Why Romanians Died for Democracy

In mid-December 20 years ago, demonstrations against the communist regime of Nicolae Ceausescu broke out in Romania’s western city of Timisoara, lasting until 21 December, when a military coup succeeded in overthrowing the dictator, forcing him to flee the following day by helicopter from the Communist Party headquarters. Over 160 people were killed by the military in Timisoara, Cluj, Targu Mures and Bucharest, hundreds more wounded and around 2,000 arrested.

Though the Romanian public initially rejoiced at Ceausescu’s downfall, it was a brief celebration that lasted only a few hours before chaos ensued, as the military began a frenzied search for alleged terrorists, in the end killing over 900 people and wounding 3,000 others over the next two weeks.

Two decades later, an investigation conducted by military prosecutor Dan Voinea showed that top political and military leaders were culpable and had known the country was not threatened by so-called terrorists.

Voinea was dismissed earlier this year by President Traian Basescu, just as he was ready to officially charge the military and political leaders who succeeded Ceausescu for the December 1989 bloodshed.

For the victims of Romania’s communist regime, nothing has changed in the past 20 years, and nothing is likely to change any time soon, as the incumbent Basescu, of the Liberal Democrats (PD-L), has appointed former soldiers who shot at demonstrators in Bucharest and Timisoara to the number two and three spots in the Prosecutor’s Office.

At the same time, Prosecutor General Laura Kovesi, also appointed by Basescu, annulled the decision to prosecute those who killed anti-communist demonstrators in Targu Mures, when the statute of limitations for crimes committed under the communist regime runs out in 2012. This effectively means that the victims of the communist regime will have no chance of seeing any justice

Deputy Chief Prosecutor Tiberiu Nitu refused to comment to ISN Security Watch, but in a  handwritten statement external pagepublished by the ‘21 December’ NGOcall_made he admits to having fired on crowds in Bucharest.

At the same time, military prosecutor Adrian Nicolau denied in an interview with ISN Security Watch that he personally shot at people in Timisoara, but defended such actions, stating that “the soldiers had no other [alternative] but to shoot; had they chosen not to, there would have been repercussions […]”

Some were perhaps hoping that this month’s presidential elections would bring change, with the possible election of contender Mircea Geoana of the Social-Democrats (PSD). But that would be ignoring the fact that the PSD’s honorary president, Ion Iliescu, was investigated for his role in the violence 20 years ago, while he served as the de-facto leader succeeding dictator Nicolae Ceausescu; or that military prosecutor Voinea, who attempted to indict Iliescu in the case, was fired this spring from the Prosecutor's Office.

‘Continuum of mutual interests’

“There is no actual political right or left in Romania, but a continuum of mutual interests that bind together the politicians. And there is no before and after 1989, in terms of elites, but a seeping of the old guard of commies into the revamped political class and capitalists,” psychologist and manager of ActiveWatch media monitoring group Mircea Toma told ISN Security Watch.

“How else may one explain that neither Basescu nor Geoana challenged each other during the campaign on topics sensitive to the money-making deals for their cronies? They talked and talked about health and education, but kept quiet about the energy sector, for instance,” he said.

Indeed, Romanians had a hard time choosing between the two candidates facing each other in the run-off. The vote was split down the middle, with Basescu winning only some 70,000 votes over Geoana, out of the over 10 million votes cast.

Prompted by three concurring exit-polls, Geoana celebrated a slim victory on the night of 6 December, only to find himself contesting the results the following morning after the official count put external pageBasescu in the leadcall_made.

Basescu's first words to the electorate, despite his narrow victory, were: “Piece of cake. We machine-gunned them!” This, despite the fact that there is a external pagelarge majority in parliament that opposes the PD-Lcall_made.

However, by Sunday night cracks in that majority and signs of efforts to keep on the winning side emerged, with Bela Marko, leader of the Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania (UDMR), announcing that his party was ready to forge a new political alliance with the PD-L victors.

When ISN Security Watch asked Marko what he thought about the Basescu’s appointment of Prosecutor Kovesi who annulled a decision to prosecute those responsible for the December 1989 bloodshed (including the killing of ethnic Hungarians), he said he was unaware of those facts or that the statute of limitations for those crimes was about to expire.

But for many others, Marko’s move is little more than an attempt at ensuring that he and his party share a bigger piece of the power pie.

A week after the elections, a recount is still underway by orders of the Constitutional Court, and electoral officials are looking into opposition allegations of vote-buying and ballot-stuffing on behalf of Basescu.

But one thing remains certain, according to Toma: “The original sin stays with the judiciary.”

And three years after Romania’s EU accession, the EU seems to agree: It still keeps tabs on the country via its Cooperation and Verification Mechanism because of the lack of faith in the country’s flailing judiciary.