The case of the 1990 miners’ raids in court

The trial of the miners raids of June 13-15, 1990 started on Tuesday at the High Court of Cassation and Justice in Bucharest. A former president and an ex-premier have been charged in this case.

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Florentin Căpitănescu, 20.02.2018, 13:23

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.