ROMANIAN HEAD OF STATE WORKED FOR THE COMMUNIST SECRET POLICE

Summary by BUCHAREST DAILY NEWS: ex-president: Basescu worked for Securitate...

"Traian Basescu was a collaborator of the former communist secret police, the Securitate. Basescu had a file and there is no doubt about his activity, as there are documents proving he was involved with the political police," former President Emil Constantinescu said during a TV talk show on Tuesday evening, adding that the documents he is referring to have ended up in certain newsrooms, which have allegedly used them for blackmailing purposes.

"Mr. Ciuvica (Constantinescu's former aide) had the courage to publish them and I had the courage to go on," pointed out Constantinescu.

Earlier this year, the head of the Group for Political Investigations, Mugur Ciuvica, a fierce opponent of the current president, made public some documents that allegedly prove Basescu was a Securitate collaborator. Ciuvica also sent the files to the National Council for the Study of Securitate Archives (CNSAS).

The documents, which were reportedly obtained from the Ministry of Defense, show that Basescu was recruited to work for the military counterintelligence unit in 1973, while he was a student at the Constanta Naval Institute, according to Ciuvica.

Subsequently, the council handling the Securitate files asked the Defense Ministry to submit all documents of the former communist police it has in its possession. Ministry officials said they no longer had those documents, as they had been designed to serve in court in a slander suit filed by Basescu against Ciuvica in 2004.

The president dismissed the allegations and asked the Romanian Intelligence Agency (SRI), the Foreign Intelligence Agency, the Defense Ministry, the National Archives and all other institutions that may have documents regarding his alleged ties with the Securitate to make them public.

Furthermore, Constantinescu yesterday also accused the SRI of hiding or destroying the documents related to Basescu's alleged mission as a Securitate agent and said the intelligence services might be held responsible in court.

Constantinescu made the statement after his hearing with the CNSAS, at which time he was informed that the SRI had officially informed the CNSAS that its archives do not include any files on Basescu.

"I have called on the investigators to interrogate the SRI about concrete matters. They should request the documents which confirm that Basescu's file was transferred from the military counterintelligence unit to the Securitate branch in Constanta (Basescu's home town)," said Constantinescu.

In addition, Constantinescu stated yesterday that he has handed over to the CNSAS some internal letters from the Securitate's military counterintelligence unit that mention Basescu, adding that the CNSAS is to verify the documents.

"Basescu should be asked whether he has signed an agreement with the military counterintelligence unit. Was he a collaborator or not? He has never officially denied it," said Constantinescu.
The former president also called on the CNSAS to hear the former head of the Securitate office in Constanta and several others generals in the Defense Ministry, pointing out that such figures would surely be able to confirm his accusations.

The president has always rejected the allegations brought by Ciuvica and Constantinescu. In April, after Ciuvica's latest accusations, the president's adviser on national security and defense issues, Sergiu Medar, said that if Basescu had collaborated with the Securitate, he would have been given a code name the moment he filed his first report. According to Medar, the documents presented by Ciuvica were lists of possible collaborators, which included documents concerning Basescu. The fact he was not given a code name is clear proof that he was not a collaborator of the communist secret police, the adviser said.