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A Bulgarian Roma man sets himself on fire in front of the Presidency building in Sofia on July 26, 2002. The man had his wife pour gas on him and light him up to protest the banishment of his family by other Roma after a deadly dispute in the northwestern town of Vidin left them wandering homeless through the country. (BULGARIA OUT) REUTERS/Petar Ganev
Hundreds of colleagues, friends, relatives and fans bade their last farewell to great Bulgarian actress Katia Paskaleva yesterday. The star of Bulgarian cinema and theatre was buried next to Nikolay Haitov's grave - the author of "The Goat Horn". "I'm not sure if I'd be able to appear on the stage any more," actor Stephan Mavrodiev said with tears in his eyes. Photo BTA
Macedonia on the Route of Child Sex Slavery.
Reality Macedonia
By Irina Gelevska
Skopje - Between August 2001 and November 2001, Macedonian Police discovered 328 [trafficked] women in the raids in the night bars in the West and Northwest of the country. 12% of them are young girls aged 14 to 16. A Skopje shelter, run by IOM with the assistance from the police, accepted 6 girls under age of 18 during this year.
UNICEF's child protection officer Carry Nill says that the problem of child sex slavery in Macedonia worsened during the last two years.
Macedonia is known as a country on the route of trafficking women for prostitution [in Western Europe], and also as destination country for this kind of organized crime. Since the last year's security crisis in the country, Macedonia becomes a lair for children trafficking as well.
"Nobody knows how big this problem is. It's very hard to find information on children trafficking, but the problem is getting worse. There might be thousands of children who are victims of sex slavery, child pornography, donating organs, drug trafficking or begging in Europe," says Barbara Limanowska, the author of the newest UNICEF report on the trafficking of women and children in Southeast Europe.
According to her, at least 10 to 30% of all European sex workers are minors.
It is also thought that up to 80% of the victims from Albania are girls under 18.
Sex slavery, run mostly by Albanian gangs from northern Albania, involves women and young girls and boys from Moldova, Byelorussia, Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Yugoslavia, and Macedonia.
Macedonian Police has about 500 cases of kidnapping children each year. 80% of them are kidnapping children among divorced parents, but 5% of the kidnapped children are missing more that one year.
Macedonian courts have 47 cases against sex traffickers, mostly Macedonian Albanians. Only one of them has been convicted so far, getting a 5 years inprisonment.
GRADUATION CEREMONY FOR MULTIETHNIC CADETS IN IDRIZOVO.
MIA
The Police Academy in Idrizovo, near Skopje, hosted Friday the final graduation ceremony to the third group of multiethnic cadets trained jointly by the Macedonian Interior Ministry and OSCE.
Following their three months basic training at Academy, the cadets will now start six months field training.
Two hundred and seventy eight cadets graduated today, thus bringing the number to 630 graduates so far, in accordance with the provisions of the Ohrid Agreement.
A total of 438 of the new cadets are Albanians, 30 Roma, 10 Serbs, 39 Turks, 6 Bosnians, 5 Vlachs, one Croat, 4 Macedonian Muslims, while the rest are Macedonians.
"In time when criminal activities are intensified, Macedonia needs efficient and well-equipped police, ready to respond to all challenges in compliance with the Constitution and the laws. All citizens of Macedonia are equal before the constitution and the laws, and accordingly, entitled to safe and peaceful life" the Academy Director, General Risto Galevski said at the ceremony.
Bart D'Hooge, Director of the OSCE Police Development Unit, addressing to the new cadets, said that they, as future policemen in a democratic country, had a professional obligation to respect the Constitution and basic human rights.
On behalf of the Macedonian Government, Interior Minister Ljube Boskovski expressed satisfaction with the achieved results, saying that the new cadets are a guarantee for Macedonia's survival.
"Even before signing of the Framework Agreement, we have expressed our readiness to apply the European legislation in Macedonia, as we are committed to bring the country back to its respectable position of democratic, civilized and modern state," Boskovski said.
High price was paid for the peace in Macedonia, Boskovski said and "therefore, the future policeman must keep it." He also expressed hope that there would be no year like the last one for Macedonia.
Max van der Stoel, the OCSE Chairman-in-Office representative to Macedonia, expressed satisfaction with the excellent cooperation between the Interior Ministry and OSCE.
"These cadets are in front of a vital task - to provide order, peace and security in the whole country, with full respect of the basic human rights," Stoel said.
After the ceremony, Minister Boskovski denied the claim of Sami Veliu, about some offer for exchange of missing Albanian with the kidnapped Macedonians.
Veliu is representative of the families of six missing Albanians.
The Macedonian Government offered an award of 500,000, expressing readiness to do everything in its power for revealing of the fate of 12 kidnapped persons, Boskovski said.
Asked if the Government will accept for NATO "Task Force Fox" to protect OSCE monitors in the areas out of the former crisis regions, Boskovski said, "Macedonia is sovereign and internationally recognized country. It is humiliating to accept the TFF control of areas, which are not part of the former crisis regions."
Boskovski said that the forthcoming parliamentary elections would be fair and democratic. The Macedonian police would carry out its tasks in the most professional manner, he added.
July 26 in History.
Standartnews
In 811 Khan Krum defeated the Byzantine Emperor Nicephorus I in the battle at the Varbishki pass.
