$Unique_ID{bob00437} $Pretitle{} $Title{Romania The Provisional National Unity Council is Set Up} $Subtitle{} $Author{V. Lucretia, G.H. Calin} $Affiliation{News Agency Rompres} $Subject{square government national political council university hungarian parties representatives june} $Date{1990} $Log{} Title: Romania Book: Romania December 1989-December 1990 Author: V. Lucretia, G.H. Calin Affiliation: News Agency Rompres Date: 1990 The Provisional National Unity Council is Set Up Six weeks after the toppling of Ceausescu's dictatorship the Provisional National Unity Council was set up as prelude to the institution of parliamentary democracy that was to be sanctioned by the May 20 elections. In their February 1 meeting representatives of political parties and the NSF Council agreed on the creation of a Provisional National Unity Council. It was formed by restructuring the NSF Council so as to assure representation of people who had actively participated in the Revolution, of prominent scientific and cultural figures, workers, peasants, intellectuals, young people, students and national minorities, as well as equal representation of the parties created until that moment half of the total number of seats was assigned to the parties representatives each of them had three representatives seated in the PNUC. After the restructuring of the NSF Council as the highest body of State power and its separation from the Front, the latter became a political organization having its own structure and platform. On February 9 representatives of political parties and the National Salvation Front Council met in the first session in plenum which, following the consensus reached on February 1, consecrated the creation of the Provisional National Unity Council as law-making and State power body until the free elections of May 20. After controversial and heated debates in the first part of the founding session, representatives of political parties and the NSF Council consensually decided that the new law-making body of the country which was to function until the elections consist of 105 representatives of the newly-created parties and political formations, 106 representatives of the NSF Council, 27 representatives of ethnic unions and 3 representatives of the former political prisoners' Associations - i.e. a total 241-strong membership. They decided on the establishment of a 21-man Executive Bureau including the President, five Vice Presidents, 1 Secretary and 14 members. Mr. Ion Iliescu was chosen President, Messrs Ion Caramitru, Cazimir Ionescu, Karoly Kiraly, Radu Campeanu and Ion Minzatu - Vice Presidents and Mr. Dan Mar-tian - Secretary. Over its three months' life the Provisional National Unity Council passed 68 decree-laws in important areas of economic and social life, civil rights and freedoms and operation of State bodies. February 18, 1990. A genuine palace coup attempt was made on February 18 for the purpose of diverting the Romanian Revolution from its democratic objectives. A group of Bucharesters gathered in Victoria Square, pressing ahead political and social claims and criticizing the interim leadership. By the same time, a group of rowdy, club-wielding persons violently forced their way into the government building and took to smashing windows, maltreating and injuring military and policemen on duty there, devastating the building and offices of government members. Their display of extreme violence wrought considerable damage. On learning of those deeply disturbing events more than 4,000 miners in the Jiu Valley coalfield left for Bucharest they arrived the next evening and went to Victoria Square to defend the government building against the vandals. Having gathered to examine questions related to the February 18 violent bout, the Executive Bureau of the Provisional National Union Council ruled on working out a decree-law stipulating practical measures for efficient protection of State bodies, public institutions, all seats of parties and other political organizations as well as public order. They also demanded firmness on the part of order-keeping bodies in applying the rules concerning public rallies and demonstrations so that political destabilization attempts may be averted. MARCH 15-20 On the 142nd anniversary of the 1848 Revolution of Budapest the authorities of the Hungarian Republic had requested the Romanian authorities to permit the Hungarian ambassador in Romania to lay garlands at Nicolae Balcescu's and Sandor Pet"ofi's monuments in Transylvanian localities. The anniversary, however, served as a pretext to citizens of the Hungarian Republic who on March 15 crossed the border into Romania in large numbers and ostentatiously paraded the Hungarian state coat-of-arms in the streets of Satu Mare, Tirgu-Mure-s and Sovata. Moreover, they tore down Romanian sings of localities, commercial units and public institutions which they replaced with Hungarian ones, sang songs and shouted slogans apt to incite anti-Romanian displays. In Satu Mare nearly 4,000 Hungarians were present at the raising of the Hungarian flag on the Catholic Church tower and the desecration of the monument honouring Nicolae Balcescu, the Romanians' hero of the 1848 Revolution. The official