World

Romania Jails Firebrand Miner

February 17, 1999 / 10:15 AM EST / AP

The rebellious leader of Romanian coal miners was arrested Wednesday after pre-dawn clashes between police troops and miners that left one miner dead, dozens injured and 500 arrested.

Miron Cozma's arrest came as he and about 2,000 miners headed to the capital, Bucharest, to protest an 18-year prison sentence handed down against him this week for his role in a deadly 1991 miners' protest.

"It is an act of justice," said Justice Minister Valeriu Stoica. "I am glad police managed to apply the [court's] sentence."

Cozma unsuccessfully resisted officers who arrested him after the car he was traveling in stopped for gas near Caracal, 80 miles west of Bucharest, Caracal Mayor Gheorghe Anghel was quoted by the national news agency Rompres as saying.

The miners began their most recent protest after Cozma was sentenced in absentia Monday for leading a 1991 march on Bucharest. He said the sentence, increased from 18 months, was politically orchestrated.

In clashes that lasted three hours Wednesday, some 2,000 riot police beat miners with clubs, fired rubber bullets and threw tear gas grenades, leaving dozens injured. Miners attacked officers with chains, axes and sticks, according to an Interior Ministry spokesman.

Authorities said a miner who was wounded in the clashes was proclaimed dead of head injuries on arrival at a hospital.

Police arrested 350 miners who were trying to reach the capital in 40 buses, national radio reported. Other miners fled and police troops were combing the area.

After police slashed the tires and broke the windows of the miners' buses, officials organized two trains to take them back to the Jiu Valley in western Romania.

"Cozma fled like a coward leaving his men at the most difficult time," Defense Minister Victor Babiuc said in a statement.

A similar showdown last month resulted in at least 200 injuries, most of them suffered by riot police. Miners easily tore through police lines and since then, there have been major changes in the Interior Ministry leadership.

The miners had set off from a western coal mine city on Tuesday in a defiant march toward the capital to protest Cozma's sentence.

Cozma, who has led several violent protests by miners over the past decade, was convicted for undermining state authority and jeopardizing railway traffic during a 1991 protest that left three people dead and nearly 300 injured.

He had already spent nearly 18 months in jail for the offenses last year when he appealed the convictions, which also barred him from entering Bucharest for two years. The Supreme Court upheld the conviction and in a surprise move added 16 1/2 years to his sentence.