Radio România Internațional

Tag: miners’ raid

  • June 14, 2022

    June 14, 2022

    NATO.
    The President of Romania, Klaus Iohannis,
    is participating today, in The Hague, in a preparatory meeting ahead of the NATO
    Summit, the Presidential Administration has informed. The meeting was organized
    at the initiative of the Dutch Prime
    Minister Mark Rutte and the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Denmark, Mette
    Frederiksen, and will also be attended by the Prime Ministers of Belgium,
    Latvia, Poland and Portugal, as well as the Secretary General of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg. The meeting aims to
    coordinate the common positions and messages of the allied states in the run-up
    to the NATO Summit to be held in Madrid in late June. The agenda focuses on
    assessing the security situation in Ukraine following Russia’s aggression,
    continuing assistance to Ukraine, preparing for the Madrid Summit decisions on
    strengthening NATO’s deterrence and defense posture on the Eastern Flank of the
    Alliance, the negotiation process on NATO’s New Strategic Concept and the
    prospects of Sweden and Finland joining the Alliance.






    Visit.
    The President of France, Emmanuel Macron,
    is coming to Romania today to salute the 500 French soldiers deployed to a NATO
    military base since the invasion of Ukraine. France is leading the NATO Battle Group following a decision by the NATO defense
    ministers to strengthen the Alliance’s eastern flank. Paris has also set up a
    state-of-the-art ground-to-air defense system in Romania in the face of Russian
    threats. According to a statement from the Elysée Palace, from Romania
    President Macron will send a very clear message that France remains fully
    engaged with its NATO allies and other European partners. On Wednesday, in the
    neighboring Republic of Moldova, he will reaffirm Paris’ determination to help
    the country, one of the poorest in Europe and one of the most affected by the
    Russian invasion of Ukraine. This is Emmanuel Macron’s third visit to Romania
    since he became president of France and the first since winning a second term
    at the end of April.




    Protest.
    Romanian carriers are urging the government
    to urgently cap gasoline and diesel prices at maximum rates, following the
    model of neighboring states, and point out that new price rises are possible
    next month. The Federation of Romanian Transport Operators has announced that
    there will be protests at the entrance to gas stations all over the country. On
    the other hand, FORT welcomes in a statement the parliamentary legislative
    initiative to reduce the VAT on public road passenger transport services to 5%,
    but calls on the executive to do this in the form of an emergency ordinance, in
    order to have immediate effects.




    Commemoration. The Romanian Prime Minister, the Liberal
    Nicolae Ciuca, has conveyed a message on the 32nd commemoration of the so-called Miners’
    Raid of June 13-15, 1990, stating that ‘the marathon demonstration of civil
    society against neo-communism was suppressed by instigating some Romanians
    against other Romanians and Romanian society ‘should never again fall victim
    to diversions and false propaganda’. He has also said that Romania now relies
    on the stability and security given by its membership in the European Union and
    the North Atlantic Alliance. We owe it to ourselves to continue consolidating
    democratic values ​​and integrating Romania into the institutional architecture
    generated together with our Western partners, which offers, especially in such
    periods, the guarantee of security and well-being, the prime minister said, 32 years after the
    violent repression of anti-communist rallies in Bucharest by miners from the
    Jiu Valley (center-west), instigated by the left-wing power of the time.




    Football.
    The Romanian national football team takes
    on the Montenegrin squad tonight, in Bucharest, in the fourth or match of the
    current edition of the Nations League. The Romanian squad has been defeated
    twice so far, by Montenegro and Bosnia-Herzegovina, and has scored a victory on
    home turf, against Finland. The Romanian national team ranks last in the group
    led by Bosnians, who are also playing today, with Finland. (MM)



  • 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)

  • June 13, 2018

    June 13, 2018

    INVITATION Romania’s Prime
    Minister Viorica Dancila has been invited to present before Parliament on June
    20th the stage of the preparation process for Romania’s 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
    government’s process of drawing up and implementing the first blueprint of a
    presidency’s working road map – the head of the Romanian government has added.
    The Romanian official believes the EU Council’s presidency will be an
    opportunity for Romania to prove its ability to contribute in a significant
    manner, through a powerful vision and a relevant administrative capacity, to
    the process of kick-starting the European project.