sign, in Romanian, at the entry into this urban locality was replaced with one reading its Hungarian name. In Tirgu-Mure-s instigators availed themselves of the wreath-laying ceremony for hoisting the Hungarian flag and shouting anti-Romanian slogans. Such actions which obviously had nothing in common with a celebration and degenerated into overt attacks upon the national feeling of the Romanian people aroused serious concern amid the Romanian population. Those anti-Romanian chauvinist-nationalistic and revisionist provocations heightened tensions and intensified violent displays in Tirgu-Mure-s in the next days. The Romanian government took measures to restore quiet and public order in all localities in the zone. Their application, however, was undermined by acts of Hungarian officials which culminated in the March 18 appeal of the interim President Matyas Szuros to the Hungarians in Romania sticking to the idea that Transylvania allegedly is "an ages-old Hungarian land", he called them to increase their militancy and organize better. In the context, the point was reached at which the demonstrations that the Romanians and Hungarians of Romania had staged shoulder-to-shoulder in support of the December Revolution's ideals degenerated into extremist actions arousing big concern and aggravating strain and suspicion. On March 19 in the evening violent clashes erupted in Tirgu-Mure-s in which both Romanians and Hungarians were injured. The same as all people in this country, the government denounced violence and ruled on the application of measures capable to placate the conflict. Despite that, further clashes erupted the next afternoon which took a bigger toll. In the heat of the indesirable incidents in Tirgu-Mure-s seats of parties and political organizations were ravaged and a large number of victims (dead and wounded peoples) was made. Victims let aside, the interethnic clashes in Tirgu-Mure-s, tragic by themselves and portent of a tragedy whose dimensions may spill beyond the Transylvanian space, generated widely diverse reactions, becoming the source of political guesswork and recriminations that people in both countries and their governments traded each against the other. Whether deliberately - more often than not - or from a regrettable lack of knowledge the international media offered news meaning to accredit the idea of an anti-Hungarian pogrom. E.g. on March 20 an Irish tv reporter filmed a hair-raising episode: a man down on the ground kicked beastly until he remained almost lifeless. A terrific image that shook the whole world. The Irish reporter's film pretended the man down was a Hungarian maltreated by the Romanians. In reality, the man was a Romanian peasant of Ibanesti, a village near Tirgu-Mure-s, Mihaila Cofariu is his name, who surely was not beaten to death by his Romanian brothers. On March 20 the Executive Bureau of the Provisional National Unity Council established a parliamentary inquiry commission to investigate those regrettable in incidents. The commission, with help from local bodies and ethnic organizations of the Romanians and the Hungarians in the region, managed to appease the situation, bring the two parties into a frank dialogue and agree on the necessary measures. They conceded that the ethnic Hungarian's provocations which peaked in incredibly violent acts triggered a Romanian response which, unfortunately, was violent. Proof of the planned and studied nature of the Hungarian's action is the fact that in a region where the Romanians make up the majority population two-thirds of the victims' toll taken by those grisly incidents were Romanians. Our Prime Minister sent letters to the prime ministers of European countries, the U.N. Secretary-General, other high officials as well as to international institutions which expressed Romania's stand with respect to what had happened in Transylvania. In the context in which certain political circles, official Hungarian circles too, were inspiring grave acts of chauvinist-nationalistic and revisionist instigation against Romania, the government of this country showed that adequate solutions may be found to national minorities questions on the basis of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. THE UNIVERSITY SQUARE: APRIL 22 - JUNE 13 Starting April 22 illegal meetings were staged in Bucharest which hindered normal traffic and disturbed order in the area of University Square. Groups of people amassed in the area bordering on the Intercontinental Hotel, the National Theatre and the University were carrying signs showing the organizations present there: the pro-Democracy Independent Group, the December 16-21 Association, the People's Alliance Association, the League for Human Rights and Restoration of Freedom, the December 21 Association there were also representatives of the former political detainees' Association and of the Student League. The demonstrators shouted anti-government and anticommunist slogans. Floor-takers demanded, among others, resignation of the acting President Mr. Iliescu and the government, elimination of past structures, consideration by parliament of item 8 in the Proclamation of Timisoara and its introduction in the election bill, abrogation of the