Brutal Romania Crackdown : Miners Join Attacks on Protesters

Tens of thousands of workers responded to a call for help in putting down anti-government protests by streaming into Bucharest today, clubbing people and ransacking opposition party offices.

Health Ministry officials said five people were killed and 277 injured in two days of violence, the country’s worst since the December revolution that toppled and executed dictator Nicolae Ceausescu.

There were unconfirmed reports of more than a dozen deaths. Deputy Health Minister Radu Dop said 80 people were hospitalized.

The clashes began before dawn Wednesday when club-wielding police broke up a nearly two-month, anti-government protest in central University Square. Later, police opened fire on demonstrators who attacked state television, the Interior Ministry and the headquarters of the new intelligence service.

Early today, soldiers fired at demonstrators who threw firebombs at police headquarters and sporadic gunfire echoed across Bucharest.

In Washington, the Bush Administration condemned “in the strongest possible terms” what it called “government-inspired vigilante violence” and said it will defer a decision on favorable trade benefits for Romania until it is satisfied with the human rights situation there.

The pro-government workers who streamed into Bucharest today heeded a call from President-elect Ion Iliescu in a televised speech to put down what he termed an attempt by “fascists” to overthrow the government. He repeated the call today in a speech to supporters outside government headquarters.

Thousands of miners packed University Square, clubbing reporters and people they thought were opposition sympathizers.

During the violence, people in military trucks handed the government supporters milk and bread.

Unidentified people in a van carrying loudspeakers warned passers-by: “Don’t incite the miners. . . . You would thus give birth to fierce violence.”

The speakers also instructed the miners, some of whom were armed with police truncheons, to get hold of cameramen, photographers and reporters and take them into the van.

“We will take care of them,” the speaker said.

Ovidiu Bogdan, 28, a photographer for Gamma, said he was attacked by men armed with iron-ended clubs a few hundred yards from the square.

Associated Press reporter Christina Pirvulescu was clubbed and had her press card seized before being rescued by an acquaintance in the army.

Other government supporters ransacked the headquarters of the opposition parties and a Bucharest University building.

Iliescu is the first ex-Communist to win a popular presidential election in Eastern Europe. He and the National Salvation Front took power in the bloody December revolution, then won May 20 elections by a landslide.

Anti-government protesters claim the front is dominated by Communists and accuse it of the same heavy-handed tactics of the Ceausescu regime. Iliescu is among several top front leaders who were once high-ranking Communists.