RULED BY TERROR.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 227, 25 September 1934, Page 11

RULED BY TERROR.

MACEDONIAN CRY. CHARGES AGAINST BULGARS. SHOOTINGS AND TORTURE. GENEVA, August 22. The Macedonian minority, which was ominously silent when the coup d'etat of young military officers of the Sofia garrison put Premier Kim on Gueorguieff in power in Bulgaria three months ago, is now rising with bitter protest that the new government is executing Macedonians without trial, interning some far away from their home districts, beating, torturing and tormenting others. Gueorguieff, after assuming power with the approval of King Boris 111., launched a frankly anti-Macedonian policy. "They will be treated on a basis of equality with the other nationalities in Bulgaria," he said. "The Macedonian societies, in so far a - s they are benevolent or co-operative societies, will not be disturbed, but in the future they must stay out of politics." Macedonians Seek. Unity. It was plain that he meant the IMRO —Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organisation —which was born in 1893. The IMRO has been practically a State within a State, collecting taxes, secretly electing officials and judges, and sponsoring churches, schools and traditional observances. The IMRO declares its goal is a union of the three parts of dismembered Macedonia, into an independent State—the parts are in Yugoslavia, Greece and Bulgaria.

GueorguiciT, belonging to the Zveno political group, which favours friendly relations with Yugoslavia, at once launched a series of decree laws which dissolved the Parliament, of 227 members, dissolved political parties, issued permits to newspapers—refusing them to party newspapers —and forbidding the IMRO to collect taxes.

The Premier divided the Macedonian Petritch district between Sofia and Plovdiv provinces, sent the army to blockade the district, and ordered all persons to give up all arms, ammunition and propaganda material. A Government report said the only resistance was in the town of Eelitza, where the Mayor, who was also the leader of the local IMRO, fired on searching gendarmes and then was killed. Charge Mayor was Murdered. The Macedonians charge that the Mayor was killed by order of the administration and without trial. They also point to the beating of Pantcho Sugarsky, priest of Alelnik, so severely that he was confined to a hospital. Another case they cite is that of Dr. Constantine Stanishell", representative from the Petritch district in Parliament. Dr. Stanisheir was locked up in a cellar of the army commander's headquarters in Gorna-Djumaya, where he had gone to examine one of his patients. Attacks on Macedonians in the towns of Levunovo, Melnik, Belitza, Dshigurovo and particularly the county of Sveti Vratch are cited. The Macedonians charge the Government withholds information of its activities in the Petritch district and that Bulgarian newspapers which have not been suppressed are subjected to strict censorship.

Further, the Macedonians charge that as a result of the military blockade, beatings, internments, and persecutions, families have been driven to privation, and economic life in the district has been paralysed. No one is allowed to go from one village to another without -i special permit from the military. At every crossroad, at entering or leaving a village or town, all passengers are searched and questioned. Admits Exiling Macedonians. To these complaints the Government answers that the army is in the district to prevent a reign of terrorism and assassinations of civil officials who carry out orders of the Sofia administration. The Government admits the evacuation of Imro leaders. At one time it moved 20 eminent leaders of the Imro to small villages in eastern Bulgaria, far from their Macedonian comrades.

Even while the Petritch district was under blockade, Kroum Stankoff, an adherent of the Mihailovist faction of the Macedonians, was killed in the streets of Sofia, and police feared the beginning of another series of assassinations. About that time the Government announced it had nipped an anti-GoVcrnment plot in Plovdiv, saying that several dozen soldiers were implicated and that about 50 persons were thrown into gaol.

Most of the Macedonian territory and population are in the valley of the Vardar River in Yugoslavia and on both sides of Salonika, in Greece, but the minority in those countries have been severely suppressed, and only the remaining tenth of Macedonians who are in Bulgaria have, up until recently, been allowed some political freedom. This political freedom caused Yugoslavia and Greece to hold an unfriendly attitude toward Bulgaria. Split Into Two Groups. In 1024 followers of IMRO split into two groups over what was its objective. The Protegerovists—followers of General Alexander and Todor Protegerov— wanted the Macedonian district to be created a state in either Bulgaria, Greece, or Yugoslavia. The Mihailovists —followers of "King" Ivan Mihailov— demanded complete autonomy. General Protegerov was assassinated in 1928 by Mihailovists, and Mihailov himself has continually pursued a "will o' the wisp" existence. The fractional feud has gone on ceaselessly with hundreds of assassinations.

These reached a high point on December 29, 1932, when a group of Mihailovists, dressed as hunters, marched into the palace square and shot down Simeon Evtimoff, brilliant editor of the rival faction's newspaper.