Romania, tara RASISTA, asa au facuto P(B)ulisorii, cismele-proaste, spata-kakatii, etc...

Amnesty International


Romania



Covering events from January - December 2004



People with mental disabilities were arbitrarily deprived of their liberty
in psychiatric establishments. In some hospitals the conditions amounted to
inhuman and degrading treatment. A number of patients died as a result of
malnourishment, cold, inadequate care or abuse by staff and other patients.
Ill-treatment by law enforcement officials, which sometimes amounted to
torture, was widespread. Police resorted to firearms in circumstances
prohibited by international standards, killing at least two men and injuring
dozens of people. Many victims of police ill-treatment and misuse of
firearms were Roma. Conditions in prisons were sometimes inhuman and
degrading, and there were reports of ill-treatment of detainees.

Background

Presidential and general elections held in November were marred by
allegations of fraud. The rules allowed people to cast a ballot in any
polling station without producing a voter registration card, and multiple
voting was allegedly widespread. The second round of presidential elections
on 12 December was won by Traian Basescu, supported by the Justice and Truth
Alliance which formed a coalition government at the end of 2004.

The government failed to curb widespread corruption in the management of
public funds and organization of public services, particularly health care.
In November, when transcripts of meetings of the ruling party's Executive
Committee, chaired by the Prime Minister, were published, it emerged that
they had discussed influencing the judiciary, manipulating the media and
undermining the activities of civil society organizations.

A third of the population lived in poverty, which particularly affected
children and the elderly. According to an official study published in July,
66,000 children were employed in conditions described as grave. Some
children had been sold into bonded labour, others were trafficked abroad for
sexual and other exploitation. Following a visit in September, the UN
Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and child
pornography stated that he was shocked by the situation and that state
mechanisms did not effectively protect the most vulnerable.

The news media were subjected to political and economic pressures which
imposed considerable restrictions on the freedom of journalists. A number of
journalists who reported on organized crime or public funds mismanagement
were assaulted. Investigations into such incidents appeared ineffective.

Detention in psychiatric hospitals

The placement, living conditions and treatment of patients in many
psychiatric wards and hospitals were in violation of international human
rights standards.
a.. In one hospital in Poiana Mare, 18 patients died in January and
February, most of them reportedly as a result of malnutrition and
hypothermia.

Confining people for involuntary psychiatric treatment without sufficient
medical grounds and without charging them with a criminal offence amounted
to arbitrary detention and denial of fair trial rights. Many people placed
in psychiatric wards and hospitals apparently did not require psychiatric
treatment. Many young adults were held in institutions because they had no
family and there were no programmes to reintegrate them into the community.

The living conditions and diet in many psychiatric wards and hospitals were
deplorable. Overcrowding resulted in patients having to share beds. Some
patients shared beds as the only way to keep warm in unheated wards.
Conditions were worst in wards for long-term patients and for those with the
most severe disabilities.

Many patients were denied adequate medical treatment, including access to
psychiatric medication, because of lack of allocated resources. Some were
subjected to electroconvulsive therapy without anaesthetics and muscle
relaxants. Few hospitals had staff and facilities to offer the full range of
therapies and rehabilitation. Many patients apparently did not receive
appropriate treatment for physical conditions in addition to their mental
health problems.

Restraint and seclusion practices in many psychiatric wards and hospitals
were not in line with international standards and in some instances amounted
to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment.

In May, in response to a memorandum from AI, the government adopted a list
of measures to improve the mental health care system. However, some were
ineffective. For example, hospitals were ordered to increase budgets for
patients' food and staff salaries. However, many hospital directors stated
that they received no additional funds. In November, reports from local
monitors indicated that there had been no improvements in many of the
hospitals visited.

Abuse of patients and residents continued and several died from gross
negligence or from violence perpetrated by other patients.
a.. In September in Braila, a 66-year-old patient with dementia was placed
by an orderly under a scalding hot shower. He suffered extensive burns from
which he died.

Torture and ill-treatment

Ill-treatment by law enforcement officials continued to be widespread and
inadequately addressed by the authorities. Many victims were criminal
suspects. A number of people were beaten and verbally abused when unable to
produce an identity card. Some people were beaten by off-duty officers
intervening in disputes.

Some people were deliberately intimidated by police at the behest of local
authorities. For example, in February police raided a student dormitory in
Bucharest after protests about the lack of hot water. In March, police
searched the homes of members of a socially stigmatized yoga movement, MISA,
and ill-treated some of them, capturing this inhuman and degrading treatment
on film and broadcasting it on television.
a.. In separate incidents in June and July, members of the Falun Dafa
Romania, an organization of Falun Gong practitioners, were reportedly
ill-treated by police and secret service officers in Bucharest. They were
attempting to protest against the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in
China, but their requests to hold a demonstration were rejected.

