On July 22, Colin Powell conferred with Bulgarian Foreign Minister Solomon Passy on the deepening Washington-Bulgarian military "partnership," praising the neocon Bulgarian political leadership for keeping its troops in Occupied Iraq. Even as the demonstrators gathered, General Richard Myers, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the US Army, was welcomed to Bulgaria, in Sofia to discuss cooperation in security and defence (including three possible U.S. military bases in Bulgaria) in the “context of the current strategic situation.”

Opinion surveys indicate that the vast majority of Bulgarian citizens, many reduced to near poverty eking out a bare minimum for daily survival in one of Europe’s most depressed economies, are outraged over their government’s participation in the occupation of Iraq. Repeated polls suggest that electoral support for the current government has plummeted to an estimated 7%.

Slogans at the demonstration included “Troops Out of Iraq,” “Send All Our Parliamentarians to Karbala Instead!” and “Bush Fascist, International Terrorist.” In the past week, Maria Lazova, mother Georgi Lazov, of one of the slain Bulgarian hostages in Iraq, openly blamed the US, saying “the people responsible for the death of my son are far away in the US … What are our boys still doing in Karbala?”

Sources:

http://bulgaria.indymedia.org/newswire/display/414 /index.php

http://bulgaria.indymedia.org/newswire/display/399 /index.php

http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=37302

http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=37546

http://bulgaria.indymedia.org/otherpress/display/122/index.php