Bulgarian alarm behind London killings?

Press, 17 October 1978, Page 24

Bulgarian alarm behind London killings?

From (he “Economist,” London

Scotland Yard’s anti terrorist squad is still looking into the sudden death in London recently of Mr Vladimir Simeonov, a 30-year-old Bulgarian defector who had been working in the Bulgarian section of the 8.8.C.’s European service. Mr Simeonov was found dead in his pyjamas at the foot of the stairs of his house in London’s East End. His death may prove to have been accidental, but that of his fellow Bulgarian broadcaster, Mr Georgi Markov, was not. Mr Markov, also a defector, died last month after being jabbed with the point of an umbrella in a London street. An empty alloy ball, presumed to have been filled

with poison, was found embedded in his thigh. Another Bulgarian defector, Mr Vladimir Kostov, was attacked in a similar manner a year ago on the Paris metro, but survived.

It is now widely—and probably correct —assumed that the attacks of Mr Markov and Mr Kostov were the agents .(although on Wednesday the Bulgarian Government strongly repeated its denial of responsibility for the two London deaths). But why shoulld Bulgaria, Russia’s most docile satillite, suddenly decide to start bumping off its disillusioned exiles?

Under its party leader, Mr Todor Zhivkov, who has been in power since 1954,

Bulgaria has indeed been a model of stability, but this may not last. Under the surface, there has been much dissatisfaction, ■ especially among the young. Few Bulgarians are allowed to travel to the West.

What upsets the average Bulgarian are stories about corruption in industry and commerce. The few cases involving the dismissal of high-ranking bureaucrats that have been disclosed in recent years are believed by the man in the street (probably rightly) to be only the tip of the iceberg. Nepotism causes much resentment too. Mr Zhivkov’s daughter Ludmila is Minister of Culture. Her friend Mr Alexander Lilov is the party secretary of charge of ideological matters. Sons and

daughters of senior patty and Government officials get plum jobs in the diplomatic service and journalism.

Mr Zhivkov and his colleagues know that, in a small country like Bulgaria, their authority could be seriously undermined if specific allegations about corruption and nepotism were to be publicised in the West and then re-broadcast to Bulgaria. They probably remember the traumatic effect in Poland of the revelations about police and other abuses broadcast on Radio Free Europe in 1954-55 by a Polish defector, Colonel Jozef Swiatlo. Bulgaria’s rulers may well want to silence defectors who have similarly embarrassing information and are willing to broadcast it over

Western radio, or publish it in books (as Mr Markov, an accomplished writer, was reportedly planning to do in his memoirs . His broadcasts on the 8.8. C. were relatively uncontroversial, but his talks on Radio Free Europe were likely to have stung former friends like Mr Zhikov.

It may seem strange that Russia should let Mr Zhikov’s political police undertake a series of murders in the West that might damage its own reputation. However, since any threat to stability in Bulgaria would endanger the Soviet rulers’ interests in Eastern Europe, they presumably feel they must give their Bulgarian comrades a pretty free hand in deciding how to preserve that stability.

Back in 19(15, a group of Bulgarian party officials and army officers tried to overthrow the Zhikov regime. They were officially’ accused of “pro-Chinese adventurism.” In reality, they were probably interested in the type of independence that Bulgaria’s neighbours, Yugoslavia and Rumania, were ne joying.

Mr Zhikov dealt With the conspirators drastically and the Russians were duly grateful. So the Soviet leaders tnay have thought that a little preventive action against people who could have stirred up trouble in Bulgaria was well worth the risk of evoking some Western grumbles. Besides, their murder experts doubtless swore they would never be detected.