President of Romania denounces Soviet era

International Herald Tribune ^ | 18/12/2006 | By Craig S. Smith

[mirici]

President of Romania denounces Soviet era

President Traian Basescu of Romania on Monday formally condemned the Communist dictatorship that ruled his country for more than four decades, the first time a Romanian head of state had officially denounced the Soviet-era system. .... "It is as important as the condemnation of National Socialism after the end of World War II," said Plamen Tzvetkov, a professor of history at the New Bulgarian University in Sofia. ... The final report is long and occasionally lurid. One chapter recounts the chilling "Pitesti experiment," in which young political prisoners were systematically tortured and subject to brainwashing techniques by other prisoners in order to destroy their sense of self and replace it with loyalty to the state.

The report charges the Communist regime with crimes against humanity and puts responsibility for the misdeeds primarily on the party and its secret service, the Securitate. ... Basescu, who was at one time captain of the largest ship in Romania's state- owned merchant fleet, said he would support the commission's recommendation that Romania establish a national day commemorating the victims of Communism and erect a museum of dictatorship. "The Communist regime was illegitimate and criminal," Basescu said. "It treated an entire population as a group of guinea pigs for an experiment."

[ustanker]

Very true, But don't eat with Putin!