Agence France Presse — English
May 10, 2005 Tuesday 10:31 AM GMT

Dozens of foreign prisoners on hunger strike in Bulgaria

SOFIA

Dozens of foreign inmates imprisoned in Bulgarian jails are part of
an expanding hunger strike to protest bad detention conditions and
discrimination, the director of the country’s prisoners said Tuesday.

“The number of strikers has reached 37,” Peter Vassilev told
Bulgarian national radio of the protest, which began on April 29 with
21 inmates refusing food.

The prisoners say they are trying to obtain the same rights as
Bulgarian prisoners with regard to early release, while some want to
serve out the rest of their sentences in their home countries and
complain about a slow transfer procedure.

But Vassilev said there was no difference between the release
conditions fpr foreign prisoners and Bulgarian inmates.

In an open letter to the Bulgarian authorities and the media,
published by the Novinar daily, the foreign inmates also complain
about bad prison conditions.

“According to the strikers two of the inmates have already been taken
to hospital due to worsening health,” Novinar reported, and also said
44 out of the 180 foreign inmates in the prison were refusing food.

But Vassilev said no one has been hosptalised.

“All the strikers are under constant medical observation and will be
force-fed if necessary,” he added.

Among the hunger-striking prisoners are four Turks, four Albanians,
three Macedonians, two Romanians, two Serbians, an Armenian, a
Russian, a Nigerian, a Moldovan and a Ukrainian, serving sentences
for drug trafficking, murder, and theft, Novinar reported.