Sofia / Bulgaria (RNN Correspondent) 05.05.1998

Bulgaria is planning moves to promote integration of its large, impoverished and often ostracised Roma population, officials said on Tuesday, admitting they had a tough task.

Many Bulgarian Roma, largely uneducated and unemployed.

Now Bulgaria's National Ethnic and Demographic Council is drafting a programme in cooperation with Roma representatives to improve the lot of Roma and the way they are viewed, secretary Petar Atanassov told a news conference.

"The National Council together with representatives of Roma organisations will draft a government programme which will serve as a base of the country's policy in this delicate sphere," he said.

But he added: "We are far from thinking that centuries-old prejudices can be overwhelmed within two or three years."

A report on Human Rights Practices in Bulgaria for 1997 by the U.S. State Department said "societal mistreatment of Roma " was a serious problem.

The report listed cases of police beatings and ill-treatment of Roma which it said had resulted in several deaths. The report also described cases of attacks by private citizens on Roma communities. Atanassov said a Roma culture and information centre woul d be opened soon to promote education among the Roma and help find proper jobs for them.

A 1992 census found that more than 600.000 Roma -- 7 percent of Bulgaria's population -- live in the mostly Slav Balkan state of 8.5 million.

After the collapse of communism in 1989 they lost access to jobs previously reserved for them.

Leaders of Roma organisations complain Roma are not wanted for any jobs.

"Private enterprises do not take Roma. They even warn the labour exchange offices Roma were not wanted," Mladenov said.