Macedonia Unveils Monument of Drowned Bulgarian Tourists

Pictured: the sunken tourist boat Ilinden that claimed 15 Bulgarian lives in the Ohrid Lake. Photo by BGNES

A monument in memory of the 15 Bulgarian tourists who drowned in the Ohrid Lake a year ago was open in the center of the Macedonian city of Ohrid on Saturday.

The monument has been open after a minute of silence for the Bulgarian citizens who found their death on September 5, 2009 in the sinking of the antiquated tourist boat Ilinden.

Many relatives of the dead and some of the survivors laid flowers at the monument, which construction was an initiative of the rotary clubs in Ohrid and the Bulgarian town of Pirdop, which is the hometown of most of the Bulgarians who perished after the Ilinden tourist boat sank in the Macedonian lake. 

"There is no way we can erase that pain from our hearts," said Nikola Filev, Chair of the Rotary Club in Ohrid.

The Chair of the Rotary Club in Pirdop, Vasil Kafedzhiev, has expressed his gratitude to all the people who have contributed for the building of the monument.

The Macedonian authorities have charged over the incident the captain of the ship Sotir Filevsk and the representative of the German insurance company Lloyd Branko Baic from Croatia the trial has not started yet.

The parallel investigation in Bulgaria has stalled, allegedly because of missing documents that the Macedonian authorities have to provide.

The versions about the cause of the sinking of the ship have to do with overloading (allowing 56 people on board with a maximum of 43 allowed), a torn balancing rope, incorrect distribution of the people on board, and mistakes by the captain.

The Bulgarian organizer of the ill-fated trip of 50 tourists to Ohrid a year ago, Boryana Georgieva, has already been sentenced for carrying out business activities in violation of the Tourism Act. She was sentenced to pay a fine of BGN 4 500, and was banned from commercial activity for 2 years.

The Ilinden vessel was produced in 1924 in Regensburg, Germany, as a military boat later refashioned into a tourist ship. Its last technical check had been carried out by Lloyd in May 2009.

Bulgaria has awarded medals and citizenship to the Macedonians who took part in the rescuing of the drowning tourists, most of whom came from the town of Pirdop. 

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