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Second day of protests in Sofia ends peacefully amid heavy police control

Thu, Jan 15 2009 16:47 CET

byPetar Kostadinov

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The second day of protest outside Bulgaria's Parliament building, organised by university students, eco activists, farmers and pensioners ended peacefully, in contrast to the previous day when some participants clashed with police and 158 people were detained, Bulgarian media said on January 15 2009.

The January 15 protest, advertised by organisers as a forum for everyone to express discontent with the way Bulgaria is run, was well guarded by the police with checkpoints around Parliament. The checkpoints were put up by police in order to prevent people with criminal records joining the protests, to check people's identity documents and search for weapons, and in general to pre-empt any risk of conflict.

On January 14, a group of 15-20 people wearing scarves started throwing snowballs, and then stones, at police. Tensions rose sharply and when a municipal order was given to cut short the protest because of a bomb warning, there were clashes and arrests as police dispersed the crowd.

On January 15, MPs from the opposition joined the protests saying that they believed that their presence would discourage police from using force on protesters, Bulgarian-language Dnevnik daily said.

The third day of protest is scheduled for January 16 2009, again outside Parliament, starting 11am.

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