Some victims were placed in psychiatric wards after being beaten by police.
The editor of a Bucharest daily newspaper was confined in May but discharged
following the intervention of family members.

Some people seriously injured by police were not given appropriate medical
assistance. At least two people died as a result of ill-treatment by law
enforcement officials.
a.. In September in Constanta, following a dispute with a bar owner,
Laurentiu Capbun and two other men were reportedly assaulted by a police
officer, the bar owner's friend, and four masked officers of a special
intervention unit. The beating reportedly continued in the Fourth Section
Police Station. The three men were released next morning without charge.
Laurentiu Capbun died five days later, apparently as a result of previous
health problems aggravated by the beating. The police officers were
reportedly to be disciplined for "not reporting the incident to the
Constanta Municipal Police and not having an authorization to intervene" but
were apparently not charged with any criminal offence.

Investigations into reported incidents were hardly ever independent and
impartial. A police commissioner was dismissed because he revealed the
identity of two officers of a special state security unit who were,
unusually, charged for beating a man in August.

Many children were abused by police. Often they were suspected of a petty
offence or happened to witness a police action.
a.. In March, on one of the main streets of Bucharest, 15-year-old C.B.
stopped to watch as police officers argued with some taxi drivers. A special
intervention force team arrived, beat the taxi drivers and pushed them into
police vans. Five officers wearing balaclavas then punched and kicked C.B.
in the head and back and put him in one of their cars. He was taken to
Police Station 14 and was released two hours later. C.B. was admitted to a
children's emergency hospital where he received treatment for numerous
injuries. The hospital released him two days later, reportedly under
pressure from the police.

A number of reported victims of police ill-treatment or torture were women,
some of whom were raped.
a.. In February it was reported that two young women from Tandarei,
Ialomita county, had been raped and beaten in December 2003 by three senior
police officers who had offered to help one of them obtain a driving
licence. They were reportedly beaten, repeatedly raped and held against
their will for seven days. Their parents found out that they had left work
in the company of the police officers. When this was reported to the
Municipal Police, a senior official reportedly tried to remove the officers'
names from the complaint. After the two women returned home, they were
examined by a forensic medical doctor but were reportedly harassed and
warned by the police not to complain. In February, their case was reported
in the press and the Ministry of Interior suspended the suspected officers
from duty pending an internal inquiry. No results were made public by the
end of 2004.

Unlawful use of firearms by law enforcement officers

At least two men died as a result of shooting by law enforcement officers
who resorted to firearms in circumstances that breach international
standards. Shooting unarmed suspects who attempted to avoid arrest was
considered legal and officially condoned. In January the Prime Minister
stated that the Spanish police, who had shot a suspected Romanian car thief
in the head, had "a more efficient regime of firearms use". Investigations
were rarely impartial, independent and thorough. No official statistics were
available, but dozens of people were injured in firearms incidents.
a.. On 30 May, two police officers in the village of Jegalia, in Calarasi
county, chased Nicusor Serban, in an attempt to arrest him on suspicion of
rape. When he jumped over a fence, officer S. reportedly shot at him twice,
hitting him in the back. He died on the way to hospital.

Assaults on the Roma

Many victims of police ill-treatment and unlawful use of firearms were Roma.
Roma also suffered at the hands of security guards who were registered with
the local authorities.
a.. According to the European Roma Rights Center and the "Tumende"
Association of Vale Jiului, a local Romani organization, on 11 March Bela
Dodi died after being beaten by private security guards at the Coroiesti
mine in Vulcan, Hunedoara county. Bela Dodi and four other Romani men were
collecting scrap metal when private security guards assaulted them. Bela
Dodi, who was trying to run away, fell, hit his head, and died. The four
other men were taken to a hospital for treatment for their injuries. In
November 2003 employees of the same private security firm had reportedly
beaten Olga David, a 42-year-old Romani woman, who subsequently died from
her injuries.

Prison conditions

Poor living conditions, serious overcrowding and lack of activities or
medical services in many prisons amounted to inhuman and degrading
treatment. There were continued reports of ill-treatment by staff who also
resorted to inappropriate means of restraint, including handcuffing
prisoners in hospital.
a.. In September in the Juvenile and Youth Penitentiary in Craiova, three
minors died and two suffered severe injuries when a boy set fire to their
cell in protest over a missing parcel. The staff, with only one psychologist
and social worker in an institution holding 330 minors, failed to address
the boy's complaint and confined him in the cell in an agitated state. The
mattresses were highly inflammable and fire extinguishers and procedures
were inadequate. The penitentiary director and head of security services
were subsequently dismissed.

AI country visits

In February an AI delegate visited Romania to conduct research. In November
an AI delegation met government officials to discuss concerns in psychiatric
institutions. Together with the Center for Legal Resources, a local
non-governmental organization, an international round-table discussion was
organized on human rights protection for people with mental disabilities and
reform of mental health services in Romania.


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