Amnesty International Report Notes CIA Flights Allegations, Discriminated Minorities In Romania

The report notes that there have been further allegations that Romania was involved in the US-led secret detention and renditions program, despite continued denials of any involvement by the government and the findings of a Senate commission of inquiry.

Amnesty also noted that there were reports of ill-treatment, excessive use of force and the unlawful use of firearms by law enforcement officials and discrimination against Roma and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people persisted.

According to the report, Romanian authorities failed to give satisfactory responses to repeated calls from the European Commission and other institutions to clarify allegations about the use of Romanian territory in the US-led program of renditions, secret detention and enforced disappearance. In February 2008, a high-ranking Romanian official stated in a media interview that in 2004 and 2005 he had seen a black bus arrive five times in a secluded corner of the heavily guarded Mihail Kogalniceanu airport near Constanta. He said that parcels that looked like bundled-up prisoners were taken from the bus and loaded onto the jet, which then left for North Africa with its cargo and two US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) agents on board. The official also said that US pilots routinely filed bogus flight plans, or none at all, and flew to undeclared destinations.

A Romanian Senate commission of inquiry created to investigate these allegations in 2006 and 2007 said they didn’t find any evidence and rejected the accusations brought against Romania as groundless, while Romanian President Traian Basescu declared he had no knowledge of any suspect packages being transferred at Mihail Kogalniceanu airport and noted that the airport was open to Romanian and foreign journalists.

The Amnesty International 2009 report mentions that discrimination against Roma remained widespread and entrenched in Romania and ill-treatment and excessive use of force by law enforcement officials continued to be reported. Ethnic Roma people continued to be denied equal access to education, housing, healthcare and employment, the report noted.

The report also noted that in September, the Romanian High Court of Justice ruled that the phrase “stinky gypsy”, used by President Traian Basescu when referring to a journalist in May 2007, was discriminatory. However, the Court did not apply any sanctions because the remark had been made during a private conversation.

In December 2008, a commission Council of Europe’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) published a report of its visit to Romania in June 2006, in which it noted that a significant proportion of the detainees interviewed reported “excessive use of force by the police during their arrest or physical abuse during interrogations that followed.”

Amnesty also noted that number of national and international NGOs, including Amnesty International, the Centre for Legal Resources and Save the Children-Romania, expressed continuing concern that the placement, living conditions and treatment of patients in many psychiatric wards and hospitals continued to violate international human rights standards.

Sexual minorities continue to be discriminated and in February, an amendment by the Senate to the legal definition of the family effectively outlawed same-sex marriage. The amendment changed a 1953 law which referred to marriage “between spouses”; the new law defines marriage as “between a man and a woman”.

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