Should Bulgarian Injustice Enter The
European Community
By Richard Salbato
Soon more
Eastern European Countries will be entering the European Community. The problem is that these countries have
grown up in 75 years of Communism and their mentality is not European. The big difference in Communism and Western
governments is that under Communism the state is always right and the people
are always wrong. Justice in this way
of thinking is whatever the state says it is.
"There is no God." Says the state, therefore there is no
god. You should work here because the
state wants you to work here, therefore working here is the right thing to do
no matter what you want to do.
The truth is
that after 75 years of this the people began to accept it as a way of life and
do not know there is a better way. Even
now with free elections and some form of democracy most of these countries have
elected communists to lead them. Law, justice, fairness, due process, human rights,
non of these things even enter into the minds of these brainwashed people.
Now with
open borders many Westerners are going East to visit and see what was closed
for many years. A Vacation in the East
will be half the cost of a vacation in the West. But is it the right thing to do?
Is it safe? Will the West free
the East or will the East harm the West?
The
unbridled desire of the European Union to expand for economic and security
reasons has left behind some common sense thinking. If Europe is one large united country like America under one
constitution, what happens when the laws and justice of the individual states
is totally different? What if Sony
builds a plant in Bulgaria for the cheap labor and the government simply takes
it over and makes it government owned?
This is the thinking of Eastern People and they do not understand
justice and freedom.
Is that even
true today? The following story going
on right now will show how the East thinks and why the West should not be so
quick to draw these people in a common government.
Bulgarian Justice
After
watching Liverpool win the Champions League final in Turkey, some Liverpool
fans crossed over the Black Sea to the resort town of Varna, Bulgaria to
celebrate the win. Partying went on till
5:00 in the morning and as is typical of football fans some were got very
drink, loud and sometimes abusive.
Somehow Liverpool fans and local Bulgarians had a conflict and as 20
year old Graham
Sankey from England
tells it:
"I had
been drinking lager for the better part of the day. In the evening I estimate I
drank nearly a full bottle of vodka and I was very, very drunk." He went on to say that three men with
bottles charged at him during a 5 AM brawl on May 29. "I panicked and
stupidly picked up a brick and threw it in the direction of the men running
towards me. I saw the brick hit one of them."
Later that
morning police came in the hotel of a different English fan was sleeping, 18
year old Michael
Shields, and arrested
him for Sankey's crime saying that he was recognized in the large crowd of
people having been the man who threw a "slab of tile" and hit the man
causing damage to his head and maybe even brain damage.
Michael
Shields told how he was kicked and slapped by police, pushed into a cold shower
and left to dry naked, bullied by other inmates and at one point chained to a
radiator. "When I came out of the
courtroom my head just exploded and someone
asked me what I felt, and I shouted 'Graham Sankey is the guilty man', I was
pushed down a tunnel and the police kept kicking and slapping me and telling me to shut up, to say
nothing."
Evidence
from a Bulgarian night porter at the hotel revealed that he saw Michael Shields
go to bed at 2:00 AM three hours before the incident. He said he was on duty the rest of the night and did not see
Michael go back out. Several
independent witnesses signed sworn statements supporting the fact that Shields
was not in the crowd at the time.
Before the trial started Graham Sankey's lawyer faxed his confession to the
courts admitting that he was the one who threw the brick and not Shields, who
was not even there. In spite of this
confession and witnesses proving that Shields was in bed at the time, the judge
sentenced him to 15 years in jail and a 70,000 Lear fine.
The speed of
the trial; the refusal of the judge to consider the confession, and other
evidence makes one have to look closely at the Bulgarian Justice System.
Will The West Free Its People?
The West has
a great deal of power in this situation.
Europe can demand justice or refuse Bulgarian membership in the European
Union. England can demand justice or
cut off all trade and games with Bulgaria.
The United States, who has given large foreign add dollars to Bulgaria
for their economic recovery from communism, could shut this off.
The West
should tell Bulgaria, and the other Eastern nations, that if their systems are
not fair and open legal democracies they are not fit enough to become members of
the European community. If you wish to become a member of a fair and
intelligent democratic community you must first put your house in order and
behave accordingly.
The Shields Case Could Open Eyes
The
Bulgarian people will see in the Shields case that the West does not allow
governments a free rain to do injustice.
This could open there eyes to their own injustices. The people of England are organizing into
pressure groups to save Michael. "People Power' is going to his
defense. This campaign is gaining
overwhelming support and momentum hour by hour and will soon become placed upon
the door step of 10 Downing Street for the attention of Prime Minister Tony
Blair.
The Vatican and other religious leaders of all faiths will follow their example
with a campaign to free Michael. At the World Youth Day in Cologne, Germany
this mouth will be thousands of flags, "Free Michael Shields" and
"Michael Shields Is Innocent".
Football
games all over Europe with hundreds of millions of viewers will have the same
flags in the large crowds. The
Newsmedia is already taking up the call to justice in England.
Freeing Michael is worth your getting involved but this can be more far
reaching in that it will show the injustice of many countries around the
world. Give your support and comments
to www.footballgiftsuk.com reference: Michael Shields (INNOCENT) – supportshields@footballgiftsuk.com. They are organizing an International
Students Peaceful Protest Day and are calling on all students throughout Europe
and in particular Bulgarian students and football fans to raise awareness and
support of Michael and his family. Not only must the Bulgarian citizens be made
aware of this terrible injustice but they must also realize how incompetent and
ignorant their government really is.
Do Not Support Injustice
We do not
associate with criminals in our towns and we should not associate with criminal
governments. Free people should not
trade or enter into any country where injustice is prevalent. Just governments should not give financial
support to governments who do not know the meaning of justice. Instead they should support the people who
want to get rid of the injustice.
Governments should answer to the people and not people to the
governments.
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Richard
Salbato is owner and publisher of Unity Publishing Inc. www.unitypublishing.com
, a weekly newsletter from Fatima, Portugal.
He can be reached for comment at unitypub@unitypublishing.com