Iliescu Inaugurated; U.S. Boycotts Ceremony

Former Communist Ion Iliescu pledged Wednesday to be a democratic president of reconciliation, but the United States boycotted his inauguration to protest his role in violent attacks on opposition figures.

The capital was generally quiet after a tumultuous week of anti-government riots, mob rule by loyalist miners and a crackdown on dissenters.

“This is the happiest day of my life,” Iliescu told reporters, before swearing “faithfulness to the Romanian people and to their ideals of freedom and prosperity.”

He pledged “to defend democracy (and) . . . fundamental human rights and freedoms.”

“I shall firmly militate for the safeguarding of civic liberties . . . on our way to a genuinely free and democratic society,” Iliescu said, pledging to be a “president . . . of reconciliation.”

Pro-Iliescu supporters cheered him when he emerged from the downtown Atheneum music hall after his inauguration.

Iliescu’s inauguration came one week to the day after riot police brutally dispersed a 53-day rally of his opponents demanding that he and other former Communists be banned from politics for 10 years.

Rioters subsequently assaulted and firebombed government buildings, and thousands of club-wielding miners from Transylvania descended on the capital in response to an appeal by Iliescu, attacking opposition politicians and anyone deemed a government critic.

Numerous countries and international human rights groups condemned the violence and its links to the National Salvation Front-dominated government. Some governments have suspended non-humanitarian aid.

Petre Roman, who was formally appointed prime minister by Iliescu after serving as interim premier since December, tried to ease foreign concerns.

He told state radio: “We want to prove to the international community that our way to a true democracy is irreversible.”

In Washington, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said human rights violations in Romania are continuing. He said Romania has arrested 45 opposition figures in the last two days and that the Administration believes the purpose is to intimidate Romanians from exercising their rights.

Ambassadors from Canada and members of the 12-nation European Community attended the inaugural ceremony but echoed U.S. criticism.

Commenting at length on last week’s violence, Iliescu publicly distanced himself for the first time from the miners’ vigilante tactics.

“There was overreaction in the public order restoration process,” he said. “Institutions, (opposition) party headquarters and homes were broken into, and citizens unconnected with the earlier (violence) . . . were roughed up. We unequivocally dissociate ourselves from all actions that transcended the legal framework.”