Romanian Historians Protest Curbs on Access to Archives

Romanian historians have signed an open letter protesting against the decision of the Romanian National Archives, ANR, to limit access to documents in the National Archival Fund.

"The consequences of this decision are limiting the access of historians and citizens to historical and public information. These documents do not present any security risks for Romania as they were created before 1989, some during World War II or even before," said the historians.

The petition, signed by 16 historians, researchers or academic figures active in history, was published on contributors.org web portal.

The move comes after several researchers accused the Interior Ministry and the police's secret service, the DIPI, of banning historians from accessing all archival documents marked as secret, regardless of their date.

On May 26, the ANR announced that it was restricting access to classified information in the archive until a complete verification was done of the content of the documents.

The petitioners argue that many of these documents contain important data and information about the crimes and illegalities committed by the former communist regime in Romania which collapsed in 1989.

"We expect the ANR leadership to find solutions for the declassification of managed documents or, at least, not to adopt the points of view of some bodies, which have nothing in common with historical and archival research," the petition said.

The signatories say they don't expect much from the police's secret service, the successor to the infamous "Securitate", the political police in the communist era.

They say that the ANR is not subordinated to DIPI, and they expect ANR to defend the law which governs archives in Romania, and not to...