Re: [romania_eu_list] Fwd: [balkans] Petition: Free Research in Romania

Fri, 09 Dec 2005 13:28:05 -0800

Salutari!
Eu nu inteleg de unde, in mod repetat, in ultima vreme, fiecare strain caruia nu-i convine ceva legat de Romania se trezeste ca vrea sa faca reclamatii.
 
Eu nu zic ca sistemul nu are carentele lui, ca nu exista birocratie si multe alte bile negre, care poate, intr-adevar, duc la concluzia ca nu meritam sa intram in UE, dar mi se pare inadmisibila atitudinea asta de discreditare, de catre niste necunoscuti, pana la urma urmei.
 
Si mai revoltator mi se pare faptul ca acea scrisoare este semnata de persoane straine, care sunt sigura, ca sunt in totala necunostinta de cauza, dar care, cand aud de Romania si ca pot sa contribuie "la binele ei" nu se dau in laturi.
 
Smaranda Colta
studenta

Ion Georgescu <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: stefanob77 <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Nov 26, 2005 10:32 AM
Subject: [balkans] Petition: Free Research in Romania
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]


           Paris-Bologna-London, 25 November 2005


Dear Colleagues and Friends,


First of all, let us introduce ourselves. We are two young scholars
interested in twentieth century Romanian history: Francois
Bocholier, an ancien élève of the Ecole normale supérieure (Ulm),
who is to defend a PhD thesis on the political strategies of the
Transylvanian Romanian élites in the '20s (Sorbonne University,
Paris), and Stefano Bottoni who has recently got his PhD in
Contemporary European History (University of Bologna) with a thesis
on the Stalinist nationality policy in Romania focused on the short-
lived Hungarian Autonomous Region (1952-1960).

We are calling on you to protest against the difficult conditions of
research that we have been experiencing for years, along with many
other scholars (both foreigners and Romanians). We are in no doubt
that many of you have shared our situation when doing research in
Romania, even after the end of the Communist régime. Based on
personal experience and background information collected by Romanian
officials, we have been able to put together a broad documentation
on the present research conditions both in the National Archives
(Arhivele Nationale Istorice Centrale), based in Bucharest, and in
the county branches (Directie judetene), especially those in
Transylvania, the area our study has been focusing on. Work on this
documentation was completed in summer of 2005, and will be made
accessible to those who may be interested in it. Let us give you
just two examples which illustrate how bad the conditions of
research in Romania have become:

-       Since 2003 the internal rules for access and consultation of
documents in the National Archives have been getting worse: the use
of laptops has been expressly forbidden; the scholars are not
allowed to consult freely all the inventories; the internal
management document makes official discrimination between Romanian
scholars and non-Romanians.
-       Since 2001 the number of former police officers who are
employed by National Archives has increased considerably. The
current assistant director himself is general of the Romanian
Gendarmerie. The Faculty of Archival Studies of the Romanian Police
Academy is a military body, that is to say a branch of the Ministry
of the Interior, and not a civil institution. All its graduates
enjoy the status of police officers.

Let us add now only a brief remark concerning another archive whose
study is crucial for recostructing the recent history of Romania
and, broadly speaken, of Communist East-Europe as a whole: the so-
called Securitate archives (Arhiva Consiliului National pentru
Studierea Arhivelor Securitatii – ACNSAS). Although already
possessing a research pass for the National Archives, Stefano
Bottoni had to pay (as a foreign scholar) a sum of 16 million lei
(more than 500$) to the National Treasury in order to get access to
this institution in late 2003. We must mention that Romanian
scholars have been also requested to pay a 1 million lei fee for
getting this permission. François Bocholier applied for the
permission, which was granted him in July 2004, but when he finally
got into the archive, he discovered that there was no list of fonds
(inventar) relating to the personalities he was searching for. Then
Bocholier was told to wait some time to allow CNSAS to carry on the
necessary investigations. Unfortunately, the positive answer came
too late for him, after nearly one and a half year of complete
silence.
We are informed that for undefined "administrative reasons" not a
single new pass for access to the ACNSAS has been issued since April
2005. As Stefano Bottoni personally experienced, during 2005
research conditions severely worsened even in this institution,
which was formerly considered more transparent and user-friendly
than the National Archives. As a consequence, research has been
virtually blocked.

        All this is happening on the eve of the Romanian accession
to the European Union, an event of utmost importance for Romania. As
young scholars and European citizens deeply involved in and
fascinated by Romanian past, we strongly believe that such a
situation should not be tolerated any more. In our opinion, EU
enlargement should represent not only a sequence of political
decisions, but first of all an occasion to restabilish in Central-
Eastern Europe some basic values like consistency, transparency, the
rule of law, and last but not least, free access to information.

We are asking you to join our civil action by signing this document,
which will be addressed to the Romanian Government, to the European
Union and the Council of Europe and also to a professional body such
as the International Council on Archives. We will also publicize
this protest in the Romanian and international media, in order to
urge the Romanian authorities to address this situation and
guarantee for the future fair conditions of access to the public
archives to all scholars, without discrimination on the basis of
nationality, institutional affiliation, or research topic.


Thank you in advance for your attention and for your help.


Sincerely yours

Francois Bocholier (Sorbonne University, Paris)
Stefano Bottoni  (Bologna University)
Dennis Deletant (SSEES, London)


People who already joined the action:

Marius Turda (Oxford Brookes University)
Mark Kramer (Harvard University)
Wilko Graf von Hardenberg (PhD Candidate, University of Cambridge)
Sandrine Kott (Geneva University)
Stefano Petrungaro (PhD Candidate, Venice University)
Francesco Benvenuti (Bologna University)
Gérard Emisse (Min. Culture, Paris)
Maria Serena Piretti (Bologna University)
Lavinia Stan (St. Francis Xavier University, Canada)
Marius Oprea (IRIR, Bucharest)

PS: If you know of others who might be interested in joining this
action, please send an e-mail to us at the following addresses:
[EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED] and
[EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]


Thank you!




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