World

Romania Miners Battle Police

January 19, 1999 / 8:14 AM EST / AP

Striking coal miners wielding clubs and homemade explosives clashed Thursday with riot troops trying to block their march to the Romanian capital. At least a dozen police were injured and some were reportedly taken hostage.

The police troops used tear gas and smoke bombs to try to disperse the miners, who are seeking higher pay, but retreated from their roadblock in the face of the rampage.

Private television station Antenna 1 reported about 50 police were taken hostage.

"Miners are attacking in an organized way like an army," government spokesman Rasvan Popescu said. "They have taken prisoners among the policemen."

The violence erupted after the miners rejected the government's offer for more negotiations aimed at ending their 16-day-old strike and advanced on the 3,400 special troops massed along a main road to Bucharest.

Police arrested an unspecified number of miners as they tried to break through police lines.

Authorities are determined to prevent the violence from escalating. In two previous visits to the capital, in 1990 and 1991, miners rampaged for days, leaving nine people dead and dozens injured, and forcing one government to resign.

Prime Minister Radu Vasile earlier named a government team to negotiate with the miners in a nearby city. But the miners insist the premier be present.

"We want to try to defuse this situation," said Labor Minister Alexandru Athanasiu, the team leader. "I hope to have the support of miners ... as the only solution is one reached through negotiations."

The miners are pressing for 35 percent wage hikes and the equivalent of $10,000 severance pay -- demands the government says it cannot afford.

Miners make an average of $209 a month, about twice the average monthly salary.

Shouting obscenities, the miners hurled rocks and threw homemade gasoline bombs at police Thursday, surrounding one group of officers and chasing them up a hill. The police troops then retreated from the roadblock.

The clash broke out after 7,000 miners had spent the night a few miles away, considering the government's offer and deciding whether to challenge the special forces.

Troops had piled massive concrete slabs across a narrow bend in the road to deter a possible onslaught. They sang military and popular Romanian songs overnight, warming themselves by fires as temperatures dropped to below zero.

Around midday, hundreds of miners in cars and trucks approached the police blockade, throwing rocks and yelling and cursing at the troops before scattering as smoke bombs landed among them.

"We won't leave!" yelled some police troops wielding anti-riot shields at the blockade in Costesti, 120 miles northwest of Bucharest.

"You are not Romanian!" the miners shouted back, referring to their lack of support for the strike.

Thousands more miners marched behind them, reaching the site latr with their fiery leader, Miron Cozma.

It was the second time this week that a showdown caused injuries. Twenty-four miners and police were injured on Monday, the day the march began.

The striking miners set off from the western Jiu Valley on Monday, breaking through police lines and clambering over roadblocks, clashing with police several times.

They paused in their march to Bucharest on Wednesday upon hearing that anti-riot troops were waiting.