Bucharest seeks justice in Strasbourg

Romanians have filed more cases at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) than the members of any other nation. As Ziua explains, the record number mainly relates to complaints from the families of the 1,600 people who were killed during the December 1989 Romanian Revolution, which overthrew the regime of Nicolae Ceauşescu. None of those responsible for the killings have been identified by the Romanian courts. On 6 August, the chairman of the civil society group "21 December" (the date which marked the fall of Ceauşescu), Teodor Maries, embarked on a hunger strike to protest against Bucharest's failure to fulfill its obligations to the ECHR. To put an end to this situation, Romanian President Traian Basescu, called for a rapid solution: "It's unacceptable," he told the Bucharest daily. "The Revolution and the Mineriad [when rioting miners took to the streets in support of the post-communist government] resulted in 1,600 dead, and no one is to blame. Justice must be done!" Ziua reports that starting on 11 September, "staff at the General Prosecutor's Office went to work with 27 photocopy machines to prepare copies of the 1,000 volumes of files pertaining to the Revolution, which will shortly be sent to Strasbourg."