    WB Over 80% of Romania’s
    under-performing schools are located in the country’s rural areas, with a
    graduation rate in the tertiary education that exceeds 25.6%, the EU’s lowest,
    a WB report on development in 2018 says. According to the document, made public
    in Bucharest on Wednesday by the WB lead economist and co-author of the report,
    Halsey Rogers, the differences between the dropout rates are contrasting; the
    rural dropout rate stays at 26.6%, whereas the dropout 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
    Romania’s case as employers are presently deploring the shortage of key
    social-emotional competences, such as motivation, teamwork and responsibility.
    Graduates from Romania’s higher education system are generally perceived as
    owners of exclusively theoretical knowledge while graduates from the country’s
    vocational training system have only developed obsolete competences.








    TALKS The Foreign
    Ministry in Bucharest has announced that it held talks with Ukrainian officials
    on the searches recently conducted at the Romanian Cultural Centre ‘Eudoxiu
    Hurmuzachi’ in Cernauti, western Ukraine. Emphasis was laid during the talks on
    the observation of the rights of the Romanian minority living in this country.
    During the talks hosted by the Foreign Ministry on Monday, the Ukrainian
    ambassador in Bucharest Oleksandr Bankov was requested additional information
    on how the aforementioned searches had been conducted – Romanian diplomacy
    sources have informed. Bucharest has called on the Ukrainian authorities to
    ensure the observation of the Romanian minority’s rights and avoid any actions,
    which could lead to their violation or to their being interpreted as elements
    of intimidation. These specifications come after Ukraine’s Security Service
    (SBU) has announced that it is conducting investigations involving the board of
    the cultural center on what it describes as ‘appeals to the violation of the
    country’s territorial integrity’. Roughly half a million ethnic Romanians are
    living in the neighboring country, most of them on the territories annexed by
    the Soviet Union in 1940 following an ultimatum and taken over by Ukraine as a
    successor state in 1991.












    COMMEMORATION Romania is these days
    commemorating 28 years since the violent events, which are now known as the
    Miners’ Raid to Bucharest over June 13th-15th 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, Ion Iliescu, the country’s president at the time, invoked an
    attempted coup by the far right political forces and called on the citizens to
    defend Romania’s democratic institutions. Miners from the Jiu Valley in central
    Romania arrived in Bucharest and stormed the University building, the head
    offices of the opposition parties as well as some independent publications.
    Four people were killed and over one thousand abusively arrested. Romania’s
    international image was seriously tarnished by the violent events in 1990. A
    court file on the Miners’ Raid was reopened in 2015 and the General
    Prosecutor’s Office sent to court several high-ranking officials such as the
    country’s former president Ion Iliescu, former Premier Petre Roman and the head
    of the country’s Intelligence Service, Virgil Magureanu. One of the charges they
    are facing is crimes against humanity.

    (translated by bill)

  • The case of the 1990 miners’ raids in court

    The case of the 1990 miners’ raids in court

    It took almost 28 years for the big case of the miners’ raids of June 13-15, 1990, maybe the grimmest episode in Romania’s post-Communist era, to be tried in court. Charged with crimes against humanity are, among others, high ranking officials of that time, the then president Ion Iliescu, the former PM Petre Roman, a former deputy prime minister Gelu Voican Voiculescu and the former director of the Romanian Intelligence Service, Virgil Magureanu.




    Military prosecutors claim that the state authorities orchestrated a violent attack against the protesters in the University Square in Bucharest, who were peacefully expressing their political opinions, which were opposed to those of the leftwing power, voted in the May 1990 elections.




    After the brutal evacuation of protesters on June 13, there followed two days when the Jiu Valley miners, called by the then president Ion Iliescu to defend the endangered democracy, bludgeoned the protesters to re-establish social order.




    According to prosecutors, involved in those raids, alongside the miners, were forces of the interior ministry, of the defense ministry and of the Intelligence Service as well as workers from several areas of the country, which was a profoundly illegal act. The violent intervention of those forces had a grim result: 4 people shot dead, as many as 1,400 injured and 1,250 deprived of the fundamental right to freedom.




    Moreover, the University building was vandalized just like the headquarters of the opposition parties and of the independent newspapers. The message the then president Ion Iliescu addressed to miners is quite eloquent about the way the authorities managed the events, quote: “I thank you all, once again, for what you have again proved to be these days. You have proved to be a powerful force, with a high level of working and civic discipline, trustworthy people in good or bad times” the then president Ion Iliescu said.




    For many, the opening of the miners’ raids case, last summer, 8 years after it was closed, is largely the result of the pressure exerted on Romania by the European Court of Human Rights. According to commentators, the miners’ raids of June 1990 marred Romania’s image abroad, as it dispelled the wave of sympathy Romania attracted after the violent December 1989 uprising. The savage images of the Romanian miners’ aggression were seen by the entire world.




