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BULGARIA: Students Demand an Environment for Education

Claudia Ciobanu

BUCHAREST, Dec 26 2008 (IPS) - The killing of a student in front of a nightclub in Studentski Grad (Student City) in Sofia has brought to the fore the chaotic and insecure living conditions of tens of thousands of students housed in the quarters.

Stoyan Baltov, a 20-year-old pharmacy student, was beaten to death for no apparent reason by a group of young men Dec. 5 in front of the nightclub Amnesia.

Since then, hundreds of students have been protesting in Sofia, asking for more security in the district and demanding “justice for Stoyan”. Close to a thousand young people, joined by some of their professors, marched in Studentski Grad in protest Dec. 12.

Another rally was organised Dec. 19, when the students’ action merged with two other anti-government marches the same day: one by environmentalists protesting against legislation allowing construction in pristine forests, and the other by farmers angry with high-level corruption that has led to the loss of significant funds from the European Union.

Another student protest is due Jan. 14, after the Bulgarian parliament resumes its regular sessions.

Leaders of the students’ protests are linking the actions in Sofia to the national youth protest in Greece over the past several weeks. “Let’s join our struggle to that of our brothers in Greece,” wrote one activist on the Facebook page of a ‘Justice for Stoyan’ group. “Let’s show that the students in Bulgaria care about their lives and their country.”

The youths in Bulgaria have been complaining that numerous nightclubs and bars have been built illegally in Studentski Grad. Gradually, such establishments have started attracting crime.

Situated in southeast Sofia, Studentski Grad was designed in the 1980s to house the dormitories of universities in the Bulgarian capital. Students pay rent as low as 20 euros monthly for a room, but in exchange for dire conditions. While the number of residents of Studentski Grad is officially estimated around 40,000, the actual number is much higher. More than half those living in the area are said to be non-students residing illegally.

“Studentski Grad is now one of the most dangerous districts of Sofia,” Jana Punkina, one of the participants in the students’ protests told IPS. “Illegal new buildings are being constructed in former playgrounds and parks, and the whole place is turning into a jungle full of garbage, packs of stray dogs, drug dealers, prostitutes and metres of deep mud.

“The situation is so totally out of control that even students who once used to enjoy the abundance of pubs and discos are now protesting against the complete chaos, the constant noise and the absolute lack of living space – buildings rise on every square metre, cars are parked on the sidewalks and the entrances, study rooms and canteens of the dorms are rapidly turning into pubs and shops.”

Amnesia, the club in front of which Baltov was killed, was one of many such illegal establishments. The National Construction Control Directorate announced the closing down of the nightclub Dec. 19 after it said the club had been sanctioned as a mobile pavilion – Bulgarian legislation allows only mobile pavilions to be built in Studentski Grad. But like many other bars and discos in Studentski Grad, Amensia was neither mobile nor temporary, but a solid building.

Pressured by the public reaction to Baltov’s death and by the obvious fact that many clubs have been constructed using similar permits as for Amnesia, the Sofia municipality announced Dec. 19 that the chief architect of Studentski Grad, Teodor Kolarski, was being removed from his position. Judicial proceedings were initiated against Kolarski and Ventsislav Dudolevski, the former regional mayor of Studentski Grad, both accused of granting illegal construction permits.

Ani Blagova, a 24-year old graduate from Sofia University, said it was largely the public outcry that led authorities to take such measures and to proceed strongly against the two young men Vili Georgiev and Alexander Danailov, both in their early twenties, who beat up Baltov. The two were first accused of murder by negligence, but Danailov was released on a 500 leva (250 euros) bail. After the protests, the bail was revoked.

Blagova said she joined the Dec. 19 protest because “ignorance is flooding us, leading to death.” Being a student in Bulgaria, she said, “seems to have more to do with drinking, fighting and amnesiac half-rape sex than with having an opinion and building an educated civil society.”

But the protests since Baltov’s death suggest that the state of Bulgarian youth may not be as dire as Blagova thinks. Jana Punkina says students are also protesting “against the inconsistencies in Bulgarian university education, against the fact that they inevitably have to go to work during school hours – and thus miss half of the education they are paying for, against the complete chaos in the universities and campuses, against the lack of practical training in university education.”