Experts tested even dill in the salads the rulers ate, but the common people received no warning, says Alexander Alexandrov - Mr. Alexandrov, who should be held accountable for the fact that the Bulgarians were not alerted about the radioactive cloud coming from Tchernobyl? - These were Grigor Stoichkov, then Deputy Prime Minister, and Chavdar Shindlerov, chief sanitary inspector. Both were sentenced to jail. To my mind, as head of state Todor Zhivkov also bears the blame. He has always been the man who took the final decision. Even from an ethical point of view we cannot accept the fact that when experts were testing even dill statesmen put in their salad, no one took the trouble to warn the common people. On May 4, when they reported to Zhivkov that the situation was really dangerous, he only nodded and said: "We'll keep quiet". Whereas it sufficed to tell people to wear gauze masks in the first days after the accident, to give elementary tips about washing fruit and vegetables several times or soak meat in water for 72 hours. In the army, for instance, they did take such measures and the impact was much less serious. - Today, the amendments to the Penal Procedure Code are a fact, these amendments restrict the functions of investigators. What kind of cases will be entrusted to your colleagues and what will be the prerogative of the inquiring officers? - On a pretrial stage the inquirers will take up more cases, e.g. embezzlements and document frauds. - And what cases will be entrusted to the investigators? - The gravest ones - murders, drugs trafficking, organized crime. Hopefully, the parliament will realize that it is necessary to empower the investigation to take up the cases involving human trafficking as well. This is the practice in Europe. author: Tanya Krassimirova, StandartNews
photo: StandardNews