Headline: The Council of Honor of the Institute for the Investigation of the Crimes of Communism has met today at Victoria Palace

The Council of Honor of the Institute for the Investigation of the Crimes of Communism has met today at Victoria Palace , on the first meeting since the setting up of the Institute. The Council members have elected the executive board of this institution: the historian Mr. Stejarel Olaru – Director Executive, Mrs. Lucia Hossu Longhin – Secretary General and the historian Marius Oprea – President.

Prime Minister Calin Popescu – Tariceanu has attended a part of today's meeting. Prime Minister has told the members of the Council that ” the period of abuses, crimes and needs of the Communist regime has to be revealed. You will have a difficult task and the Government has the moral duty to support you on this path”.

Prime Minister Tariceanu has expressed his conviction that the Institute for the Investigation of the Crimes of Communism will succeed in elucidating what really happened in the Communist period.

The Head of the Executive has given assurances that the setting up of this Institute does not aim at a “witch hunt”, but at a revelation of the truth about what happened over 1948 – 1989 period.

“You are well known personalities, who distinguish yourself through the steps which you have already taken. This is the best guarantee that the Institute has a genuine chance of success in the future”, Prime Minister has appreciated.

Mr. Gabriel Liiceanu , member of the Council of Honor has appreciated that this Institute, besides the investigation of scientific research will have to respond to the question ”why the Romanian society looks so badly today”.

“We can't get an answer but by going to the evil's root, which is to be historically established, after the Second World War. This means that besides these concrete investigations, the emphasis will be laid on the way in which the Communist regime has de –structured the entire spiritual and moral substance of Romania . The way the political, social, cultural elites were annihilated, seems to me a fundamental question. Our civil society is further on de – structured. There is a connection between the past and present reality”, Mr. Gabriel Liiceanu .

Mrs. Doina Cornea has added that the Institute needs to reveal the crimes of the communist period. “If we do not accept these investigations on the crimes and on those who suffered and the way they suffered for truth and justice, we are or we become a nation about to fall”, Mrs. Doina Cornea has stated.

Mr. Cristian Parvulescu has showed that this Institute was set up in the context in which the condemnation of the communism has started at European level. “The international condemnation of the communism obliges us, especially that almost half the population of Romania believes that the respective period was a benefic one”, Mr. Parvulescu has stated.

According to Mr. Parvulescu , the Institute aims at reestablishing the truth, and recuperating the recent history. “We raise practical problems and not only hypothetical. We try to redeem the hope to Romanians that through the effort the researchers will make, the things will take the good path”, Mr. Parvulescu has further added.

Mrs. Lucia Hossu Longhin , member of the Council of Honor considers that the setting up of the Institute stands for a victory of the civil society in relation to the power, because this institute aims at providing a clear, correct picture in which we may very well see both the victims of the crimes, and their initiators and executioners. ”Besides the cases themselves, I believe we need to study the laws which governed and legitimized the crime. There is no individual or group without memory and there cannot be a country without memory”, Mrs. Hossu Longhin has stated.

The Institute aims at developing educational programs, Mr. Marius Oprea has stated, this is why the research work will also concretize in the elaboration of a textbook on the history of the communism, necessary in order to understand what happened prior to 1989. Mr. Oprea has stated that the Prosecutor's Office will be notified as soon as the criminal deeds are discovered.

The Institute for the Investigation of the Crimes of Communism has concluded today an association with the Romanian Institute of Recent History, a non governmental organization, whose founder; the former Ambassador of Holland in Romania , Mr. Coen Stork, actively supported the Romanian dissidents prior to 1989.

Mrs. Doina Cornea, Mr. Andrei Plesu , Mr. Cristian Pârvulescu , Mr. Constantin Ticu -Dumitrescu, Mr. Gabriel Liiceanu , Mr. Petre Mihai Bacanu , Mr. Radu Filipescu , Mrs. Elvira Bianu and the British historian Dennis Deletant are members of this Council. Mr. Radu Ioanid also participated in the meeting through a phone contact, from the United States of America .

All members of the Council of Honor for the Investigation of the Crimes of Communism have only honorary position.   

Government of Romania - Press office - 14.02.2006