Bulgarian gypsies riot

PLOVDIV, Bulgaria -- Gypsies have gone on a two-day rampage after their electricity was cut off amid claims that nearly $3 million of bills remain unpaid.

About 1,000 gypsies in Bulgaria's second-largest city, Plovdiv, shattered hundreds of windows, and looted shops, injuring a policeman, during Monday and Tuesday's troubles, The Associated Press said.

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They also smashed buses and cars and erected roadblocks made from dustbins in Plovdiv's suburb of Stolipinovo.

The police circled the area but have refused to enter the town which is about 160 kilometres (100 miles) southeast of the capital Sofia in an attempt "to avoid clashes."

The gypsies, who number about 35,000 in Stolipinovo, are protesting that their electricity has been cut off.

The local electricity company has refused to switch it back on because it says the gypsies owe it more than 6 million leva ($2.7 million) in unpaid electricity bills.

Plovdiv, a city of about 450,000, has three predominantly gypsy enclaves, of which Stolipinovo is considered Bulgaria's largest gypsy area.

Police temporarily sealed the riot areas but would not go in to quell the unrest to avoid being targets themselves.

"We had all the rights to intervene but refrained in order to avoid clashes," Plovdiv police chief Ilian Yordanov told the AP. "However the time of our tolerance is running out," he added.

The troubles reflect growing unease in this impoverished Balkan country of 7.9 million residents. The economic woes have aggravated long-standing divisions between the Bulgarian majority and the gypsy minority.

The gypsies say the root problem is unemployment. The jobless rate among Bulgaria's 300,000 Romany population is about 70 percent compared to a national average of 18 percent.

Gypsies in Bulgaria have been fighting for better constitutional rights though the government had made efforts to promote integration into the wider community.

Human rights observers have reported that mistreatment of ethnic minorities, notably gypsies, have been a serious problem.

They have argued that the government does not adequately assist the homeless and other vulnerable groups such as children, especially among the gypsies.