Thugs Beat Romanian Protesters : Vigilantes: Miners called in by President Iliescu hunt down anti-government rioters. Intellectuals and foreigners are targets.

Grime-smudged miners wielding ax handles and rubber truncheons converged by the thousands on the Romanian capital Thursday to hunt down those involved in a deadly anti-government riot a day earlier and indiscriminately beat anyone they suspected.

Some Bucharest residents, who watched in horror as the roving bands of thugs chased long-haired youths, intellectuals and foreign journalists, said they feared that the vigilante crackdown is out of control.

“This is the start of civil war,” declared one middle-aged man watching the miners menacing pedestrians at University Square, in the heart of the capital.

The workers in green quilted jackets blackened by coal dust and oil flooded into Bucharest from impoverished and backward regions of northern Romania after President Ion Iliescu appealed for supporters to protect government buildings from attacks by rioters.

On Wednesday night, crowds of Romanians firebombed police headquarters and the state television building, ostensibly to protest the brutal dispersal of a 53-day anti-government demonstration at University Square.

Five people were killed and at least 277 injured in the overnight rioting, Health Ministry officials reported Thursday. It was the worst violence in Romania since the December revolution that overthrew dictator Nicolae Ceausescu.

While the rioting appeared to be provoked by the pre-dawn raid on the protesters and the arrest of 263 anti-government demonstrators, its organizers and motives were not clear. Some Romanian observers suspected a conspiracy by opposition political forces, while others feared that the government itself was behind the violence to create a pretext for cracking down on dissenters.

In Washington, President Bush’s office condemned “in the strongest terms” what it called “government-inspired vigilante violence.” White House Press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater said the violence “departs from the commonly accepted norms of democracy and the rule of law.”

At the State Department, spokeswoman Margaret Tutwiler echoed that condemnation, speaking of a “brutal suppression, including the use of deadly force, of legitimate forms of dissent and political protest.”

Tutwiler called upon Iliescu “to use his electoral mandate to resolve the present crisis peacefully, establish the rule of law, and implement his stated commitment to genuine democratization.” She called on other European nations to “encourage all Romanians to avoid violence” and warned that future U.S. decisions about granting Romania most-favored-nation tariff treatment and economic assistance will depend on Romanian behavior.

According to United Press International, the United States has granted Romania $80 million in humanitarian food aid but has held back other forms of economic assistance.

Iliescu was to have been sworn in as president Thursday, but the parliamentary ceremony was postponed until Monday because of the unrest.

Iliescu, whose ruling National Salvation Front won by a landslide in May 20 elections, denounced the anti-government rioters as fascists and called for help in putting down the revolt.

Miners and other workers from the provinces poured into Bucharest’s center in the early morning hours Thursday, destroying the headquarters of both major opposition political parties and encircling the homes of figures suspected of fomenting earlier unrest.

The scene was reminiscent of the campaign of terror waged by Romania’s Fascist Iron Guard in the years before World War II.

But government spokesman Christian Unteanu defended the appeal for help from the workers and denied that retaliation had gotten out of control.

“Now we have peace and quiet,” said Unteanu, whose office overlooks University Square, which at the time was thronged with about 1,000 miners and a larger crowd of onlookers.

Asked whether the government had intended such a response when it called on the workers, Unteanu said only that “the order will be established by the appropriate organs.”

Another senior government source estimated that 7,000 miners answered Iliescu’s call. They roamed the city until about 11 p.m., when a convoy of buses took them off to an unknown location, presumably their overnight quarters.

Street-sweeping equipment began moving through the square that by midnight was patrolled only by a few dozen policemen.

The wreckage of smashed telex and copying machines, typewriters, furniture and computers littered the courtyards of the National Peasants Party. The miners, some thought to be survivors of Ceausescu’s hated Securitate secret police force, had thrown the equipment and files from upper-floor windows and balconies in the pre-dawn ransacking.

The National Liberal Party headquarters was also destroyed, and police and miners prevented journalists from entering either party headquarters.

“This is unique in history, that a president has incited the population against itself,” Liberal Party foreign affairs adviser Soren Botez stated bitterly.

Speaking by telephone from his home, he said those who raided his party’s headquarters “destroyed everything, completely and absolutely.”

Botez said party leader Radu Campeanu was in hiding under protection of Liberal supporters.

Botez, a former political prisoner, called on Iliescu to order the masses of vigilantes to disperse.

The workers also attacked the offices of the Romania Libera newspaper, which has been critical of the government.

Thousands of Bucharest residents upset by the anti-government rioting the previous night cheered on the miners, who arrived in buses and open-bed trucks throughout the day.

But public support appeared to wane as the retaliation against protesters escalated into lawlessness, with the miners thrashing or threatening passers-by at random.

One woman, clinging to the hand of a small boy as she crossed University Square, was repeatedly kicked and belted with ax handles as she tried to escape the throng of miners without being separated from the terrified child.

“They beat one man simply because he was dressed in a business suit, because he appeared to be an intellectual,” said Gelu-Vasile Frunzen, a young physicist who watched the unfocused rampage from the periphery of University Square.

Most people standing by were fearful of conversation with foreign journalists, as the miners attacked or menaced those holding cameras or notebooks.

Managers at the Hotel Intercontinental, perched on the edge of the square, warned guests to stay clear of balconies and windows.

No gunfire was heard after the rioting was quelled Wednesday night, and the miners did not appear to be carrying firearms.

Few police remained on patrol, and army troops were seen only at the government headquarters at Victory Square. Armored personnel carriers ringed the massive building, and about 200 soldiers were backed by at least twice as many people in grimy miners’ garb, all brandishing lengths of wood, rubber hose or pipe.

In a communique defending his government’s action, Iliescu criticized police for “misinterpreting the tolerance of the government” in their handling of the rioting the night before.

“Everyone in Bucharest is afraid,” Roxanna Opris, a young supporter of the government, said as she stood outside the Peasant Party headquarters to show solidarity with the occupying miners. “They saw that the police could do nothing and decided to come here to help.”

One 20-year-old miner who refused to give his name contended that drugs and counterfeiting equipment had been found at the party office.

“We will stay until it is quiet,” said the miner, whose eyes flashed suspicion from a soot-stained face.

Opris, who spoke some English and translated the miner’s grudging comments, warned two American journalists that they should be cautious in public “because some of these men are not very intelligent. They know the foreign press has been spreading lies, saying our government is Communist. It is very dangerous right now.”

The University Square protesters had repeatedly accused Iliescu and his party of being neo-Communist.

Iliescu and other top figures of the National Salvation Front renounced their Communist Party ties after the revolution and declared support for Western-style reforms.

Dumitru Mazilu, a former top-ranking front figure forced to resign earlier this year, said club-wielding thugs besieged his apartment for five hours, shouting that they had come to kill him.

“In Bucharest now, there is a state of terror organized by the Securitate and the miners,” said Mazilu, who had spoken in support of the University Square demonstrators during their occupation of the intersection that began April 22.