December 23, 2016 UPDATE

THE 1990 MINERS RAIDS FILE – Several former Romanian dignitaries, among whom the former president Ion Iliescu, the former prime minister Petre Roman and the former head of the Romanian Intelligence Service, Virgil Magureanu, on Friday were accused of crimes against humanity in the file “The Miners Raids of June 13-15, 1990. According to the prosecutors, the accused masterminded, organised and coordinated a generalised and systematic attack on those protesting in downtown Bucharest against the leftist Power, which ruled the country after the fall of the communist dictatorship in December 1989, as well as on the population of the capital city. The prosecutors claim that participating in the attack were forces of the Interior Ministry, the Defence Ministry and the Romanian Intelligence Service, adding to over ten thousand miners and workers coming to Bucharest from several regions of the country. Against the backdrop of violent incidents, that the Army had already stifled, the then president, Ion Iliescu, mentioned an attempted coup by the far right and called on the population to defend the democratic institutions. The Jiu Valley miners raids on Bucharest, where they stormed the University, the headquarters of the opposition parties and the offices of several independent newspapers, left four people dead and 1,200 injured. In 2014, the European Court of Human Rights issued a ruling imposing on Romania to continue investigations in the Miners Raids of June 1990 file.

Newsroom, 23.12.2016, 12:30

POSTPONED DESIGNATION OF PM – Romanias President Klaus Iohannis has postponed until after Christmas the designation of a new Prime Minister. He made the announcement after consultations held on Wednesday and Thursday with representatives of the political parties that made it to Parliament following December 11th legislative elections. The coalition made up of the Social Democratic Party and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats has proposed for the office of prime minister the Social Democrat Sevil Shhaideh, a former Development Minister and the proposal of the Peoples Movement Party was Eugen Tomac. The National Liberal Party and the Save Romania Union have announced that will stay in the opposition and will not support a government formed around the Social Democratic Party. The Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania has signed a parliamentary collaboration agreement with the majority coalition.

RADIO AND TV LICENCE FEE– Romanias President, Klaus Iohannis, has called on Parliament to reassess the law on the elimination of several taxes and of the radio and TV licence fee, because, although the law has been declared constitutional, its reassessment is necessary given the impact on the Romanian citizens. According to a communiqué issued by the Presidential Administration, the reduction of taxes should be accompanied by the improvement of administrative procedures and budgetary discipline. As regards the television and radio public media services, the president says the problems these institutions have been facing are old and systemic, and they are mainly generated by the legislative framework which regulates their functioning. According to the Romanian president, the debate on the elimination of the two licence fees and covering from the budget the functioning costs of the two radio and television public media services cant be limited to a simple question, namely whether or not it is necessary to collect a fee to support these institutions. The elimination of the radio and TV licence fee has been harshly criticised by Romanian and international media organisations which say the measure will affect the editorial autonomy of the two public media services.

COMMEMORATION – A mass commemorating the martyr heroes of the 1989 anti-Communist revolution in Romania was held on Friday morning at Otopeni Airport near Bucharest. 27 years ago, 40 of the 82 soldiers sent to enhance security at Otopeni airport died, killed by the airport local security, who thought they were terrorists. 8 civilian airport employees, who were on their way to work by bus were also killed in the accidental shooting. The anti-Communist revolt started 27 years ago in Timisoara, western Romania, to then quickly spread all across the country. Over December 23-25, dictators Nicolae and Elena Ceausescu were caught, tried and executed. More than 1,000 people died in the revolution, and some 3,400 were wounded. Romania was the only country in the Eastern Bloc where the regime was changed violently and its communist leaders were executed.

ALL POINTS BULLETIN – In Romania, the former Social– Democrat MP Sebastian Ghita, prosecuted for corruption and subject to legal restrictions pending trial, has disappeared and is now wanted by authorities. The Interior Minister Dragos Tudorache has called on the head of the police to carry out an internal investigation into the circumstances under which Ghita disappeared. The former MP, a close collaborator of the former Prime Minister Victor Ponta, is banned from leaving the country and must present himself to the police once a week. He is being prosecuted, among other things, for bribe-giving, influence peddling, money laundering and blackmail.

SWEARING IN CEREMONY – The President -Elect of the Republic of Moldova, the pro-Russian Socialist Igor Dodon, officially started his term in office on Friday, in a solemn Parliament session. Dodon announced that his first visit abroad will be to Moscow, where he will try to resume the strategic partnership with the Russian Federation. Domestically, Igor Dodon will oppose the pro-Europe government in Chisinau and will try to dissolve Parliament in order to force early parliamentary elections. During his election campaign, Dodon said that his first decree would annul a law endorsed by parliament, under which the loan granted to the banking system in 2014 as a result of a 1 billion dollars embezzlement was turned into state debt. His announced priorities include banning the organisations that plead for the unification of the Republic of Moldova with Romania.

SAFETY AND SECURITY MEASURES – The Romanian Interior Ministry has announced that some 22,000 police, fire fighters and gendarmes will be mobilised every day across Romania during the Christmas holidays. Also, the border police will operate at full capacity in order to reduce the waiting time for those who travel across the border. In Romanias mountain resorts, some 200 gendarmes will join the existing squads in order to be able to rapidly intervene should the tourists need it, the Interior Ministry has also stated.

BERLIN ATTACK – The suspected perpetrator of the Berlin attack, the 24 year old Tunisian Anis Amri, was shot dead on Thursday to Friday night by the Milan police, the Italian Interior Ministry has announced. An international warrant had been issued for his arrest. He was fatally shot after firing at police who had stopped his car for a routine identity check. The Tunisian had connections with members of the Islamic State terrorist organisation, which claimed the attack in Berlin. We recall that the perpetrator drove a truck into a packed Christmas market in Berlin, Germany, on Monday, killing 12 people and injuring 48. In another move, on Thursday night, German police officers arrested two men suspected of having planned an attack on a shopping centre in Oberhausen, in the west, one of the largest shopping areas in Germany.

HIJACKING – A Libyan plane with 118 people on board, on a domestic flight, landed in Malta, after having been hijacked. At the end of hours of negotiations with the Libyan authorities, the two hijackers released the passengers, the crew-members and turned themselves in. According to international news agencies, they are allegedly loyalists to former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.(Translated by M.Ignatescu and Diana Vijeu)