Radio România Internațional

Tag: June 1990

  • June 13, 2018 UPDATE

    June 13, 2018 UPDATE

    ROMANIAN- FINNISH RELATIONS – Romanias President, Klaus Iohannis, on Wednesday received in Bucharest the visiting Finnish Foreign minister, Timo Soini. According to the Presidential Administration, the president underlined the need to boost bilateral relations both at political and economic level. Klaus Iohannis has also expressed confidence that the two sides will boost dialogue, in the run up to the two countries holding the rotating presidency of the EU Council in 2019. The agenda of talks has also covered such issues as the stage of preparations for the NATO summit due in Brussels in July, the European path of the Republic of Moldova (a former Soviet state with a predominantly Romanian speaking population) as well as the Iranian and North-Korean nuclear files, the Romanian Presidency has also announced.



    PRESIDENCY OF THE EU COUNCIL – Romanias Prime Minister Viorica Dancila has been invited to present before Parliament, on June 20, the stage of the preparation process for Romanias taking over the half-yearly rotating presidency of the EU Council in January 2019. The debates occasioned by the event could provide a considerable support in the governments process of drawing up and implementing the first blueprint of a presidencys working roadmap – the head of the Romanian government has added. The Romanian official believes the presidency of the EU Council will be an opportunity for Romania to prove its ability to contribute significantly, through a powerful vision and a relevant administrative capacity, to re-launching the European project.



    WORLD DEVELOPMENT REPORT 2018 – Over 80% of Romanias under-performing schools are located in the countrys rural areas, with a graduation rate in the tertiary education that exceeds 25.6%, the EUs lowest, the World Development Report 2018 issued by the World Bank shows. According to the document, made public in Bucharest on Wednesday by the World Bank lead economist and co-author of the World Development Report 2018, Halsey Rogers, the differences between the drop-out rates are contrastive; the rural drop-out rate stays at 26.6%, whereas the drop-out rate in the cities is around 6.2%. Romania needs to invest more intelligently in education, the report also points out. The World Bank recommends competence assessment in Romanias case as employers are presently deploring the shortage of key social-emotional competences, such as motivation, teamwork and responsibility. Graduates from Romanias higher education system are generally perceived as owners of exclusively theoretical knowledge while graduates from the countrys vocational training system have only developed obsolete competences.



    COMMEMORATION- Romania is these days commemorating 28 years since the violent events, which are now known as the Miners Raid on Bucharest over June 13-15, 1990. The raid put an end to a large-scale protest rally against the left-wing government, which had come to power after the demise of the communist regime in Romania. Against the background of some violent events in the capital Bucharest, which the army troops had already managed to contain, the then president Ion Iliescu invoked an attempted coup by the far right political forces and called on the citizens to defend Romanias democratic institutions. The Jiu Valley miners in central Romania came to Bucharest and stormed the University building, the head offices of the opposition parties as well as of some independent publications. Four people were killed and over one thousand abusively arrested. Romanias international image was seriously tarnished by the violent events of 1990. A court file on the Miners Raid was reopened in 2015 and the General Prosecutors Office sent to court several high-ranking officials such as the then president Ion Iliescu, former Prime Minister Petre Roman and the then head of the Romanian Intelligence Service, Virgil Magureanu, who are charged with crimes against humanity.



    CRIMINAL PROCEDURE CODE – The Romanian Senate, in its capacity as first notified parliamentary chamber in this case, on Wednesday endorsed a proposal to amend the Criminal Procedure Code. The draft, initiated by the Social Democratic Party and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats in Romania, in the ruling coalition, has not been endorsed by representatives of the National Liberal Party and the Save Romania Union, in opposition. The Senators have approved all modifications proposed by the report issued by the Special Committee on the Justice Laws, led by Florin Iordache. The draft is aimed to transpose the EU directive on the presumption of innocence into the national legislation. One of the changes refers to the destruction of evidence collected by making illegal recordings. The draft will be sent for debate to the Chamber of Deputies, which is decision making body in this case.


