Police union head: Gendarmerie's protest handling completely unprofessional, diversion ploy to justify use of force

The Gendarmerie's handling during the anti-government protest on Friday evening was completely unprofessional, as clearing the entire square would not have been necessary, and available information points to a diversion staged to justify the gendarmes' blunt-force intervention, Dumitru Coarna, leader of the Police and Contractual Staff National Trade Union (SNPPC) told AGERPRES. 

"I want prosecutors to investigate this violence I saw on Friday evening, and all those who misstepped and broke the law - both on the side of the gendarmes and and of the provocateurs - to be held accountable, and I am referring here to the two or three groups that attempted various violent behavior to provoke the gendarmes; if they were acting on someone's commission, the prosecutors should provides us the answer," said Coarna. 

He explained that there are a lot of unclear aspects about the events on that evening. 

"I remarked a lot of contradictions: Mrs. Minister said that a military prosecutor was at the scene, in the square, the military prosecutors say they had no representatives there. Also look at the reaction of the [injured] gendarme girl who exclaims 'Where the hell have you taken me, bros?'," the union leader said. 

In his opinion, all these prove that a diversion had been at play for the Gendarmerie to have a reason for a force intervention. 

"A diversion created by someone who would have been interested in provoking that intervention of the Gendarmerie, because on Saturday and Sunday you saw that nothing happened. On Friday it seems - and I am increasingly more inclined to believe - that there has been a plan to provoke and create the circumstances for the Gendarmerie's use of force," Coarna argues. 

According to him, the Gendarmerie leaders should step down after this incident. Coarna also said the presence in the law enforcement formation deployed at such a high-scale mission, of a young woman aged just 23, was completely unprofessional. 

"However, I don't think the Gendarmerie has en-bloc issues, but just at the top. This is where things have not been properly managed," he added. 

Asked if Interior Minister Carmen Dan should resign after these incidents, Coarna said he would not give a direct response, because it would give rise to political interpretation. "I can tell you just this: this is the Interior Ministry's weakest management team since the Revolution," the police union leader said.