From: msirbu@next5.cs.umr.edu (Mihai Sirbu)
Subject: Moldova/Romania News from RFE/RL, 9/9/92
Date: Wed, 9 Sep 1992 12:33:56 GMT
Organization: University of Missouri-Rolla, Missouri's Technological University

RFE/RL DAILY REPORT          No. 173, September 9, 1992

MOLDOVAN-BULGARIAN RELATIONS AND THE MINORITY ISSUE. Returning from
an official visit to Bulgaria (see RFE/RL Daily Report, September
8, Eastern European section), Moldovan President Mircea Snegur
cited Bulgarian President Zheliu Zhelev as expressing satisfaction
that the provisions on Bulgarian minority rights in Moldova, which
were included in the bilateral treaty just signed in Sofia, are
based on Snegur's March 1992 decree guaranteeing the Bulgarian
minority's rights. Snegur added that a similar document is being
prepared with Ukraine, Moldovapres reported on 7 and 8 September.
TASS reported from Sofia on 7 September that Snegur expressed
appreciation for Bulgaria's cultural aid to ethnic Bulgarians in
Moldova and that Zhelev praised "the Moldovan leadership's efforts
to conserve and develop the ethnic, linguistic, cultural, and
religious identity" of the Bulgarian minority.  (Vladimir Socor,
RFE/RL Inc.)

MOSCOW HUMAN RIGHTS GROUP REFUTES ATROCITY CHARGES AGAINST MOLDOVA.
 In a report issued after a recent fact-finding trip to Moldova,
and made available to RFE/RL, a team of the Moscow-based human
rights society Memorial refuted allegations that the Moldovan side
had murdered and raped teenagers, and that they had dismantled or
damaged industrial plants there during the fighting for that city
in June.  Those allegations have since been spread further by the
mass media in Moscow. The team from Memorial found that the
"Dniester republic" authorities, including the Bendery militia, had
no evidence of such atrocities. (Vladimir Socor, RFE/RL Inc.)
ROMANIAN MINERS HOLD PROTEST RALLY. On 8 September some 1,500
miners from Cluj County took part in a protest rally in the city of
Cluj. The rally, which was also attended by delegations from other
regions, including Maramures, Moldova, and the Banat, demanded
state subsidies for the mining industry, cash payments to
compensate for recent subsidy cuts in prices for staples and
services, and adequate social protection.  Radio Bucharest quoted
Eugen Tamas, president of the Federation of Romania's Mining Trade
Unions, as saying that 90% of union members favor a strike if
demands are not met by the authorities. (Dan Ionescu, RFE/RL Inc.)

"KING OF ALL GYPSIES" CROWNED IN ROMANIA. Ion Cioaba, self-styled
King of all Gypsies, was crowned on 8 September at the Bistrita
Monastery in Oltenia. Radio Bucharest reports that thousands of
Gypsies cheered as a priest laid a two-and-a-half-kg Swiss-made
golden crown on his head.  The 57-year-old Cioaba swore to fight to
overturn centuries of contempt for Gypsies. Rival Gypsy groups that
do not recognize Cioaba as a leader and accuse him of collaboration
with Nicolae Ceausescu's regime protested the ceremony.  According
to the last census, taken in January, 410,000 Gypsies live in
Romania, but Gypsy leaders maintain the figure is much higher. (Dan
Ionescu, RFE/RL Inc.)


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