Dumitru Iuga

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Dumitru Iuga (born April 21, 1942 in Mateeşti , Vâlcea County , Romania ) is a Romanian dissident and union leader .

life and work

Before the Romanian Revolution in 1989

Dumitru Iuga grew up as the child of a farming family with four siblings. At the age of 18 he moved to Bucharest, where he worked for the company Întreprinderea de Construcţii şi Montaje nr. 5 was trained as a painter. He studied at the technical school Unirea and left it in 1969 with a connection as an electrical engineer. In 1968, in the third year of his studies, he began working as an operator for the state television company Televiziunea Română (TVR). At that time it was already listed as a "dangerous element" in the files of the Romanian secret service Securitate .

Iuga was impressed by the formation of the free Polish trade union Solidarność and tried to implement this idea in Romania. In 1982 the technician wrote his manifesto for the "Movement for Freedom and Social Justice in Romania" ( Romanian Mișcarea pentru libertate și dreptate socială, MLDSR ), the aim of which was to transform Romania into a democratic state and to restore the historical borders. Among other things, he called for the establishment of free trade unions and the reform of the economy, education, culture and social services. The organization was co-founded by the engineer Gabriel Beianu, the cartoonist Viorel Vicovan, the worker Grigore Dorin Mîndrilă, the student Cornel Tomescu, the locksmith Ion Nicolici, the technical draftsman Daniel Mitrache, the electronics engineer Cristian Haltrich and the Romanian teacher Ștefan Chișcă.

In the early summer of 1983, the Securitate became aware of the organization and began tracking down the MLDSR members. Iuga's home was secretly searched on August 31, and incriminating material was found. On January 27, 1984, Iuga was sentenced to twelve years in prison for "crimes against the security of the state" and seven of his associates to five years in prison as the "leader of the counter-revolutionaries". Another 80 people were investigated.

The circumstances of Dumitru Iuga became known in 1987 in the western world . Jan Debrouwere, one of the leaders of the Communist Party of Belgium, as well as the organization Amnesty International campaigned for his release. On January 26, 1988, the application of Decree 11 cut the sentence in half, so Iuga was released in 1989. By then Dumitru Iuga had spent six years in various prisons for political prisoners, including the institutions in Rahova, Aiud and Jilava .

After the Romanian Revolution in 1989

Although state television was one of the main theaters of the Romanian Revolution in 1989 , political independence was still being fought for five years later. In June 1994, as a result of new legislation, the state broadcast media were subordinated to the Romanian Parliament as public institutions. The Culture Committee of the Romanian Parliament and the Romanian Senate had approved the appointment of the two board members elected by the employees of the state television - Gabriel Liiceanu and Neculai Constantin Munteanu - to the 13-member board, but the majority of the members of those represented in the Romanian parliament decided Parties to replace Liiceanu with the broadcaster's executive candidate, Paul Solac.

Dumitru Iuga, who had meanwhile been elected leader of the Romanian Television Workers Union (RTVR), refused to nominate new candidates and went on a hunger strike in March 1995 in Bucharest to protest against censorship and personnel policy . The aim of the campaign was to achieve independence for the national television station according to the fairness criteria of the Council of Europe .

Seriously weakened, Iuga broke off the protest after 36 days on April 6th. In the meantime, Paul Solac had also been removed from the list of nominees.

Iuga had come to the conclusion that his protest was "no longer useful in its current form". Several other union members who had fasted in solidarity with Iuga also ended their protest. Iuga announced that it would choose other forms of protest in the future and added that the authorities wanted to prevent candidates for the radio and television board of directors deemed “disruptive” “by all means”. Since Parliament wants to hold new elections for the remaining eight seats in the Council, a continuation of the strike would mean “giving up the fight”.

Dumitru Iuga led the RTVR union until he retired in 2005.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jurnalul: Familia lui Dumitru Iuga, sub "lupa" Miliţiei , in Romanian (→ online )
  2. ↑ Semi-annual publication for Southeast European history, literature and politics , William Totok : Resistance against the Ceausescu regime - Radu Filipescu , 1997 (→ online )
  3. ↑ Jurnalul, Florin Mihai: Condamnat "pentru acţiune de complot", Dumitru Iuga a executat şase ani de detenţie la Aiud, Rahova şi Jilava , June 22, 2009, in Romanian (→ online )
  4. ↑ Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung : "Iuga are we" Hunger strike for independent television in Romania , No. 85, April 10, 1995, p. 34 (→ online )
  5. ↑ a b c d Committee to Protect Journalists : Romania, Year in Review: 1995 (→ online )
  6. ↑ a b The New York Times , Jane Perlez: Bucharest Journal; With Old Tricks, Romania's Old Reds Curb Press , June 8, 1995, in English (→ online )
  7. ↑ Siebenbürgische Zeitung, volume 19 of November 30, 1995, p. 2
  8. ↑ a b Radio Free Europe : Newsline - April 7, 1995 - Romanian TV Union Leader Ends Hunger Strike , in English (→ online )
  9. ↑ Jurnalul, Florin Mihai: Libertate pentru Televiziunea Română , October 12, 2010, in Romanian (→ online )
personal data
SURNAME Iuga, Dumitru
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Romanian dissident, union leader
DATE OF BIRTH April 21, 1942
PLACE OF BIRTH Mateești , Romania