    On the other hand, postponing the trial of the miners’ raids for such a long time, and also the trial of the December 1989 revolution, shows that Romania is still far from having reconciled with its own past.


  • June 13, 2017

    June 13, 2017


    CORRUPTION – Romanian prosecutors re-started the criminal prosecution of the former president of Romania Traian Basescu, for abuse of office in the so called Flora case, after judges with the High Court of Cassation and Justice admitted the request filed by the Prosecutors Office. The case was re-opened after a businessman filed a complaint, accusing Traian Basescu of having illegally returned, back in 2003, when he was the mayor of Bucharest, a 40,000 square meter piece of land. The commercial complex Flora was later built on that ground. The businessman claims that Basescu abused his office by endorsing the return of the property, and the damage is estimated at more than 100 million Euros.



    NSI – According to the National Statistics Institute, the average income in Romania went up by 1% in April, reaching the equivalent of 520 Euro, which is a historic record. The most significant increases were reported in relation to financial transactions and auxiliary activities, while decreases were recorded in the oil and natural gas extraction industry and in the pharmaceutical manufacturing industry. In another development, the number of pensioners dropped to under 5.2 million, and the average pension went up by 8.1%, reaching some 220 Euro. The pensioners/employees ratio is still 9 to10, which means that 10 employees support 9 pensioners.



    MINERS RAID – Romania is commemorating 27 years since miners raids of June 13-15, 1990, which put an end to a large-scale rally against the left wing power instated after the fall of the communist dictatorship in December 1989. Against the background of violent clashes in the capital, which the army had already managed to stifle, the then president of the country Ion Iliescu claimed the right wing had planned a coup and called on the population to defend the democratic institutions. As a result of the call, miners from Jiu Valley came to Bucharest and attacked the University, the headquarters of the main opposition parties and the offices of independent publications. Their raids ended in four deaths, hundreds of people wounded and more than one thousand people arrested abusively. Romanias image abroad was also affected by the violent raid of June 1990. As part of the investigation, restarted in 2015, the General Prosecutors Office has prosecuted the former president Ion Iliescu, the former Prime Minister Petre Roman and the Director of the Romanian Intelligence Service Virgil Magureanu, alongside another 15 people.



    RUSSIA – The main opponent of the Russian President Vladimir Putin, Alexei Navalny, was sentenced last night to 30 days in prison for staging unauthorized manifestations across the country, against corruption in politics. His main collaborators and the opposition politician Ilya Yashin were also detained. The largest number of protest rallies were held in Moscow and Sankt Petersburg, with thousands of people participating. The special police OMON intervened brutally when activists started chanting against the regime, and arrested some 2000 people in the two cities, including youth and even pupils. The US and the EU have condemned the arrests and have called on Moscow to release them.



    HANDBALL – Romanias womens handball team is playing today, away from home, against the Austrian squad, in the decisive leg of World Championships qualifiers. In the first game, on Friday night, on home turf, in Oradea, north-western Romania, the Romanians defeated Austria 34-29. Romania is the only country that has participated in all 22 editions of the World Championship, and in 2015 it won the bronze medal.



    FOOTBALL – Tonight, Romanias national football team takes on in Cluj, north-western Romania, the representative of Chile, in a friendly game. This is the first match to be played before the Romanian supporters after the defeat sustained in Warsaw on Saturday, when the national squad lost 1-3 to Warsaw, in the World Cup preliminaries group E. Poland is leader of the group with 16 points, followed by Montenegro and Denmark, both with 10 points, Romania and Armenia with 6 and Kazakhstan with 2 points. In the next preliminary match, Romania will play against Armenia, on September 1st. For the first time in its history, Romania is trained by a German , Cristoph Daum. He is increasingly contested by the Romania media, supporters and specialists, who say that he has done nothing to improve the performance of the national squad.




  • The Week in Review: October 19-24

    The Week in Review: October 19-24





    IMF experts are in Bucharest



    An IMF delegation has this week held
    talks with high-ranking officials in Bucharest. The IMF has forecast a budget
    deficit of 3% of the GDP in 2016 and also a higher rate for 2017, due to
    significantly slashed taxes and duties as well as pay rises announced by the
    authorities. The IMF has recommended that the deficit for 2016 be limited at a
    rate of 1.5%. Upon meeting president Klaus Iohannis, the IMF representatives
    voiced reservations about the approval of a new loan agreement. IMF experts
    have also briefed the senators and deputies in the budget committees on the
    talks with government representatives. The IMF’s only objections are related to
    structural reforms and a potential
    exceeding of the budget deficit. Prime Minister Victor Ponta has
    underlined that Romania will observe the 1.86% target deficit approved by
    Parliament. Romania’s latest agreement with the IMF, which expired in 2015, was
    worth two billion euros, but the authorities didn’t access any of the available
    funds.







