Post by depletedreasons on Apr 7, 2008 7:18:49 GMT -5
Bulgaria reveals documents on killing of East Germans on its borders
The Associated Press
Published: April 4, 2008
SOFIA, Bulgaria: A Bulgarian official revealed on Friday that the country's communist-era border troops killed East Germans who had fled across Europe and tried to get to the West through the Balkan country's borders.
The killings were a long-kept secret from the Balkan country's Cold War past. Bulgaria's parliament elected a panel to investigate secret police files, and panel member Ekaterina Boncheva said it had found documents dealing with at least two cases of East German citizens being killed on the Bulgarian border, one in 1974 and one in 1988.
The archives also revealed that 22 Bulgarians were shot while trying to escape to Greece or Turkey between 1964 and 1967, Boncheva said.
Killings on Bulgaria's border with Turkey and Greece were kept secret during communist times, and no official information had been released in the 18 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall until Friday's announcement.
The nine-member panel was set up last year after a law passed in late 2006 forced Bulgaria to open its pre-1989 communist-era secret service archives.
Boncheva said the panel had "the first chance to see real documents connected with the killing of East German citizens at the Bulgarian border."
She said there was also information about 415 people who were detained while trying to sneak across the border and who were handed over to the East German authorities, but that the files relating to those incidents were destroyed in 1975. Most of the 415 were from East Germany, but there were also some from Poland and Hungary, she said.
According to estimates by German researchers, at least 4,500 people tried to escape over the Bulgarian border to Turkey and Greece during the Cold War.
Stefan Appelius, a political science professor at the University of Oldenburg, believes that at least 100 were killed, but there is no official confirmation.
Boncheva said those files opened so far also contain information about the cooperation between the Stasi, East Germany's secret service, and Bulgaria's State Security Services.
All documents exchanged between the two offices were in Russian, Boncheva said.
www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/04/04/europe/EU-GEN-Bulgaria-East-Germany-Killings.php
The Associated Press
Published: April 4, 2008
SOFIA, Bulgaria: A Bulgarian official revealed on Friday that the country's communist-era border troops killed East Germans who had fled across Europe and tried to get to the West through the Balkan country's borders.
The killings were a long-kept secret from the Balkan country's Cold War past. Bulgaria's parliament elected a panel to investigate secret police files, and panel member Ekaterina Boncheva said it had found documents dealing with at least two cases of East German citizens being killed on the Bulgarian border, one in 1974 and one in 1988.
The archives also revealed that 22 Bulgarians were shot while trying to escape to Greece or Turkey between 1964 and 1967, Boncheva said.
Killings on Bulgaria's border with Turkey and Greece were kept secret during communist times, and no official information had been released in the 18 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall until Friday's announcement.
The nine-member panel was set up last year after a law passed in late 2006 forced Bulgaria to open its pre-1989 communist-era secret service archives.
Boncheva said the panel had "the first chance to see real documents connected with the killing of East German citizens at the Bulgarian border."
She said there was also information about 415 people who were detained while trying to sneak across the border and who were handed over to the East German authorities, but that the files relating to those incidents were destroyed in 1975. Most of the 415 were from East Germany, but there were also some from Poland and Hungary, she said.
According to estimates by German researchers, at least 4,500 people tried to escape over the Bulgarian border to Turkey and Greece during the Cold War.
Stefan Appelius, a political science professor at the University of Oldenburg, believes that at least 100 were killed, but there is no official confirmation.
Boncheva said those files opened so far also contain information about the cooperation between the Stasi, East Germany's secret service, and Bulgaria's State Security Services.
All documents exchanged between the two offices were in Russian, Boncheva said.
www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/04/04/europe/EU-GEN-Bulgaria-East-Germany-Killings.php