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Highjacked Protests in Bucharest Distort Democracy |
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Tuesday, 17 January 2012A nationwide protest over the past four days against austerity measures and a controversial draft law on the health system was marred after the peaceful demonstrations turned into chaos due to involvement of gangs of football hooligans.
Sunday night (January 15th) saw the worst violence in downtown Bucharest since the fall of communism, with shops vandalised and more than 30 people hospitalised.
Protesters tore out benches, destroyed bus stops, broke shop windows and set cars on fire, throwing stones and petards at the gendarmes who fought back with tear gas. One gendarme was severely injured after being hit in the head by a chunk of curbstone. Almost 150 people have so far been arrested under various charges, some of them in possession of non-lethal weapons and drugs.
The demonstrations started in Bucharest in a show of support for Palestinian-born Dr Raed Arafat, founder of the SMURD emergency service, who resigned last week as ministry of health state undersecretary, citing opposition to a bill meant to reform the health system.
On Tuesday, Arafat said he would retain his position after the government said it would review the controversial law.
The draft law would basically lead to the privatisation of the system, allowing private insurers to manage a large part of the state health budget. Arafat, a popular public figure in Romania, argued the new system would disadvantage patients. Marches supporting him soon spread to other cities, attracting many others denouncing the government austerity measures.
But what started as a peaceful democratic manifestation soon turned into a war zone in Bucharest's University Square, the so-called "zero kilometer of the Romanian democracy", the place where the frustrated have gathered to protest over the past 21 years.
"Me and my wife came here to publicly oppose the bill on reforming the health system because we feel it may end up in the jaws of private sharks," Augustin Cozma, a pensioner, told SETimes.
"But the ultras [football fans] stole our protests and what is worse, they delegitimised it. Our claims are no longer heard because everybody is focusing on them. It is a sad thing to see a nationwide action being subdued by a pack of hooligans with no other interest but to provoke," he added.
The football fans said they took to the streets not to provoke chaos, but to protest a law which sends people who light torches at the stadiums to prisons.
"These are the very same people because of whom the stadiums in Romania are now empty. This is why one cannot take his children to a football match. They have destroyed the spirit of the Romanian football thought their violent exploits," Adrian Dobre, a sports commentator with the Sport 1 TV station, told SETimes.
"They are also the product of a permissive legislation and the consequence of a corrupt national football system dominated by rigged games over the past 20 years. This is the context in which such movements have developed," Dobre added.
Analysts agree that the message of the initial peaceful protests has been distorted.
"Peaceful protests are important for democracy. But in this case, the initial goals of the street manifestations have been high-jacked and if such violent actions carry on, the protests will lose significance," Septimius Parvu, vice-president of the leading Romanian NGO Pro-Democracy Association, told SETimes.
He said that the ultras seemed to have been very well co-ordinated Sunday night, leaving the impression someone was behind their display of force.
"Part of the blame belongs to the gendarmes who organised their troops in a flawed manner that night," Parvu also noted. On Monday evening though, the security forces seemed better organised and stifled any sign of violence.
Parvu underlined though the importance of the peaceful nationwide protests. "It is a proof it can happen."
Amid the wide public discontent, President Traian Basescu asked Prime Minister Emil Boc to withdraw the current bill on reforming the health system and draft a new one to address concerns.
Amid better co-ordinated intervention by security forces, the level of violence among protestors is down. "Peaceful protests are legitimate, but street violence is intolerable and unacceptable," Boc said on Monday morning. Later, marches in downtown Bucharest went on without major incidents. |
Tuesday, 17 January 2012
Setimes
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