BUCHAREST, Romania, March 20 (UPI) -- Romania may be ready to prosecute crimes committed during 40 years of communist regimes beginning in the 1950s.
A three-person task force called the Institute for the Investigation of the Crimes of Communism thus far has been thwarted from its task by successive governments since the execution of the dictator Nicolae Ceausescu in December 1989, reports the International Herald Tribune.
But now the group led by Marius Oprea, 41, will have six years to complete the task of dealing with decades of tyranny that included one of the most ruthless secret services to suppress dissent.
Oprea told the newspaper previous governments did not officially condemn the communist regimes because it would have meant condemning themselves.
"Under a different guise, the Communist Party and the Securitate, the secret police, was always in charge here since 1989," said Oprea. He was appointed head of the task force by Prime Minister Calin Popescu-Tariceanu, who was elected in December 2004 after the former communists led by Adrian Nastase and President Ion Iliescu were defeated.
