ROMANIA:Romanian prosecutors have indicted four retired high-ranking officers in connection with four deaths during a miners' riot in Bucharest in 1990, they said yesterday.
Former Romanian president Ion Iliescu, who ruled the country for much of the post-communist era, is under investigation for his role in the riots, which he has denied he engineered.
In June 1990, one month after Romania's first democratic elections following the fall of communism, demonstrators protested against Mr Iliescu's party.
About 20,000 coal miners came to Bucharest and six people were killed and more than 100 injured in riots that followed. Prosecutors indicted retired lieutenant-general and former interior minister Mihai Chitac, retired major-general Gheorghe Andrita, retired colonel Dumitru Costea and retired colonel Vasile Constantin for ordering their subordinates to shoot at protesters, causing four deaths.
The file against the officers has been sent to the Supreme Court.
In a separate file, prosecutors are also investigating the circumstances that led to the death of two other people and the temporary detention of 1,000 others. - (Reuters)
