Victims of Communist Regime Blast Bulgarian Candidate to Lead UN
BY ALEX NEWMAN
SEE: http://www.thenewamerican.com/world-news/europe/item/24070-victims-of-communist-regime-blast-bulgarian-candidate-to-lead-un; republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
In an open letter to members of the United Nations Security Council, victims and political prisoners of the brutal communist regime that enslaved Bulgaria blasted Bulgarian communist and UN Secretary-General candidate Irina Bokova (shown). In addition to highlighting Bokova's troubling communist background, the Bulgarian victims of communism also criticized a self-styled group of “Bulgarian intellectuals” who endorsed Bokova's “preposterous candidacy.” Among other concerns, the victims noted that almost all of the signatories on the endorsement letter were members of the Bulgarian Communist Party “and actively participated in all actions of the repressive Communist regime.”
So far, despite receiving copies of the letter, the Western media has remained suspiciously silent on the facts amid the ongoing race to select the next UN chief. Faktor.bg and other indpendent Bulgarian media outlets have picked up the story, though. Many establishment media organs in the West have actually allowed their pages to be used by Bokova propagandists and PR operatives to promote her as the “front runner” for the top UN post. Despite that powerful support, though, multiple reports in recent days suggest Bokova's candidacy may be on the verge of imploding, as Bulgarian authorities are said to be considering withdrawing her nomination. Another Bulgarian without Bokova's communist baggage — not to mention the corruption scandals surrounding Bokova raised by investigators at watchdog Bivol — is reportedly being considered.
The story on the latest open letter traces back to an earlier letter endorsing Bokova that was sent to UN Security Council delegations last month. The document was signed by what appeared to be, at least at first glance, an impressive array of 57 “Bulgarian intellectuals.” However, it quickly emerged that almost every single one of those signatories was intimately linked to the communist “People's Republic of Bulgaria.” According to estimates by Professor R.J. Rummel of the University of Hawaii in his book Statistics of Democide: Democide and Mass Murder Since 1900, the Bulgarian regime murdered some 222,000 victims. The population of Bulgaria today is about seven million.
After serving as an enthusiastic youth member of the Bulgarian Communist Party, Bokova later became an adult member and even served in various senior capacities within the brutal dictatorship. As a pampered child of the ruling communist elite, Bokova was able to study in Moscow at the Soviet regime’s “prestigious” State Institute of International Relations, which trained future diplomats for international communism under the control of the KGB. Bokova's father was a leading communist bigwig in Bulgaria, even serving as editor-in-chief of the Communist Party's propaganda organ. Bulgarian critics have compared him to Germany's Joseph Goebbels.
Victims of Bulgaria's communist regime, which tortured, murdered, and brutalized its critics, were outraged by Bokova's nomination and by the letter endorsing her and purporting to speak on behalf of Bulgarians. “We strongly object to that endorsement,” wrote the victims. “We were political prisoners under the communist regime, we are citizens of Bulgaria of all ages, occupations and backgrounds, and we do not support Irina Bokova for Secretary-General of UN. An endorsement by 57 self-appointed mouthpieces of the ‘nation’ is offensive to the majority of Bulgarian people who never supported Irina Bokova’s country nomination.”
In a devastating blow to the credibility of the endorsement letter she received from “intellectuals,” the former political prisoners broke down the numbers. Among other revelations, the open letter noted that “95 percent of the 57 signatories were devout members of the Bulgarian Communist Party and actively participated in all actions of the repressive Communist regime.” Those actions included the murder of tens of thousands of innocent Bulgarians, and the imprisonment of hundreds of thousands in prisons and forced-labor camps, “where many died of torture and the inhuman conditions,” the victims said. Despite the fact that the communists remain extremely influential in Bulgaria, the Bulgarian Parliament has even officially declared the former communist regime to be criminal.
Breaking down the roster of pro-Bokova signatories further, the open letter, citing official records from the “Committee for disclosing the documents of the former State Security of Bulgaria,” noted that the signers of the first letter “belong to deeply rooted persisting structures of the former communist elite.” Many of them were part of former communist dictator Todor Zhivkov's inner circle, the victims observed. And like Bokova's UN campaign team, an “astonishing number” of the signatories were agents and employees of the communist “State Security” and intelligence services often referred to as the “little KGB.”
“Six out of the first twelve signatories were agents of the State Security agency,” the letter states. “Nine members of the Academy of Sciences signed the letter — five are former State Security agents. Eight diplomats signed — five are former State Security agents, including international spies and recruiters of Western citizens and politicians. Six journalists signed — three are former State Security agents.” As The New American reported in March, Bokova's campaign team is also led and dominated by former agents of the “little KGB,” as revealed in official records and reported widely in Bulgarian media outlets. Even her latest husband is a “former” agent of the ruthless State Security apparatus.
