site.btaSocialists Demand Resignations of Ministers of Agriculture, Interior after Negative Repeat Tests for Ovine Rinderpest, GERB Dismiss Accusations

115 ECONOMY - OVINE RINDERPEST - NEGATIVE TESTS - REMARKS

Socialists Demand Resignations of Ministers of Agriculture,
Interior after Negative Repeat Tests
for Ovine Rinderpest, GERB Dismiss Accusations


Sofia, August 23 (BTA) - The opposition Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) demands the resignations of Agriculture, Food and Forestry Minister Roumen Porozhanov and Interior Minister Valentin Radev, claiming that repeat tests for ovine rinderpest turned out to be negative.

Thousands of sheep and goats in the southeastern region of Strandja were culled in July amid what was believed to have been an ovine rinderpest outbreak.

BSP's demand was announced by BSP Chairperson Kornelia Ninova who told a briefing that according to official information from a French laboratory which analysed the samples, there is no incidence of ovine rinderpest in the three-kilometre area where the animals were tested.

Agriculture Minister Porozhanov said that he is not aware of a lab report saying that there has been no ovine rinderpest in Strandja and that nobody is going to resign.

Ninova: the only deal animals are those killed by the government

"Two months after the onset of the problem, not a single animal has died of ovine rinderpest. The only dead animals are those killed by the government of Boyko Borissov," Ninova said.

Already at the peak of what was then suspected as ovine rinderpest outbreak, veterinarians expressed doubts that the animals were sick as the typical symptoms were absent. The animals were culled on the basis of testings in Bulgaria, before sending samples for analysis in France, which caused an outrage across the country and sent groups of volunteers to Strandja to guard the herds from being culled. Ninova was one of them.

Speaking at the Thursday briefing, the BSP Chairperson said that Porozhanov "tried to shift the entire blame on the Executive Director of the Bulgarian Food Safety Agency (BFSA)".

What Porozhanov actually said in a TV interview Thursday was that he would talk with Borissov before deciding whether to demand the resignation of BFSA Executive Director Damyan Iliev or just sack him. Porozhanov said that he holds Iliev responsible for a scandalous contract for the supply of ovine rinderpest testers awarded to a computer company, established a month ago with 500 leva in capital. The contract was halted by Borissov.

Ninova said that the BSP wants the prosecuting magistracy to investigate whether malfeasance of office was perpetrated in the ovine rinderpest case and by whom. She said that next week people from the Left will visit the areas affected by the culling and help everyone who want to file claims for damages in Bulgarian and European institutions.

The BSP wants the institutions to check unofficial information that with their acts in the ovine rinderpest case - killing actual animals, the powerholders wanted to conceal cases of subsidies received by non-existing farmers for non-existing animals.

The Left also wants a check on a date-by-date basis of Porozhanov's actions and whether they were not a pre-prepared scheme for siphoning of money from the national and the European budget.

GERB: The authorities acted adequately

Reacting to the BSP's allegations, GERB told a news conference that repeat tests show the institutions acted adequately and the spread of the infection was prevented.

Porozhanov said the problem had been politicized.

Talking about repeat tests, he said the term was used in reference to different things. He himself was referring to samples taken in a 20 km area in five population centres. Testing of 8,000 samples taken there started on Wednesday and the results are expected to be out in a week.

Ninova appears to be referring to repeat tests run on the original samples.

Porozhanov said he was not aware of a report from a French laboratory denying incidence of the disease in Bulgaria. Dr Iliev also commented: "I am sure there is no such report because otherwise I would have known about it."

The Agriculture Minister said there would not be any resignations.

Damyan Iliev also said that if he resigned, it would turn out he had not done his job, which was not the case.

Iliev said: "It will be very bad if there are more positive samples because it will mean we have not done a good job." New positive samples will automatically extend the term of the EU ban on the sale of milk products, he added.

Porozhanov said that so far Bulgaria had demonstrated to the EU that it has a good administration. "We must save Bulgaria's business image, regardless of weepy media coverage," he commented.

The Agriculture Minister said he met with dairy processors on Thursday to discuss a possible notification for up to 50 per cent State aid to small farms so they can market their products.
ZH/LN/DD