Ceau-sist law on the status of the Radiotelevision, annulment of the law that limits freedom of the press, and elections no sooner than the latter half of the year. The Provisional National Unity Council appointed a commission whose mission was to start a dialogue with the protesters and hear their demands, but its efforts got nowhere. Although on April 24 in the morning the police tried to restore conditions for normal traffic and the people's unperturbed way to their job, the human barricade made by political organizations continued to keep the city's most important thoroughfare barred to traffic and to disturb public order. The University Square sit-in continued. Claims multiplied by the day. The April 27 communique demanded: item 8 of the Proclamation of Timi-soara which prohibited holders of rather important offices in the communist party leadership from running in the elections for two terms should be adopted as amendment to the election Law a commission which should purge the government, the juridiciary and the procurator's offices of the communist nomenklatura free flow of information legislation of t.u. rights in keeping with international conventions in the field legislation of real university autonomy adoption of the decree-laws recommended by the December 21 Association for aiding the victims of last December repression immediate dismissal of the Minister of the Interior, Mihai Chi-tac. Since part of the protesters remained there overnight 12 tents were erected in front of the National Theatre. The first hunger-strikes were declared on April 30. By May 2 there were sixteen hunger-strikers. The sealed off precinct was declared "neocommunism-free zone". A tv statement of the December 16-21 Association on May 4 announced that the Association quit the University Square protest because attempts had been made to involve it in politically-motivated actions it also showed that the Christian-Democratic National Peasant Party was trying to manipulate the sit-in. On the 14th day since the beginning of this unofficial protest movement there were on the green lawn in front of the National Theatre about 80 hunger-strikers who continued their protest on the ground that item 8 of the Timi-soara Proclamation had not been assimilated into the election Law. On May 4, the PNUC Vice President, Ion Caramitru attempted to mediate a dialogue between representatives of the organizations involved in the University Square protest and the PNUC President, Mr. Ion Iliescu it was agreed that dialogue would start on May 8. On May 4 Mr. Iliescu met with a group representing the Timi-soara Society, the aim of those discussions being to defuse the political and social tensions emerged in Bucharest. The dialogue scheduled for May 8 could not start because not all members of the delegation designated by the University Square protesters arrived for talks and unacceptable demands were made. For all that, the opening of dialogue was not slammed shut on May 12 a PNUC delegation including Messrs Ion Iliescu, Radu Campeanu, Cazimir Ionescu, A. Ple-su, M. Dinescu, D. Haulica, N.S. Dumitru, A. V. Vita and S. Butnaru was ready for dialogue with delegates of the University Square protesters this time too, no dialogue could commence for the latter chose to be absent. Taking into account the Bucharesters' countless demands for normal traffic in the central area of the city as well as the need for sanitation engineering operations, on May 14 the city Mayor addressed those in the square an insistent appeal to leave the place so as to prevent its becoming a hotbed of epidemics. On May 21 the Minister of Justice and the Secretary-General of the government went there to hear the hunger-strikers' complaints and report them to the government. No dialogue could start as the two officials were forbidden from entering the zone where there were the hunger-strikers and the tense atmosphere in the square crippled any discussions. In light of the health risks assumed by the hunger-strikers, on May 24 the December 21 Association, the pro-Democracy Independent Group, the Student League and the Association of Architect Students issued a communique recommending in lieu of the sit-in a regular protest on the every 21st and every Thursday - a symbol day in the country's history. On June 11, a governmental commission met at the government building in Victoria Square with representatives of the protesters and of the hunger-strikers. The parties signed a protocol taking note of the hunger-strikers' decision to renounce their action. Leaders of the political demonstration in the square, present at the dialogue, expressed their discontent with the government's refusal to discuss questions of parliament competence as well as with the content of the protocol that ended the sit-in in the square by the parties' agreements. They threatened further violent protests and forced the signatories of the protocol to rescind on their initial agreement the same evening they started storming the government building in Victoria Square and the Television. In that situation, the Office of the Procurator-General demanded the Ministry of the Interior to take due action against violators of the law. BUCHAREST: JUNE 13-15 On June 13 in