    The Romanian Foreign Minister pays a
    visit to Palestine and Israel




    Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu paid an
    official visit to Israel and Palestine on Monday and Tuesday. Aurescu was
    received by Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah on Monday. The two
    officials tackled the present situation in the Middle East and the prospects of
    resuming peace talks with Israel. In Jerusalem, Bogdan Aurescu met with Israeli
    Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The Romanian official
    said that rebuilding trust was a prerequisite for resuming peace talks with the
    Palestinians and reiterated an appeal for defusing tension in the region. The
    two officials reconfirmed the privileged relations between Romania and Israel
    and tackled cooperation in various fields such as the military and cyber
    security. The Romanian minister also met with members of the community of
    Romanian-born Israelis.







    The Parliament in Bucharest hosts debates on postal voting






    A bill on postal voting is being debated
    upon in the decision-making Chamber of Deputies in Bucharest. The legislative
    proposal enjoyed a landslide Senate approval; both the Social Democrats, the
    main party in the coalition government and the National Liberal Party, the main
    opposition party, backed the bill. This
    kind of voting will be made available only to Romanians residing abroad, who
    will be casting their ballot in Parliamentary, Presidential and EU Parliamentary
    elections. Voters must enlist in the Election Registry a couple of months
    before the election. The document, drawn up by the Permanent Election
    Authority, provides for the setting up of a postal election bureau for every 10
    thousand voters. Organizational malfunction had prevented thousands of
    Romanians living abroad from casting their ballot in the presidential election
    of November 2014; many of them had been standing in queues for hours before the
    election booths, and didn’t even manage to vote for their candidate.







    Former president Ion Iliescu and other
    former high-ranking officials are indicted for the events of
    June 1990.




    Romania’s former president Ion Iliescu
    has been placed under investigation for crimes against humanity in a file on
    what is known as the Miners’ Raid on Bucharest over June 13th and 15th.
    The raid stifled a wide-scale protest rally against the left-wing government,
    which came to power after the fall of the communist dictatorship in Romania.
    Investigations have been launched in the same file against Virgil Magureanu,
    the then head of the Romanian Intelligence Service, former Prime Minister Petre
    Roman and also former ministers Victor Athanasie Stanculescu and Gelu Voican
    Voiculescu. Against the backdrop of violent incidents in Bucharest, which the
    army had already managed to contain, Iliescu invoked a far-right coup attempt,
    calling on the population to defend the democratic institutions. The
    president’s call was responded by miners based in Jiu Valley, central Romania,
    who stormed the University, some opposition party headquarters and some
    independent publications offices. The incidents ended in four official deaths,
    hundreds of wounded people and over 1,000 abusive arrests. Last year the
    European Court of Human Rights issued a decision asking Romania to carry on
    investigations in the miners’ raid of June 1990.







    The Romanian Government endorses the second budget adjustment this year

    The Romanian government has endorsed the
    second budget adjustment this year. According to a bill drafted by the Finance
    Ministry, incomes and spending will each rise by roughly 2.6 billion lei, with
    a deficit of around 1.85% of the GDP. The Ministry of Agriculture will get most
    of the money, about 770 million lei, while the social insurance budget fund
    will be enlarged in order to support the pay rises due to come into effect as
    October 1st. The Ministries of Regional Development and Public
    Administration, as well as the European Funds, Education and Labour Ministries
    will also benefit from increased funds. 1.61 billion lei are to be taken from
    the Transport Ministry but the National Railway Company and Metrorex, running
    the Bucharest tube network, will get additional funds. The Liberals have been
    quick to complain that funds have again been slashed from the road
    infrastructure.





    Public Sector employees whose salaries
    were cut in 2010 get their money back




    Under a recent court ruling, teachers,
    magistrates and public sector employees who won legal trials against the former
    government led by Emil Boc will get their money back, in the form of amounts
    declared by the court as enforceable titles. Prime Minister Victor Ponta
    announced the budget surplus this year allows for these payments to be made in
    advance, so employees will not have to wait until 2016. Public sector employees
    had their wages slashed by 25% in 2010 due to the crisis.