
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, February 28, 1991                   TAG: 9102280108
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: C9   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: SOFIA, BULGARIA                                LENGTH: Short

BULGARIAN COMMUNISTS TO RETURN $52 MILLION

The Communists who ruled Bulgaria unchallenged for four decades will return millions of dollars in property to the impoverished state, according to news reports Wednesday.

The former Communist Party, renamed the Socialist Party after the Communists were ousted in 1989, plans to hand back assets valued at about $52 million, Socialist official Blagoi Dechev was quoted as saying in the party newspaper Duma.

Former Communist strongman Todor Zhivkov is widely held responsible for leading this Balkan nation of 9 million residents into an unprecedented economic crisis. It has $11 billion in foreign debt and its people are suffering food and other shortages. Drastic price increases on Feb. 1 hurt retirees and others forced to live on as little as $15 a month.

Zhivkov, who was ousted in a Politburo coup in November 1989, this week became the first former East European Communist leader to go on public trial. He has denied charges he embezzled state funds worth $4 million.

- Associated Press

by CNB