the morning an important police force was deployed in the zone of University Square for the purpose of restoring public order and returning to traffic streets and thoroughfares that groups of people with an offending behaviour had blocked for a long time. In the beginning, the mopping-up action did not create any incidents. Those in the square tried to react violently. Workers of the sanitation engineering department did their job so that traffic and life in the zone could come back to normal. Later, the police which was trying to end a weeks-long illegal demonstration found itself in a difficult situation. Compact groups of people who were hard to say which party or organization they belonged to break the policemen's cordons and re-entered the "neocommunism-free zone" police vans and cars in the vicinity of the zone were set ablaze the "rostrum" in the balcony of the University was re-activated and appeals were once again heard urging people not to quit the place and resist the police forces. A group of violent persons, wielding knives, crowbars and incendiary bottles, attacked the policemen and urged force. The rising tide of violence literally paralyzed the central zone of the city. A critical situation appeared at the Television were clashes lasted for hours. People forced their way into the building in large numbers, pilfering offices, destroying equipment and the filmotheque and maltreating the personnel. No broadcast for one and a half hours. Broadcast could resume only after paratroopers stepped into action. In the heart of the city, restaurants, cafeterias and shops were looted. The headquarters of the police and the Ministry of the Interior were set afire rioters stole fire arms. In that situation the President of Romania addressed a tv appeal to all democratic forces of the country, calling them to "aid in the liquidation of the Iron Guardist rebellion and cooperate with order-keeping forces and the army to the end of restoring order, isolating and arresting the extremists". On June 13 in the evening forces of the Ministry of National Defence moved into action to defend the government headquarters, the Television, the Radio, the Telephone Palace and other buildings, seeking to neutralize the violent rioters who had attacked fundamental institutions of the country and ordinary people. Together with order-keeping forces thousands of people stood guard at the government building in Victoria Square. The next day at dawn two trains carrying a first contingent of 3,000 miners arrived in Bucharest. Before noon, many people from Constan-ta, Craiova, Boto-sani and R-esi-ta were already here joining their countrymen from Arge-s, Giurgiu and Prahova who had already been in University Square. In the meantime, the miners' contingent had soared to 10,000 people. While the military were defending the major institutions in the city and the police forces their seats, miners took to "mopping up" operations in the central zone they were checking cars and passers-by going as far as to arrest a number of persons, mainly students, whom they suspected of participation in the violent outbreaks of June 13. Regrettable abuses were committed. Force, sometimes incredibly brute force, was the characteristic of what happened on June 14 and 15, and to an equal extent, of the events on June 13. Lots of people were injured, hundreds of men and women - many of them innocent - were arrested. Miners got the nickname of the unofficial arm of repression. The communique issued by the government showed that "the police, misreading the government's tolerant attitude, displayed weakness, indecision and lack of professionalism". It also explained that on the backdrop created on June 13 "the government had to apply to people's support so that large-scale bloodshed and disorder could be averted". At the press conference that followed those tragic events (June 13-15) the Prime Minister said that "they had been fomented by well-organized Iron Guardist groups that had jumped into action according to a pre-established plan intending to disrupt the life of the country and remove its legal leadership". As concerns the miners and the risk that they supplant the order-keeping forces, the Prime Minister showed that neither the government nor other echelon of power had explicitly called them into the capital. In the face of the soaring tide of violence their reaction was predictable. They arrogated a number of prerogatives and acted without any possibility of control over them. Since violence commonly breeds violence, abuses were also committed on June 14-15 when public order was being restored - i.e. persons who were not directly involved in the events were subject to molestation and seats of parties and public institutions (the University) were devastated all such acts run counter to the principles of law. Taking into consideration that the mid-June events caused human victims (dead and wounded people) and considerable damage, that they did serious harm to our sociopolitical life, to our transition to the civic society and the State of law, Romania's Parliament decided on the creation of an inquiry commission to investigate the causes and conditions that had generated and facilitated those events.