Romanian Students Cleared in Rioting : Bucharest: The interior minister says the youths were not involved in the recent violence. Authorities seem to be trying to win over critics.

A government minister said Saturday that student groups were not to blame for the riots 10 days ago in Bucharest in which six people died.

In a fresh indication that Romanian authorities are trying to win over their critics, Interior Minister Doru Ursu said: “It is more than clear that the students of Bucharest were in no way involved in the violent events of June 13-15.”

University buildings were ransacked and students and other people were attacked by miners who came to the capital at the request of President Ion Iliescu to quell anti-government riots.

Saturday night, a small crowd barricaded Bucharest’s central boulevard on one side of University Square, a flash point of the recent violence, in a gesture of support for the arrested student leaders.

Police persuaded the protesters to dismantle their barriers and allow traffic to pass after about 40 minutes.

Ion Ratiu, presidential candidate of the opposition National Peasants Party in the May elections, denied on television that his party had anything to do with last week’s unrest.

Ratiu, whose party offices and home were ransacked by the miners, said his party was not behind a seven-week demonstration that led to the violence.

“I have never given one penny to the people in the square,” he said in reply to allegations by the ruling National Salvation Front.

“I have also worked by legal methods, never by such means as those used in University Square.”

Three delegates of the International Committee of the Red Cross are scheduled Monday to start visiting people arrested during the unrest to check on their health and conditions of detention.

The ICRC representative in Romania, Thierry Meyrat, said the mission could last for months, depending on the timetable for any judicial proceedings against the detainees. He declined to answer questions about the number or whereabouts of prisoners.

Ursu said he could not discuss individual students but added that “in no way can we talk about students’ organizations participating in the events (last week’s violence).”

“I could even go further and say that the students through their calm attitude and their whole activity in that period have acted as a factor of stabilization.”