DR DIMITER TZARNOMAROV HAS A RIGHT TO

SUFFER DETENTION AND VICTIMIZATION

Following the attempted assassination of Macedonian president Kiro Gligorov, a campaign of detention was enacted against the members of opposition political and their respective leaders. This was performed with the express purpose to limit and erode the functioning of the basic non-parliamentary parties whose popularity and influence had increased within the Republic of Macedonia because of discontent towards the Government's and the President's policies. Among the numerous examples arising from this repressive Government campaign, the detention and treatment of Doctor Dimiter Tzarnomarov, leader of one of the main opposition Parties (VMRO-Tatkovinskas), stands as an especially poignant example of state-sponsored brutality.

In 1990 Doctor Dimiter Tzarnomarov was vice-president of VMRO-DPMNE. However, in that same year he and a number of supporters resigned from VMRO-DPMNE and founded the Party VMRO-Tatkovinska. Doctor Dimiter Tzarnomarov was elected as its President and this same Party was represented in the former Macedonian Parliament by one deputy.

Dimiter Tzarnomarov was detained on 8 Mar, 1995 by the Police forces without charge or any evidence of wrongdoing and kept in the Police Department of Bitolya for more than three days, in complete breach of the Constitution laws of the Republic of Macedonia. During the police search of his house, all documentation and records of the political party VMRO-Tatkovinska were seized, together with any literature written in the Bulgarian literary language. Doctor Tzarnomarov's passport was also confiscated.

The Police at first steadfastly refused to admit to the friends and wife of Dimiter Tzarnomarov that he had actually been detained and would not offer any information on his state of health and well-being. During the three-days period he spent in detention, Tzarnomarov was subjected to both endless interrogations and physical violence, resulting in temporary injury to his eyesight. The interrogations focussed on the activities of his Party, his visits to Bulgaria and his contacts within the Bulgarian public arena. He was repeatedly abused because he self-identified as a person of Bulgarian nationality.

Following his release, Doctor Dimitar Tzarnomarov continued to be systematically persecuted by the implementation of sustained psychological harassment. He became subject to repeated intimidatory telephone calls; he was forced to report and sign-in daily at the Police Department of Bitolya - although he faced no charges. There was constant police surveillance in front of his home, and everywhere he went.

Simultaneously this program of persecution was combined with a constant smear campaign against Tzarnomarov in the pro-governmental press, where Dimitar Tzarnomarov is declared as being a Bulgarophile. As a consequence of all these events and physical treatment, Doctor Tzarnomarov suffered a heart attack on Jan 3, 1996 and was rushed to hospital.

Due to his social popularity, Dimitar Tzarnomarov has been asked repeatedly to visit Bulgaria, USA and Canada. These visits however now cannot take place since his passport has been seized, specifically to prevent him from contacting his international followers who support and sympathise with his stated political convictions.

Doctor Dimitar Tzarnomarov's has on repeated occasions, both orally and in writing, asked the Police administration of Bitolya, that his passport be returned. They reply that his passport shall be returned, but fail to state when this might happen.

It is now seven months from the date of his passport seizure, and still no answer is forthcoming. Accordingly, Doctor Tzarnomarov's lawyer petitioned the Republic of Macedonia's Supreme Court; but again with no success.

We ask that an urgent resolution of Doctor Dimitar Tzarnomarov's case be examined and that the respective authorities within the Republic of Macedonia cease their hostile campaign towards him immediately.