“In addition, organizations quoted in the letter are creations of former high-level communists and State Security agency members,” the Bulgarian victims of communism continued. “This certainly is the case of the ‘Bulgarian Diplomatic Society’ and the ‘National Association for International Relations.’ Such establishments assist the mimicry of the former communist elite and help it to perpetuate its political, social and financial influence. Chairman of the Governing Board of the ‘Bulgarian Diplomatic Society’ is Irina Bokova’s brother, Mr. Filip Bokov, a diplomat and a politician notorious for his association with all chameleonic reincarnations of the Communist Party since 1990.”
As if to add insult to injury, the 57 signatories chose a historic day for their letter endorsing communist Bokova. “In a gesture of profound disregard for the victims of the Communist regime the 57 ‘intellectuals’ signed their letter on August 23 — the date of the European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Totalitarian Regimes,” the open letter to Security Council permanent representatives explained. “This is a perfect example of the cynical arrogance and sense of impunity of the unreformed political milieu to which Irina Bokova belongs. We cannot and will never be represented by them.”
The open letter also blasted the fact that the “former” communist elite retains so much influence in Bulgaria. “It angers and shames us that, 27 years after the people of Bulgaria started their journey towards democracy, our country should be represented at the highest international level only by the clinging elite of the collapsed criminal, totalitarian Communist regime,” they wrote. “We believe that this is not what the world deserves, and that you will never allow this to happen!” So far, straw polls at the UN Security Council have seen Bokova place tied for third place in her best run.
Numerous leading Bulgarians who were victims of the savage communist regime signed the open letter. Among them is former political prisoner Dr. Andrey Naydenov, who signed on behalf of the National Union of the Repressed by Communism in Bulgaria, where he now serves as chairman. Also signing was former political prisoner Peter Bojadziev, on behalf of the group of former political prisoners known as Bulgarian European Memory, where he serves as president. The group's vice-president Alfredo Foscolo, also signed. He was sentenced to 27 years in a sham communist “trial,” including 15 years in solitary confinement. Member of Parliament Metody Andreev, who served as chairman of the Committee for disclosing the documents of the former State Security of Bulgaria, signed as well. Numerous other Bulgarian victims of the communist regime signed, too, including at least one who is now living in the United States.
In a revelation likely to infuriate the UN Security Council's Islamic member governments, the victims who signed the open letter also blew the whistle on anti-Muslim atrocities perpetrated by the communist Bulgarian regime right up until its end. Two signatories of the pro-Bokova letter served as “chief apologists” for the “revival process” in the 1980s, while Bokova was a high-ranking official in the regime. “In this Moscow-governed process of forced ethnic assimilation the Bulgarian Muslim minority (consisting of 900,000 ethnic Turks, Roma Muslims and Bulgarian converts to Islam) its members were brutally made to change their Turkish or Arabic names to Bulgarian ones, to abandon their language and to renounce their identity,” the letter explained.
Hundreds of thousands were forced into Turkey as part of a “forced and tragic exodus,” the letter continued. “Among the signatories is also the man who was Prosecutor General of Bulgaria in 1987-89, the worst years of the ‘Revival Process,’” the signatories continued, adding that he was responsible for sending hundreds of Bulgarian Muslims to savage prisons and prison camps for refusing to change their names. “The ‘Revival Process’ and its gross violations of human rights caused international outcry and was condemned by a number of international organizations, including the United Nations.” Many Christians also faced bloody persecution.
Throughout those brutal efforts, Bokova and the 57 signatories who endorsed her UN candidacy either worked for, or with, the savage communist regime responsible for the atrocities. “To this day Mrs. Bokova’s supporters and she herself have not expressed any regret or made an apology for the victims of that process, or of the Communist regime,” the open letter noted. “Irina Bokova has never condemned the ‘Revival Process,’ she has been completely silent on the tragic events that took place during that period, and she never offered any public explanation for her silence on the issue.” Bokova and company also openly supported the murderous Serbian communist Slobodan Milosevic while he was slaughtering victims, the letter observed.
As outrage in Bulgaria and around the world continues to grow over Bokova's scandal-plagued candidacy, various Eastern European governments and Bulgarian authorities are reportedly considering withdrawing her nomination. U.K. authorities are even said to be considering a veto of Bokova's candidacy. Apparently, though, Russia's Vladimir Putin and other powerful forces, including mega-wealthy international “bankster” Baron Eric de Rothschild, are still working behind the scenes to see their favored candidate nominated. But as awareness spreads, opposition is growing too, including outside of Bulgaria where the facts about Bokova are well known to the public.
Already, under Bokova's controversial leadership, the UN's “education” and “cultural” agency UNESCO has lost all U.S. taxpayer funding. If nothing else, a successful Bokova candidacy to lead the UN could add more fuel to growing "Amexit" efforts to get the United States out of the UN entirely.
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