Mineriad
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The mineriads (
January 1990 mineriad
28 January
After the
Even though the anti-Communist demonstration started out (and was intended to be) non-violent, the protesters charged the Parliament building and demanded the resignation of the FSN party. After that, the FSN started talks with the parliamentary opposition parties.[citation needed]
29 January
The miners boarded the trains at Gara de Nord and departed to their homes, but not before President Ion Iliescu thanked them for their services.
February 1990 mineriad
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Less than a month after the January mineriad, another anti-Communist manifestation took place in Bucharest on February 18. Despite the demonstrators' pleas to non-violence, several persons started throwing stones into the Government building. Riot police and army forces intervened to restore order, and on the same night, 4,000 miners headed to Bucharest.
Opposition leaders and independent media speculated that the demonstration was manipulated by the Securitate and the FSN. Miners maintained their relative innocence of the violence, claiming that the agitation and most of the brutality was the work of Iliescu’s government agents who had infiltrated and disguised themselves as miners.[1]
June 1990 mineriad
The Romanian miners of the Jiu Valley were called by the newly elected power to Bucharest to end the riots that broke up on 13 June 1990. As President Ion Iliescu put it, the miners were called to save the "besieged democratic regime" and restore order and democracy in Bucharest. The government trucked in thousands of miners from the Jiu Valley to Bucharest to confront the demonstrators. The rest of Romania and the world watched the government television broadcasts of miners and other unionized workers brutally grappling with students and other protesters.
Over the course of a month-long demonstration in
The official figures state that during the third mineriad, seven people were killed and more than a thousand were wounded.[
Government inquiries would show that the miners had indeed been "joined by vigilantes who were later credibly identified as former officers of the Securitate", and that for two days, the miners had been aided and abetted by the former Securitate members in their violent confrontation with the protesters and other targets.[2]
September 1991 mineriad
24 September
On September 24, 1991, the miners from the Jiu Valley began a general strike and requested that Prime Minister Petre Roman visit Petroșani to listen to their grievances. The trade union leader Miron Cozma warned representatives of the Government that if the miners' dissatisfactions were not resolved as demanded, the miners will come in large numbers to Bucharest. During this time the sub-prefect, Ionel Botoroaga, and the director of the Autonomous Directorate of Oil, Benone Costinaș, were assaulted in the Petrosani town hall. A group of miners then went to the Petrosani train station, where they demanded and were refused the use of trains for the miners to travel to Bucharest.[citation needed]
25 September
On the morning of September 25, around 10.00 am, the miners from the Jiu Valley arrived at
26 September
On September 26, the miners attacked the Government building with new forces and called for the Government to be dismissed. Representatives of the miners met for private talks with government officials. Miron Cozma threatened that if by 12:00 PM the resignation of the prime minister was not announced, he would call 40,000 trade unionists from Pipera, adding that probably no one wants a civil war. At 12:00, Alexandru Bârlădeanu, the president of the Senate, announced on the public television the dismissal of the Romanian Government. The mining union leader asks the miners to go home because their claims have been resolved. In the afternoon of that day, the miners entered the Assembly Hall of the Assembly of Deputies and requested the resignation of President Ion Iliescu and the resolution of all the claims for which they came to Bucharest. Following discussion, the miners returned to the Jiu Valley with the promise made that their demands would be addressed. Two days later Miron Cozma and the president of the country Ion Iliescu signed a statement that formally ended the mineriad.[citation needed]
January and February 1999 mineriads
The Jiu Valley miners
On 14 February 1999, Cozma was found guilty for the 1991 mineriad and sentenced for 18 years in prison. The miners led by Cozma left for Bucharest attempting a new mineriad, only this time they were stopped by the police at Stoenești, Olt. In the clash that followed, 100 policemen and 70 miners were wounded and at least one miner died. Cozma was arrested and sent to a prison in Rahova.
Legal issues
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Ion Iliescu pardoned Cozma's sentence on December 15, 2004, a few days before his term ended, but revoked the decision two days later, having faced the outrage of Romanian and international media and politicians.
Cozma successfully challenged the legality of the withdrawal of the pardoning, and on the 14th of June 2005 he was freed by the Judge Court of Dolj county. However, on September 28, 2005, Cozma was sentenced by the Romanian High Court of Cassation and Justice to serve 10 years in prison for the January 1999 Mineriad, which included time already served. His request to be released on parole was denied on June 2, 2006. After serving the full term, Cozma was finally released on 2 December 2007, but was restricted from returning to either Petroșani or Bucharest.
See also
References
- ^ [1] Archived 2017-05-15 at the Wayback Machine History of Jiu Valley Mineriads
- ^ a b c "Chapter 25: The Security Services since 1989: Turning over a new leaf." Deletant, Dennis. Romania since 1989: politics, economics, and society. Carey, Henry F., ed. Lexington Books: Oxford. 2004. Page 507. Archived 2012-11-05 at the Wayback Machine
- Academia Caţavencu, 13-15 Iunie: Trei zile cu ghinION, no. 16/2005, 27 April 2005.
- Mineriadă (1990-1999) - Portal Valea Jiului (cu video si foto arhiva digital)
- Mineriadă (1990-1999) - Video si Foto Arhiva Digital
- CRONICA TV. Adevărul despre mineriada din ’91, țărăniști și Iliescu, 27 septembrie 2011, Adrian Pătrușcă, Evenimentul zilei
- VIDEO Petre Roman: A existat o legătură cauzală între puciul de la Moscova și mineriada din septembrie, 20 august 2011, Ciprian Stoleru, Historia
External links
- Jiu Valley Portal History, timelines and digital archives of the Jiu Valley Mineriads
- (in Romanian) Information about the first three mineriads
- Digital video and photo archives of the Mineriads
- (in Romanian) About Mineriad - Miron Cozma Interview