Constantin Ticu Dumitrescu

Constantin-Grigore "Ticu" Dumitrescu (born May 27, 1928 in Ciumați (now Olari , Prahova district ); † December 5, 2008 in Bucharest ) was a Romanian politician, dissident and opponent of the Romanian Communist Party (PCR) .

Life

Dumitrescu studied law and then practiced as a lawyer when he was declared an enemy of the state by the communist government in 1949 for his role in the National Small Farmers Party (Partidul Național-Țărănesc) in Prahova and was therefore sentenced to 27 years in prison. He was initially in custody until 1964 and then under house arrest. Subsequently, his lawyer license was revoked, so that he had to earn his living as a construction worker.

Shortly after the fall of the dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu and the PCR in 1989, he was one of the leading opposition politicians and he was elected a member of the Senate (Senatul) , to which he belonged until 2000 as a representative of the Partidul Național Țărănesc Creştin Democrat .

Despite the protests of the opposition, supporters and former functionaries of the PCR remained in relevant government offices until 1996, so that his demand to open the archives of the dreaded secret police Securitate could only be implemented in 1996 by a law of the Victor Ciorbea government . As in other former Eastern Bloc countries, the implementation of this law named after him ("Legea Ticu") turned out to be difficult, especially because of the question of access to the archives, as they also contained enormous amounts of data and evidence for spying on fellow citizens. Former communist employees of the Securitate therefore demanded that the proceedings be closed. In addition, due to the amount of data, there were fears that charges and allegations could also be brought against actually innocent people. Other politicians, on the other hand, only demanded inspection of their own files. Ultimately, however, Dumitrescu successfully advocated the extensive opening of the secret service archives. However, a few months before his death he criticized the threatened dissolution of the Securitate investigative authority.

After leaving the Senate, he remained chairman of the Association of Former Political Prisoners (Asociației Naționale a Foştilor Deținuți Politici din România - AFDPR) until his death. He was also President of the International Union of Former Political Prisoners from 1991 to 1999.

In a tribute to his death, President Traian Băsescu said: “We have lost one of the most powerful voices against communism. He remained upright and venerable during thousands of days of imprisonment and interrogation. ”Prime Minister Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu added:“ Constantin Dumitrescu asserted himself as one of the strongest personalities in the struggle for moral cleansing from the previous regime. If we Romanians have access to our personal political files today, it will be an overwhelming success for Constantin Ticu Dumitrescu. "

Web links

• Constantin Dumitrescu, Romanian Dissident, Dies at 80 , The New York Times, December 6, 2008.
• Death Of A Romanian Archivist , Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty, December 5, 2008.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Securitate files under lock and key  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , The Standard, February 6, 2008.