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PHOTOS: Nenko Stanev
Without a mourning ritual organized by the anti-epidemic restrictions, the memory of the 10 wars killed in the waters of the incoming Varbitsa river was honored. Family members of the victims, their friends and citizens of Momchilgrad laid wreaths and flowers at the monument erected at the place of death to commemorate the tragedy. Thirty years ago, 10 young people lost their lives due to a series of mistakes and negligence.
December 12, 1990 seems quite normal for the military unit near Momchilgrad. Battalions of tanks and motorized rifles have planned control shots in the field near the village of Balabanovo. Usually heavy fighting machines force Varbitsa. This day, however, the river arrived, its level is much higher than the normal 50-60 cm. Shortly before 9 in the morning 4 MTLB / lightly armored multipurpose transporter / and 4 tanks with 21 people leave the unit in them.
About 250m from the rope bridge near the village of Sedlare, the MTLB enters the river first. According to the statute, the tanks must force the river only after the other machines have left it. However, this is not happening.
At that moment a tidal wave hits. At 09.15 the machines are already uncontrollable, their engines turn off. 4 soldiers managed to reach the shore and ran to seek help from the unit. 30 minutes later, the situation is critical. The water rises rapidly and reaches a level of 3 meters, and the speed of the current exceeds 30 km per hour. Instead of jumping while the water was still 1.20 meters away, the military received another order: to wait for a helicopter from Sofia to rescue them. The boys are huddled in the housings of the machines. The local skirts cut the ropes of their wells to pass the fighters, but in most cases to no avail. The head of the Lyutvi Adem substation and the Nasko Chankov neighborhood policeman are tied up with ropes. They jump into the icy waters and thus manage to save three of the anguished.
At 10.30am there were still people alive who were screaming in terror, some of them miraculously escaping from the raging river. However, 10 children were swept away by the current. Lieutenants Ilian Popski and Rusin Samuilov, Sergeant Angel Ilkov, Corporals Velin Hadjiev, Zhelyazko Hristov and Ivan Yankov, Private Krassimir Kanev, Nikolay Sandev, Petko Petkov and Stefan Stefanov lost their lives.
Two military helicopters don’t arrive until around 12 noon, when it’s all over. Subsequently, divers were dispatched to the area. They managed to find only 2 of the people who were drowning. Two days after the tragedy, the body of Sergeant Angel Ilkov was found. The body of Lieutenant Ilian Popski was found on January 12. A year and 2 months later, two other half-decomposed bodies were found near the Studen Kladenets dam, almost skeletons, whose identities cannot be definitively established. One body was decapitated.
The remains were buried in the Kardzhali Cemetery in silence in February 1993, without military honors or ceremonies. Initially, there was a plaque on the grave with the name of the soldier Stefan Mitev Stefanov from Haskovo. Suspicions were that one of the bodies found was his. In 2008, the local non-governmental organization “Common Memory Initiative” placed a plaque on the unnamed grave with the inscription “To the soldiers fallen in the waters of the Varbitsa River – 12.12.1990”. But the blackened parents never recognized the place as the grave of their children.
During the investigation, at least 8 reasons for the tragedy were established. Among them are the unconstitutional behavior of the commanders, the lack of adequate solutions to the situation. There were no life jackets on the eight war machines. Inexperienced fighters who did not know the river stayed to drive the machines. The column of armored personnel carriers was led by Lieutenant Rusin Samuilov and the tanks by Lieutenant Ilian Popski. Both have 2 months of service and, according to the military, it was inadmissible to assign them such responsibility. At the same time, the company commanders go to the training ground by official bus and the battalion commanders travel in their personal cars. Locals claim that until late in the afternoon on the day of the tragedy, no one knew where the unit’s commander, Colonel Kabakchiev, was.
Witnesses say the 11 rescued owe their lives to their own initiative and to the courage of the local population. The 7 half-alive children housed in the district hospital are under surveillance, at first they are not allowed even the closest ones with the motive “military secret”. During the investigation, the defendant was not removed from his position and could have influenced his career. According to the lawyers, the charges were brought under a lighter article of the Penal Code.
The Plovdiv Military Court heard a case against the guilty commanders from May 1991 to January 1992. Four sentences were handed down. The commanders of the Dimchev and Andreev companies, who left for the bus, instead of driving their cars, were sentenced to a year and a half in prison each, and the unit commander, Colonel Kabakchiev, and the battalion commander Lepirev, received one year and 9 months of probation.
The military prosecutor did not protest the sentence.
Relatives of the victims wrote to the President and Commander-in-Chief Zhelyu Zhelev with a request for reconsideration of the sentence, but never received a response.
Today there are two monuments erected. One is in the already closed military unit, where access is restricted and the entry of persons outside the property of the Ministry of Defense is not allowed.
The other monument is located on the banks of the Varbitsa River, near the scene of the tragedy. Every year the memory of the victims is honored there. The monument is one of the best preserved military monuments in Bulgaria. The place is fenced, there is lighting, stairs and an alley. The Momchilgrad municipality regularly updates the monument itself, and additional plaques were placed this year, briefly describing what happened in 1990 and the names of those killed.
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