23 years after Mineriad

Today is turning 23 years since the beginning of Mineriad, in Bucharest, on 13-15 June 1990.

Forces of order, supported by miners from the Jiu Valley, intervened in force against protesters in University square.

It was considered the most brutal and bloodiest action of the miners.

According to official data during the riots of June 13-15, in Bucharest, six people lost their lives -four dead by shooting, one died following a heart attack and a person stabbed -and other 746 were injured, but there are voices that say that the dead would be higher.

Events in University square began after the April 22, 1990, following an electoral rally of the PNŢCD, before general elections of 20 May, some of the demonstrators barricaded in University square, one of the symbol of the anti-Communist Revolution-December 1989, blocking movement on the two main arteries of the capital.

"The Phenomenon Of University Square"

Before the arrival of the miners in the capital, during the night of 12 to 13 June, the authorities have intervened in force, to scatter demonstrators having been in the market for 52 days.

Having arrived in Bucharest, miners from the Jiu Valley committed also excesses against persons and against party offices and institutions.


They tried to justify their actions: "I found at PNŢCD drugs, weapons, ammunition, automatic writing, printing money at PNL".

The manifestations of those days had to enter the Romanian socio-political Chronicle as "the events of 13-15 June," or "the Miners" and have seriously affected the perception of the world.

In those days were attacked and torched police cars, the headquarters of the Interior Ministry and the Romanian Television, and international agencies and TV stations around the world have sent pictures and comments from the miners force demonstration in a Bucharest that was considered by many analysts as a European capital of a country where democracy had just won is already in danger.

With all the violence filmed and broadcast around the world, until now, there was no one held accountable for those actions.

Translated by
Denisse-Meda Bucura