    TALKS -The Foreign Ministry in Bucharest has announced that it held talks with Ukrainian officials on the searches recently conducted at the “Eudoxiu Hurmuzachi Romanian Cultural Centre in Cernauti, western Ukraine. Emphasis was laid, during the talks, on the observance of the rights of the Romanian minority living in Ukraine. In a meeting held at the Romanian Foreign Ministry on Monday, the Ukrainian ambassador to Bucharest, Oleksandr Bankov, was requested to provide additional information on how the aforementioned searches had been conducted, Romanian diplomacy sources say. Bucharest calls on the Ukrainian authorities to ensure the observance of the Romanian minoritys rights and avoid any actions which could lead to the violation of these rights or which could be interpreted as elements of intimidation. These specifications come after Ukraines Security Service (SBU) has announced that it is investigating the board of the cultural centre for what it describes as “appeals to encroach upon the territorial integrity of the Ukrainian state. Approximately 500,000 ethnic Romanians are living in the neighbouring country, most of them on the Romanian territories annexed by the Soviet Union in 1940, following an ultimatum, and taken over by Ukraine as a successor state in 1991.(Translated by D. Bilt and D. Vijeu)

  • The Week in Review, June 12-18

    The Week in Review, June 12-18

    Political crisis in Romania


    The Romanian political scene is facing these days a crisis of unprecedented magnitude in nearly three decades of post-communist democracy. Here is how the recent events have unfolded: both members of the ruling coalition, the Social Democratic Party (PSD) and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats in Romania (ALDE), decided on Wednesday to withdraw their political support for Prime Minister Sorin Grindeau, a decision followed by the resignation of all Cabinet members. The Social Democrat leader Liviu Dragnea voiced dissatisfaction with the performance of some of the Cabinet members, saying that 60% of the objectives included in the governing programme had not been fulfilled.


    Liviu Dragnea: “The Social Democratic Party, together with our colleagues in ALDE, is prepared to form a new Cabinet, which will have a much better structured roadmap, including measures to make up for the delays so far. If we carry on like this, with or without Sorin Grindeanu as a Prime Minister, in 3 months time we risk seeing the governing programme a document almost impossible to implement.


    The Prime Ministers reaction, however, came as a surprise:


    Sorin Grindeanu: “I will not resign! And I can tell you exactly why! I have a responsibility towards Romania and the party I am a member of. I believe we should all feel responsible for this, and I most certainly do!


    Sorin Grindeanu has also stated that he will resign only if Liviu Dragnea resigns too, blaming the latter for the current political crisis, and only after the president of the country, Klaus Iohannis, appoints a new Social Democrat Prime Minister. Therefore, the Social Democratic Party has announced that Sorin Grindeanu will be excluded from the party and that, together with ALDE, will introduce a motion of non-confidence in its own Cabinet, the only way to force the Prime Minister to leave, given the latters refusal to resign.


    In the meantime, Romanias President Klaus Iohannis has called on the two coalition parties to find a solution to the internal crisis that led to withdrawing support for the Grindeanu Government. Here is the presidency spokesperson Madalina Dobrovolschi:


    Madalina Dobrovolschi: “The president calls for an urgent settling of the crisis that occurred inside the ruling coalition, in order to avoid political instability. Resolving this internal crisis is strictly the responsibility of the parties that make up the coalition.


    In response to the current situation, the Liberals, in opposition, have stated that they will decide what stand to take after a constitutional solution is found to the crisis. The Save Romania Union has called for early elections, and the Peoples Movement Party has stated that the Social Democrats should take responsibility for the failure of their governing agenda.



