IntMin Carmen Dan: Gendarmes do not report to politicians, other aspects to be dealt with in briefing to CSAT

Minister of Internal Affairs Carmen Dan said Saturday, at the seat of the Ministry, that the gendarmes will not report to the politicians, but that if required, she will present national security aspects related to Friday's anti-government rally at a meeting of the Supreme Council for National Defence (CSAT).

"I have no intention whatsoever to mix politics with operational activities. However, in my capacity as Minister of Internal Affairs, there are some remarks I want to make, and I am doing this because of the landslide of accusations from politicians and not only that emerged in the past few hours against the Gendarmerie and its action. The gendarmes will not report to politicians. The Gendarmerie is a structure that complies with military law and hierarchy, but in the face of these accusations, it is my obligation to come up with clarifications," Carmen Dan said.

She explained that if requested, she will deal with national security aspects she cannot publicly tackle now - as they have to do with the responsibilities, competencies and cooperation procedures of national security agencies - in an information report to the CSAT.

Carmen Dan also specified that the Ministry of Internal Affairs had cooperated properly and as usual with the partner structures on the exchange of information prior to the rally.

The IntMin said that in her opinion President Iohannis's terming, on Friday evening, the gendarmes' intervention as brutal had been premature, and expressed hopes that the President's opinion "will not influence the impartiality that must characterize the act of justice."

"Had such violence taken place in front of the seat of any other state institution, no matter what it's called, for instance the Cotroceni Palace, would the action of the gendarmes been termed the same? Because their response would have been the same, to restore public order," Carmen Dan inquired rhetorically. AGERPRES (RO - authors: Madalina Cochinescu Verman, Cristian Lupascu, editor: Claudia Stanescu; EN - author/editor: Simona Klodnischi)