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| UNSOLVED FILES (26.07.07) |
| (2007-07-26) |
| Last updated: 2007-07-27 13:50 EET |
Iliescu was three times president and his terms in office were marked both by positive results and dark episodes. It was during his regime that Romania joined NATO, but this occurred many years after other former communist states joined the alliance. It was also during his mandate that the economy started to emerge free from state control, but this only came about as the privatisation process in neighbouring states had already come to an end. The rule of law began blossoming, but this only happened when the president renounced “oppressing” it.
Some analysts say the country was forced to pursue the rhythm of Iliescu's mentality. The former high-level Communist, loyal to Gorbatchev's project which defined a humane Communism, had a hard time espousing Western values, in a move which, some say, was merely rhetorical, and which spelt out as wasted years. And, more dramatically, it spelt out as lost lives.
Widely perceived as a leader of the 1989 Revolution which toppled Nicolae Ceausescu's dictatorship, Iliescu was voted into power at the first free presidential election, in an actual plebiscite. With the exception of a militant minority, nobody even noticed back then that virtually 1,000 of the revolution's 1,200 victims were killed after Ceausescu fled Bucharest and Iliescu was already at the helm of the country. 6 months later, miners in the Jiu Valley (central Romania) would leave behind at least 6 dead, hundreds of wounded and hundreds of people abusively arrested, after marching on Bucharest to respond to Iliescu's call. The latter was frightened by the frail right-wing opposition attempting to topple him by means of a coup.
It took a series of events, of which Iliescu completing the legal number of terms in office and his party’s joining the opposition, for the chickens to come home to roost. The former head of state was only recently placed under investigation at the Military Prosecutor's Office both with regard to the revolution dossier and the miners' riot dossier, but can now extend his de facto impunity.
Last month, the Constitutional Court, dominated by former Social Democratic Ministers of Justice, ruled that military prosecutors are not entitled to investigate civilians. And this is also valid for dossiers where they feature as accomplices or backers of crimes perpetrated by uniformed persons. Indictments have already been drafted for several generals involved in the 1989 repression and diversions, as well as the bloodshed of June 1990. They are one step away from court.
In exchange, the dossier part regarding the former president and his civilian henchmen will be dealt- with separately and assigned to prosecutors from the General Prosecutor's Office. This - victims' families fear - looks like a good opportunity to resume investigation from scratch and extend it with 17 more years.
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