In 1881 a provisional statute of the structure of the Gendarmerie was adopted by a decree issued by Prince Battenberg.
In 1946 the National Assembly adopted a "Referendum Act" on abolishing monarchy.
Policemen Capture Racketeers through Roofs.
Standartnews
Stefan Tashev
Anti-mafia policemen climb villas of three bandits.
Anti-mafia policemen stormed the posh houses of three bosses of a racketeers' gang equipped with mountaineer's gear and ropes. Despite bandits' fierce resistance they were captured, sources from the IM said yesterday. Chieftain Yanko V. (39) has turned his home in the vicinities of the capital into a unassailable fortress. Panoramic cameras scanning the region had been installed on the fence. That's why the members of the special group of the National Service for Organized Crime Combat (NSOCC) had to show their skills in mountaineering. The two other bosses of the racketeers, Lyubomir S. (35) and 39-year-old Ivailo P., were busted up the same way - in their homes in the town of Radomir. All three of them offered vehement resistance at their arrest, sources from the NSOCC said. According to police information, for ten years the bandits have been engaged in racket, blackmailing and kidnapping in the regions of Sofia and Pernik.
YUGOSLAV FOREIGN MINISTER-MEETING.
BTA
Sofia, July 26 (BTA) - The Bulgarian MPs support Yugoslavia's integrity, Mihail Mikov, Chairman of the Bulgaria-Yugoslavia Friendship Group in the National Assembly, said at Friday's meeting with Yugoslav Foreign Minister Goran Svilanovic. "We see our accession to the common European home together with Yugoslavia," said Mikov, quoted by Parliament's press office.
The Bulgarian representatives to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe will support the Yugoslav bid for membership in it, Mikov said, expressing satisfaction with Yugoslavia's promise to vote for Bulgaria's bid for the OSCE presidency.
"Our meetings are proof of goodneighbourly relations, but they should lead to real joint infrastructure and economic projects," Mikov said. "We are interested to implement these projects," Svilanovic said, stressing the need to build the Sofia-Nis highway and railways, to reopen the Danube to navigation, increase shipping and bring tourists back to the river, Parliament's press office said.
Svilanovic informed the friendship group of his talks on Thursday with President Georgi Purvanov, the government and Parliament Chairman Ognyan Gerdjikov. The main subject was the setting up of a free trade area. "I hope we will prepare the agreement by the year's end so as to sign it in December, when the Bulgarian President will be our guest," Svilanovic said. He briefed the Bulgarian MPs on the political and economic situation in his country.
"I think the coming years will be rather difficult for us, while Bulgaria has been effecting a transition for over 10 years," Svilanovic said. "Your government has taken many important steps, as evidenced by Sofia's forthcoming membership in NATO and the EU," Svilanovic said. "Since we are heading in the same direction, we must tap all opportunities for cooperation by arranging meetings to exchange experience," the Yugoslav chief diplomat said.
The situation in the border areas, relaxing passage through the border checkpoints, and ways to improve cooperation in culture, science and education were among the subjects discussed, the press release said.
Bulgarian Ministry of Transport and Communications Deploys IP-Enabled Disaster Recovery Centre.
Cisco Systems
Cisco's AVVID Architecture Selected To Provide Disaster-Proof Communications In New Government Facility.
SOFIA, Bulgaria--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 26, 2002-- Cisco Systems today announced that it has been selected to provide the network infrastructure at a new disaster recovery centre for the Bulgarian Ministry of Transport and Communications. The centre will rely on Internet Protocol (IP) networking to ensure critical government communications can be maintained across the nation's capital, Sofia, in the event of a major catastrophe.
The Ministry's decision to build the centre comes in the wake of recent earthquakes in two of Bulgaria's neighbouring states, Turkey and Greece. The Sofia facility is the first of a number planned by the Government department in major cities across the country, while the Defence and Interior Ministries are also considering similar establishments.
"It is clear that no government can afford to ignore natural or man-made threats to national security," said Ianko Iankov, IT manager for the Ministry of Transport and Communications. "And in any emergency situation, a key objective is to make sure lines of communication are kept open. IP has been shown to be flexible and robust enough to withstand a major disaster; and Cisco's AVVID is a proven IP platform that can manage the high level of graphics information used by our systems."
AVVID is Cisco's Architecture for Voice, Video and Integrated Data, which forms the basis of the disaster recovery centre technology infrastructure along with a network of Cisco IP phones and a Unity 3.1 IP voicemail system.
Tim Stone, Marketing Manager AVVID, Cisco Systems EMEA said: "IP was first conceived as a fail-proof way of maintaining military communications and still does the job admirably today. What we have been able to add through AVVID is a way of handling real time information such as voice and video with no deterioration in quality -- even in a disaster situation."
About Cisco Systems.
Cisco Systems, Inc.(NASDAQ: CSCO - News) is the worldwide leader in networking for the Internet. Cisco news and information are available at http://www.cisco.com. Cisco equipment in Europe is supplied by Cisco Systems International BV, a wholly owned subsidiary of Cisco Systems, Inc. Cisco, Cisco Systems, the Cisco Systems logo and Cisco IOS are registered trademarks or trademarks of Cisco Systems, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and certain other countries.
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