Bulgarians Protest Base Deal With U.S.
By VESELIN TOSHKOV
Associated Press Writer
April 27, 2006, 8:37 AM EDT
SOFIA, Bulgaria -- Thousands of Bulgarians demonstrated Thursday against a deal to allow U.S. troops to use military facilities in the country.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who was expected to arrive in Bulgaria later Thursday for a meeting of NATO foreign ministers, is to sign the agreement Friday with her Bulgarian counterpart, Ivailo Kalfin.
Under the deal, seen as part of a broader U.S. military strategy of shifting troops based in Europe farther east, up to 2,500 U.S. troops would be deployed in the Balkan country on a rotational basis.
The rally against the plan was organized by an ultranationalist party called Attack and drew several thousand people to a park a few hundred meters (yards) from the venue for the NATO meeting.
The protesters shouted, "Yankees Go Home," and waved banners that read, "Condi, ask the Bulgarian people" and "U.S. bases War."
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