No Reforms in Romania, Hard-Line Leader Vows : East Bloc: Communism ‘has proved its might,’ Ceausescu tells party congress.

President Nicolae Ceausescu, refusing to heed the calls for reform that are sweeping through Romania’s East Bloc allies, told the opening session of a Communist Party conference Monday that his nation will remain committed to its hard-line brand of socialism.

“We can and we must assess most strongly the fact that socialism has proved its might and creative capability,” Ceausescu said in a five-hour speech to the 3,308 delegates assembled for another show of complete submission to his leadership.

“Socialism is the future of the whole of mankind, and we must do our utmost to build a world free of exploiters, of oppressors, in which the peoples should live in full liberty and independence and secure their welfare and happiness,” the official Romanian news agency Agerpres quoted Ceausescu as saying.

The delegates unanimously elected Ceausescu chairman of the six-day congress, unanimously re-elected its Politburo and unanimously adopted an agenda that included Ceausescu’s report, Agerpres said.

When their 71-year-old leader invoked Romania’s determination to defend its independence or praised the Communist Party, the delegates rose as one to chant, “Romania! Communism! Ceausescu! Heroism!” or “Ceausescu, Romania and the Romanian Communist Party!”

Delegates clapped in unison during these outbursts, some of which lasted nearly a minute. At a wave from Ceausescu, who has been in power 24 years, they stopped abruptly and sat down.

His wife, Elena, and son, Nicu, both senior party officials, gazed stolidly from a stage full of ranking functionaries as Ceausescu exhorted the party’s 3.8 million members to build communism.

In Romania, he said, there will be “still more powerful growth of the party’s leading role,” and the state’s already pervasive presence “will even grow in the organization and management” of the nation.

“The party cannot give up its revolutionary responsibility,” he declared. “It cannot surrender its historical mission to another force.”

His clear reference was to reform in the Soviet Union, radical change in Poland and Hungary and the fall of orthodox Communist regimes in East Germany and Bulgaria.

Romania is a regular target at international human rights meetings for suppressing dissent and restricting religious freedom. Adding to the misery of the nation’s 23 million people are years of shortages that have led to poorly stocked grocery stores, cold apartments and cars without gasoline.

To protest Ceausescu’s human rights record, ambassadors of all North Atlantic Treaty Organization Treaty countries, except Turkey, stayed away from opening day of the congress.

The U.S. Embassy issued a statement saying it was not represented because “attendance of any of the activities would be inconsistent with the depth of U.S. concern over the human rights situation in Romania, for which the Romanian Communist Party bears responsibility.”

Also missing for the first time was a party delegation from Hungary, which is at odds with Romania over alleged mistreatment of this country’s Hungarian minority.

The congress opened with heavy security in effect throughout the country. Border guards turned back most tourists, claiming all hotels in the country were full. The Yugoslav news agency Tanjug said armed guards patrolled the streets of the largest cities.

The government has expelled at least one reporter who had planned to cover the congress, the French journalist Claude-Marie Vadrot. Romanian radio and TV stations broadcast live the opening of the congress.