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RADOR: News from Romania, 98-05-06
May 6, 1998
CONTENTS
[01] Hearings at Military Attorney's Office;
[02] PDSR Demands the Resignation of Presidential Adviser Zoe Petre;
[03] Companies of General Gheorghe Florica under Investigation;
[04] Table Tickets Law under Debate at a Joint Session in Parliament;
[05] Viorel Lis about His Nomination as CDR Single Candidate for the
Position of Bucharest Mayor;
[06] Session of the Council of Europe's Ministerial Committee;
[07] Romanian and Russian Foreign Ministers Met in Strasbourg;
[08] Ukrainian and Romanian Military Delegations Met in Brussels.
[01] Hearings at Military Attorney's Office
The Military Attorney's Office in Bucharest gave two hearings on Tuesday:
Marin Chiata, the owner of the Black and White disco club, and Gabriel
Negoescu, the owner of a storehouse in Mogosoaia, were questioned in
connection with their involvement in the cigarette smuggling scandal at the
Otopeni military airport. In another development, the Bucharest Court has
examined the complaints of Marian Chiata, Gabriel Negoescu, Ioan Suciu and
Dumitru Popescu about the decision to hold them in custody. They are also
suspected of being involved in the cigarette smuggling case. RADOR
[02] PDSR demands the resignation of presidential adviser Zoe Petre
At a press conference on Tuesday, PDSR Senator Radu Timofte has asked for
the resignation of presidential adviser Zoe Petre and Interior Minister
Gavril Dejeu. The senator believes that Mr Dejeu is using his position to
blackmail his political opponents. The leadership of the opposition Party
of Social Democracy in Romania (PDSR) says that recent comments of
presidential adviser Zoe Petre about the "Otopeni File" are extremely
dangerous. The senator said that the meeting of the ruling Democratic
Convention in Romania (CDR) on Monday proved that the CDR members had to
face an extremely serious corruption scandal involving high ranking
officials. In an interview with the Romanian Service of the BBC on Tuesday,
PDSR Vicepresident Adrian Nastase hasMexpressed his support for the setting
up of a special commission in parliament to investigate the case. "I
believe the commission is necessary as there are speculations that some
people would try to hush the case up. The commission may be the only
solution to ensure the impartiality of the investigation", Mr Nastase said.
RADOR
[03] Companies of General Gheorghe Florica under investigation
On Monday, May 4, a police team and members of the Bucharest and Ramnicu
Valcea Financial Guard have searched the SC ROMOLT Ramnicu Valcea Company
belonging to General Gheorghe Florica, former chief commissioner of the
Funancial Guard. The operation ended on Tuesday without any significant
result as no cigarette could be found. On the other hand, the police found
600 "Assos" cigarette packages in some other companies having no connection
with General Florica. The 600 cigarette packages came from Turkey while
another 1,000 cigarette packages came from Greece. They all had false
stamps, but their Moreign distributor remained unknown. The police
discovered however that the Romanian source included eight wholesalers in
Bucharest. RADOR
[04] Table tickets law under debate at a joint session in Parliament
At a join session in Parliament on Tuesday, the Romanian Senate and the
House of Deputies have approved the setting up of some friendship groups as
well as amendments to the lists including members in special commissions.
As the mediation commission resumed its proceedings, the texts under
controversy in the draft law on organising the Romanian Radio and
Television Companies were eliminated from the agenda. The commission has
previously ceased its activity and the issue was subject to debates in the
plenum of the parliament. According to the same source, the Senate and the
House of Deputies have both rejected the versions under controversy in the
article 14 of the table tickets law. The mediation commission said the law
should come into force nine month after it was published inM"Monitorul
Oficial", and the House of Deputies accepted the proposal. On the other
hand, the Senate has proposed a delay of three months. As neither of the
two versions got the number of votes requested, according to article 78 in
the Constitution the law would come into force as soos as it would be
published by "Monitorul Oficial". RADOR
[05] Viorel Lis about his nomination as single CDR candidate for the
position of Bucharest mayor
On Monday, Viorel Lis, the acting mayor of Bucharest, was designated as
single CDR candidate for the position of mayor. In an interview on Tuesday,
Mr Lis said that, unlike his challengers, he already had an experience as
head of the Bucharest City Hall. "It does not make any sense for anyone
else to come as mayor for only one year and a half", he said. At the same
time, he has indicated that a new mayor would need at least one year to
become acquainted with the job. Viorel Lis believes that the recent opinion
poll was also much to his benefit as it Mhowed that most of the people in
Bucharest praised him. RADOR
[06] Session of the Council of Europe's Ministerial Committee
The 102-nd session of the Council of Europe's Ministerial Council has
coincided with the 49-th anniversary of a Treaty in London where the
setting up of the body was decided. Romanian Foreign Minister Andrei Plesu
attended the meeting and welcomed the decision made by the Parliamentary
Assembly in order to suspend the monitoring of Romania. He recalled that,
at a previous session of the Assembly, Prime Minister Radu Vasile have
promised that Bucharest "would carefully observe in the very next future
all its commitments it gave but did not fulfilled yet". Mr Plesu wanted to
stress that "Romania was concerned about some discriminating rumours under
Europe's cupola speaking about an alleged enforcement of the EU borders in
need of being defended against countries actually accepted as candidates
for European integration". On the same occasion, the Romanian ministerMhas
thanked his Hungarian counterpart, Laszlo Kovacs, for his country's
position on the matter. RADOR
[07] Romanian and Russian foreign ministers met in Strasbourg
Romanian Foreign Minister Andrei Plesu met his Russian counterpart, Evgeny
Primakov, in Strasbourg on Tuesday. The talks focused on issues concerning
the basic treaty between the two countries. Mr Plesu believed that his
meeting with Primakov was very important. "In a rather unfriendly beginning
of our talks, we have admitted that each country had the right to its own
strategy and interests, and contest the rights of others. There is a need
for an accelerated review of all sensitive problems, and we should consider
a higher level meeting as soon as possible", Mr Plesu declared. In another
development, minister Plesu has signed two protocols included in the
Convention on cross-border cooperation between communities and local
authorities.
[08] Ukrainian and Romanian military delegations met in Brussels
Ukrainian and NATO rMpresentatives had chief of staff-level talks at the
NATO headquarters in Brussels on Tuesday. Ukrainian Chief of Staff General
Oleksandr Zatenaiko met his counterparts of NATO countries. The Ukrainian
general has provided details about his country's military cooperation with
Poland and other countries. In another development, Mr Zatenaiko met a
Romanian military delegation. RADOR
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