Romania Abolishes the Communist Party : Iliescu Bows to Clamor for Reforms

Interim President Ion Iliescu, bowing to demands of thousands of demonstrators, declared today the Communist Party had been abolished in Romania.

Addressing an estimated 10,000 protesters from the balcony of the headquarters of the ruling National Salvation Front, Iliescu also said the government will hold a referendum on Jan. 28 on the issue of reinstating the death penalty.

He said the front will also set up a special committee to deal with other demands raised by opposition groups since the front replaced Communist executed dictator Nicolae Ceausescu three weeks ago.

Iliescu’s unexpected decrees addressed three of the main demands raised by thousands of demonstrators during several rallies today in Bucharest. His announcement of the abolition of the Communist Party was met with wild cheering and chants of the “Communist Party is dead.”

Ten thousand demonstrators massed outside the provisional government headquarters in Romania’s largest demonstration since the overthrow of Ceausescu on Dec. 22.

In a six-hour rally that often seemed as confused as it was passionate, the crowd shouted slogans for democracy but also chanted “Death for death” in calling for the execution of members of Ceausescu’s secret police, accused of killing thousands of pro-democracy demonstrators.

At one point the crowd jeered and whistled at Iliescu, who warned that Romania’s democratic revolution must not be allowed to slip into anarchy.

“We must prove that we can stay alive in democratic conditions. If not it’s going to become a dictatorship again,” he said, shouting to be heard above the din.

The demonstration climaxed a day of rallies and religious services honoring the 10,000 reported killed in last month’s pro-democracy revolution. What started as a solemn memorial service for the slain turned into an angry protest against communism.

Crowds attending the earlier rallies shouted anti-communist slogans and some burned Communist Party membership cards. At one ceremony hundreds of people marched on the Communist Party headquarters in Bucharest and began banging on the doors.

There were no reports of violence or arrests.

The rally at Bucharest’s Victory Square, which faces the headquarters of the ruling National Salvation Front, began in the mid-afternoon and swelled to include about 10,000 people by 7 p.m. The demonstrators listened to dozens of speakers who led them chant after chant, including “Down with communism,” “We are the people,” “Freedom,” and “Death for death.”

Iliescu and other government officials who addressed the crowd were only able usually to say a few lines at a time before their voices were lost in the chanting.

At times other people who climbed on the tank used as a speaker’s platform would snatch the microphone away to demand explanations for the officials’ former links to the Communist Party.