Defence and the commanders of the military formations. Proposals that the Interior Ministry Chief Secretary be put in charge of the coordination would not have worked and were rejected for a reason.

Naydenov expressed concern over the delayed construction of a border fence between Bulgaria and Turkey. Speaking to reporters in Parliament, he said that Interior Minister Roumyana Buchvarova told him in Parliament in January that the fence would be ready in late March and now it transpires that in April-May it will be only half-ready. "Such pace of work is shocking. It is taking over a year to build some 50 km," he added.

In the corridors of Parliament, former Defence Minister Boyko Noev said the State should start thinking of providing adequate living conditions and training for the service persons who will be sent to the border. "If the power-holders send the soldiers into the mud [on the border], with these shabby tents - the way they did with the police - and if the government starts voting the allocation of firewood and polyethylene sheets to keep the soldiers warm, it will be such a humiliation for the State, a high treason!"

He also commented that the unanimity with which the legal revisions were voted in the plenary chamber goes to show that the MPs clearly see a different situation now than it was before.