    Miners raids of June 1990


    Partly shadowed by the current political crisis in Romania, the case of the so called “miners raids of June 1990 came back to public attention exactly on June 13th, when Romania commemorated 27 years since the stifling of a large-scale rally against the left-wing power installed after the fall of the communist regime in December 1989. On Tuesday, 14 people, including Romanias first post-communist president Ion Iliescu and prime minister Petre Roman and the former head of the Romanian Intelligence Service Virgil Magureanu were charged with crimes against humanity. On June 13-15, 1990, against the background of some extremely violent clashes in Bucharest, which the army had already managed to stifle, president Ion Iliescu blamed the right-wing of attempting a coup and called on civilians to defend the democratic institutions of the state. In response to the call, miners from Jiu Valley came to Bucharest and stormed the University building and the headquarters of the opposition parties and of independent newspapers. The toll of the violent clashes of June 13-15 was four officially recorded deaths, hundreds of wounded and more than one thousand people arrested abusively. Romanias image abroad was severely damaged, too. The military prosecutors indictment reads that illegally involved in this attack were forces of the Interior Ministry and the Defense Ministry, Intelligence Service units as well as over 10,000 miners and other workers. Among other things, Ion Iliescu is accused of having ordered the army to use war armament and ammunition against civilians.



    New salary raises


    Now that the new salary law for public sector employees is about to be promulgated, several categories of public personnel that have not benefited from pay rises for a long time, will get more money too. On Tuesday, the Romanian Chamber of Deputies endorsed a bill under which the employees of public libraries, of the Agriculture and Culture Ministries, part of the public healthcare personnel, active military and civilian personnel with the Defence Ministry will benefit from increased salaries. Statistics show that Romanian employees salaries have increased by 13.4% on average in the past year, reaching the equivalent of some 520 Euro in April.



    The International Theatre Festival in Sibiu


    Sunday is the last day of the International Theatre Festival hosted by the city of Sibiu, in central Romania. For ten days, thousands of spectators have had the opportunity to watch some 500 performances and cultural events included in the festivals agenda. The entire city, but also other places across the county of Sibiu were turned into theatre venues, hosting some 3,000 artists. One of the special guests to this years edition was the famous Russian-born ballet dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov, who said he was very much impressed with the festival.


    (translated by: Mihaela Ignatescu)

  • The court case into the miner riots of 1990

    The court case into the miner riots of 1990

    14 persons have been indicted in connection to the miner riots of 13-15 June 1990, six months after the fall of communism. Some high-profile names that dominated the Romanian political scene at the time are about to appear before the High Court of Cassation and Justice: the former leftist president Ion Iliescu, the former prime minister Petre Roman, the former deputy prime minister Gelu Voican Voiculescu, the former director of the Romanian Intelligence Service Virgil Magureanu and Miron Cozma, the former trade union leader of the miners in the Jiu Valley coal mines, in the centre-west.



    The miner riots occurred less than a month after elections that had validated Ion Iliescu’s regime. Not everyone was convinced, however, that the latter was committed to democracy, the rule of law and a market economy, and many continued to voice their opposition in the street. Ion Iliescu said the right wing was trying to stage of coup and called on the population to defend the democratic institutions. Thousands of miners then came to Bucharest and stormed the University building and the headquarters of the oppositions parties and of some independent newspapers. Army prosecutor Marian Lazar explains:



    “These incidents occurred as a result of the diversion and manipulation of public opinion by the state authorities represented by the defendants, who presented the situation in a distorted manner and spread the idea that they were the product of a so-called far-right, legionnaire-type, rebellion. The protesters expressing their own political opinions were presented as criminals, extremists and reactionaries and described by the president elect of Romania as ‘hooligans’. The persons forcefully detained in the University Square and others believed to be connected to the protests were taken to police barracks, subject to unlawful arrests and held in unsuitable conditions. They were kept in detention without being formally charged until 21st of June 1990 at the latest.”



    Four people died from gunshots, almost 1,400 suffered physical and psychological abuse and 1,250 were detained for political reasons, according to prosecutors. Inquiries into this case were resumed at the beginning of 2015 following a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights that obliged the Romanian authorities to identify the people responsible. The initial case had been dragged on for almost 20 years before being closed in 2009 without anyone being found guilty. The people now sitting in the defendants’ box, in particular Ion Iliescu, repeatedly said they are not responsible for the events of June 1990. (Translated by C. Mateescu)