Romania Vice President Quits; Stalinism Blamed

Vice President Dumitru Mazilu resigned Friday to protest what he called “Stalinist practices and methods” in the interim government of the National Salvation Front.

Mazilu handed in his resignation just hours after President Ion Iliescu rejected calls for the resignation of his government and criticized attempts to undermine his authority.

“Having seen with great sorrow and deep regret that Stalinist practices and methods persist, that labels continue to be attached on the strength of security files and accusations made by pounding the table, that the press is still directed to destroy some people and promote some others, I resign the office I said I did not want on the very first day,” Mazilu said in a nationally televised address.

He was apparently referring to files kept by the Securitate, the hated secret police of dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, who was overthrown and executed last month.

Mazilu, an expert in international law who worked at the United Nations, was arrested by the Ceausescu regime in 1988 after writing a report on human rights violations in Romania.

In a speech, carried Friday by Rompres, the official Romanian news agency, Iliescu defended the front as the country’s only political hope for the immediate future.

“For all its weaknesses and shortcomings, the National Salvation Front is the only structure, very frail still, that bears the brunt,” Iliescu said “The collapse of this structure means pushing the country to chaos.”

He urged opposition parties to “forget about political passions and electoral ambitions” in the interests of national stability.

Iliescu also defended the front’s decision this week to put up candidates in national elections scheduled for May 20, saying no other group on the horizon has the know-how and experience needed to run the government.

His speech followed a barrage of attacks against the ruling National Salvation Front from fledgling opposition groups hoping to take its place at the head of the government after the elections.

Hundreds of people have been protesting on a daily basis outside the National Salvation Front’s headquarters to demand that the front reverse its decision to run in the elections.

The front has responded by banning protests in virtually all public places except parks.

However, more than 500 people Friday night defied the ban, demonstrating again at the front’s headquarters as soldiers backed by tanks looked on.

Iliescu also denounced what he termed a “tendency to separatism,” a reference to resurgent nationalism among some of Romania’s ethnic minorities.