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Internet platform for studying Xenophobia, Radicalism and Problems of Intercultural communication.

Attacks

Attacks

Most attacks in 2014 happened in the capital.

On April 19, a black French woman was assaulted in Sofia. On July 5, around 20 supporters of the nationalist Ataka party tried to disrupt the gay-parade event in Sofia, temporarily blocking transport near the University of Sofia. They were blocked by the police.

On October 11, a pregnant Bulgarian woman and her Moroccan husband were attacked in Sofia.

On April 14, a group of nationalists attacked Jehovah’s Witnesses in Berkovitsa On July 21, Bulgarian town of Stara Zagora started to demolish the illegal Roma houses – 33 in total. This caused a lot of protest among the locals, who started throwing rocks at the law enforcement, resulting in two people injured.

On August 6, two Jehovah’s Witnesses were attacked in Stara Zagora.

On August 9, Jehovah’s Witnesses were attacked in the village of Zhilentsi.

On September 14-15, police of Burgas clashed with residents of the Roma quarter. Two police officers were injured and twenty Roma were arrested.

The seriousness of the situation has become clear from recent submissions to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (UNCERD) by the European Roma Rights Center and the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee . Both reports detailed a series of violent events, including attempts by racist mobs to storm Roma neighborhoods, a surge of online and offline hate speech against Roma and other minorities, and a longstanding failure by authorities to adequately address racist hatred.

In its concluding remarks, UNCERD echoed these concerns and, in addition to calling for an end to racial segregation of Roma in education and housing, asked the state to take steps to prevent and condemn hate speech by public officials and politicians; and to implement protocols for the investigation and prosecution of racially motivated violence. As Amnesty International explained in a previous report, although Bulgaria has legislation in place to prosecute hate crimes related to racism and xenophobia, the authorities consistently fail to identify and investigate them properly. And such inaction is not without consequences: "Bulgaria's longstanding failure to properly investigate and prosecute hate crimes fuels fear, discrimination, and ultimately encourages more violence."

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