Anyone who dares violate public order and provoke ethnic tension will feel the hand of the law, Interior Minister Roumen Petkov told reporters on August 20 after meeting President Georgi Purvanov. Purvanov asked Petkov to discuss the situation that occurred on August 14 in Sofia when about 300 Roma people gathered in the Krasna Polyana borough shouting "Death to Bulgarians". The Roma claimed that they had been constantly under attack by skinheads. Riots erupted and police officers and citizens were injured. Many motor vehicles were damaged, shop windows broken and properties ruined.

The Romas were armed with wooden poles and threatening anyone who passed near them. The riot ended by the morning. During the whole time, the police monitored the crowd but did not actively engage in the situation.

The Roma riot provoked harsh reactions, with President Purvanov and Prime Minister Sergei Stansihev asking for actions to be taken by the police to investigate the situation. On August 20, Petkov said that 35 people, of which 13 were Roma, had been officially warned by the police. Four Roma people were arrested in relation to the riots after the police saw the footage from TV cameras. "The conflict in Krasna Polyana is not a new one and will not end tomorrow. I just want to warn those responsible for it that police authorities will make them feel the hand of the law," Petkov said.

"There will be no such thing as a national guard," Petkov also said. He was referring to an August 20 statement by Vladimir Rasate, a little-known leader of a nationalist group Bulgarian National Union (BNU), who said that BNU will create a national guard that will protect people in times of riots, when "the authorities do nothing". Rasate even presented 12 people as already members of the future guard who were dressed in uniforms and boots resembling army uniforms from the late 1930s and early 1940s.

According to Rasate, the guard will be Bulgarians' alternative when the authorities do not fulfil their duties to protect them. "We are witnessing how Bulgarians have been terrorised by Roma for the past 17 years and all governments are to blame for that because there is no punishment for the perpetrators," Rasate said. The national guard will be formed from volunteers who will be trained by former military experts."

His call for a national guard was not well received by some of the minority groups in the country.

"Bulgaria should not allow the creation of such a thing as the national guard Rasate wants," Robert Gerassi, chairman of the Central Israeli Spiritual Council, and Maxim Benvenisti, chairman of the organisation of Jews in Bulgaria Shalom, wrote in an open letter addressed to Purvanov and Stanishev on August 20. "Formations such as the national guard could threaten the ethnic peace in the country very easily," the letter said. "Today this guard will protect Bulgarians from the Roma, tomorrow from the Jewish people and then probably from Armenians and Muslims."

According to Sofia mayor Boiko Borissov, the issue with the Roma is a social one, not an ethnic one. "By the end of the month the European Commission will provide three million dollars for Roma housing in the neighbourhoods of Krasna Polyana, Zaharna Fabrika and Batalova Vodenitsa. "It does not matter if we like the Roma or not, we should integrate them into our society," Borissov told reporters on August 21 after meeting Roma leaders. As for Rasate's ideas, Borissov's summary says it all. "These ideas are complete nonsense. This is a political messages aimed at the October 28 local elections."