Clinton Urges Bulgarians to Proceed on Path of Freedom

In the heart of a city where the distant rumble of bombs striking Serbia could be heard last spring, President Clinton thanked Bulgaria on Monday for its support during the war over Kosovo and encouraged the nation to persevere in building a prosperous and free society on the ruins of communism.

Tens of thousands of Bulgarians, drawn out of optimism and curiosity about the first American president to visit, filled a corner of Alexander Nevski Square. Just as the sounds of war could once be heard in Sofia, the president told the cheering crowd, “tonight, I hope the people of Serbia can hear our voices.

“We must help all of southeastern Europe choose freedom and tolerance and community,” he said.

The day is a prelude to Clinton’s scheduled visit to Kosovo today, the final stop on a 10-day trip to parts of Europe that were long neglected or held back by Cold War division.

Clinton’s activities Monday included conversations with the young, centrist Bulgarian president, Petar Stoyanov; a discussion with students; and the rally, which was punctuated by ringing church bells and fireworks under a full moon. Clinton hewed to the overarching theme of his trip: The future of Turkey and Greece, which he visited last week, and of all the Balkans, including Yugoslavia, lies in their political and economic integration with the rest of Europe.

“The Cold War was fought and won by free people who did not accept that there could be two Europes in the 20th century,” the president said, speaking soon after Europe celebrated the 10th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. “Now we must not, we will not, accept that there could be two Europes separate and unequal in the 21st century.”

Despite several false starts in shaking off communism, and a 12% unemployment rate, Bulgaria is showing signs of building a market economy and developing democratic practices.

But local residents, who arrived in some cases five hours before Clinton spoke, expressed hope that the visit would somehow boost the economy and make life easier in this drab capital.

“Everything is so expensive. Salaries are low, pensions small,” said 65-year-old Milka Hristova, her front teeth as brown and worn as the tired wool coat she wore. She clutched a small American flag and said, “President Clinton will help us.”

The White House announced that the U.S. Overseas Private Investment Corp. will take the initial steps to create a Southeast Europe Investment Fund to invest up to $150 million in regional businesses.

The Alexander Nevski Cathedral, begun in 1882, looms over the square, the 18 pounds of gold that cover its domes glinting in television lights. It is named after the Russian prince who was canonized for saving Russia from invading Swedish troops in 1240. He was the patron saint of Russian Czar Alexander II, whose army liberated Bulgaria from Ottoman rule in the 19th century.

About 20,000 people, and perhaps many more obscured by trees and darkness, covered part of the yellow-brick square and appeared to fill much of an adjacent downtown park. They cheered the president’s arrival, waved tiny U.S. and Bulgarian flags and the standard of the governing party, and shouted the president’s name.

An American flag and a Bulgarian flag--three broad horizontal stripes of white, green and red--stretched two stories high across a six-lane street on the square’s edge.

Standing on the bottom stripe of the U.S. standard, assigned to keep the flag from billowing in the chill breeze, Snezhana Popova, 28, said the war in Yugoslavia raised fears that more trouble was on the way.

“Yugoslavia is our neighbor, and everyone was afraid of being attacked by Yugoslavia,” she said.

Walking along Rakovsky Street on the square’s edge, George Yanchev, a 19-year-old computer science student at the University of Sofia, said he showed up because “an American president has never come to Bulgaria before, and I’m a little curious about it.”

But he wasn’t entirely supportive of Clinton’s policies.

Yanchev, who wore a Green Bay Packer jacket, said he originally approved of the U.S.-led war on Serbia, the dominant republic of Yugoslavia, to protect Kosovo Albanians, “but maybe they went too far.”

Bulgaria allowed U.S. warplanes to fly through its airspace on the way to bombing missions over Serbia.