Cav's Place

Monday, the Special Commission formed to supposedly investigate the Rosia Montana matter was finally voting on its report, so a message posted around 12:45 PM asked people to once again gather across the road from the Chamber of Deputies entrance at 5:30 PM. The description mentioned a flash mob, people being given sheets of paper with the names of the Special Commission’s members and asked to line up along the park fence and hold them, therefore not hindering traffic in any way, yet the gendarmes refused to even allow that. As a result, the protesters moved across the road from the other entrance on that side of the Parliament building, where reports state that their numbers grew to around 40, but that wasn’t enough for the gendarmes either, so after further pointless negotiations they were carded and eventually decided to leave around 6:45 PM.

While no other street protests directly related to this movement took place in Bucharest before Sunday, a few other events were announced, starting with an exhibit titled “Visual Identities for Social Activism in Romania”, which opened Tuesday at 6 PM and closed Friday evening. Wednesday’s event, on the other hand, was the students’ march, some known activists and other protesters who regularly take part in this movement joining in order to show solidarity and the students, unlike the teachers or the medical workers, having no problems welcoming their support. Then not much else happened here over the next few days, since a number of known activists and other regular protesters had left or were leaving for Mosna, where they helped the locals finally win the battle against a company entering their fields, destroying their crops and terrorizing those who opposed its efforts to prospect for underground resources. A smaller number returned to Pungesti as well, yet at the same time a delegation from Pungesti arrived here on Friday, to file charges against their mayor and present evidence related to the way in which he obtained the land he later granted to Chevron. Finally, after most had returned, a charity concert was organized here Saturday, starting at 9 PM, reports stating that over 200 people attended and over 2200 RON were raised for the Save Rosia Montana campaign.

Twelfth Sunday, eleventh Sunday march: It was a weird evening, which once again started at 4 PM, when people were asked to gather at the statues. Same as a week before, no march was planned, but that’s where the similarities ended, because this time around no events or activities were specified in the event description or in any of the messages posted by the known activists. As a result, the few people who showed up on time had little to do except chat with each other and wonder what was going to happen, seeing as the only thing being set up was a “Rosia Montana touristic and cultural spot”, which eventually became the “Rosia Montana cultural spot” because the sign wasn’t big enough for all the words.
Eventually, after the known activists arrived as well and we could all see that the most notable item brought was a giant banner, it was clear that we were only looking at a simple, regular protest, which finally started around 5:45 PM. Unfortunately, not even that worked out too well, since some of the known activists obviously meant to focus mainly on speeches, which is usually a quick way to make most protesters lose patience and interest, and they made it even worse by allowing others to take the loudspeaker and say whatever was on their mind even when that involved mixing issues or even rambling about topics that any rational individual clearly saw were unrelated. As a result, at some point a few drummers sat on the oversized vents that are used as an improvised stage whenever something happens in that area and started drumming, the crowd, which I was estimating at around 350 at the time, quickly splitting in two, more and more turning their backs on the speakers as time went on. Since people also started leaving after that point, the evening seemed set to end extremely early and, quite frankly, be an embarrassment.
That all changed when, around 7:15 PM, Alex asked everyone to come in front of the “stage”, thanked the drummers, made a short speech and, after what seemed to be a brief whispered conversation with a couple of other known activists, announced that we were to march towards the Government building. Nobody expected that, both protesters and gendarmes were taken completely by surprise, but we immediately got moving, going through the Old Town when the line the gendarmes hastily formed prevented us from heading towards Victoriei Square. When the march started, I was estimating that at most 300 people were left, most mainstream media sources even saying 200, but our numbers increased along with our energy and I’ll say we were at least 500 by the time we made it out of the Old Town. More probably joined later as well, but I didn’t try to make other estimates after that point and I haven’t seen many protesters post theirs either, the only other numbers coming from a few mainstream media sources which generally limited themselves to saying “hundreds”, only one going as far as “at least 1000”.
However many we were, we then headed towards the Parliament building, strangely finding both the street and the building itself enveloped in darkness when we got there. The gendarmes also seemed to be getting quite annoyed and one of them actually shouted at me to get on the street and shoved me as I was calmly walking on the sidewalk, slightly ahead of the column, and searching for the new pair of batteries I had with me but didn’t initially want to use, thinking I’ll take fewer pictures than I eventually did. That was shortly before we were asked to clear the road, a line being formed to first stop us from continuing forward and then to attempt to surround us, which would have given us no way to do what we were being told to do unless we broke through or slipped past them. Thankfully, however, we managed to do just that and kept going on Unirii Boulevard.
Once on Unirii, things seemed peaceful once again and there were no further incidents until we reached Unirii Square, around 8:05 or 8:10 PM, and stopped. Some wanted to keep going, but others sat down, shouted at the rest to do the same and everyone gathered there. As a result, we were quickly surrounded by a large number of gendarmes and, though that was obviously impossible at that point unless we suddenly developed the ability to jump or fly over them, repeatedly told to clear the road, an official statement released Monday also saying that criminal charges will be filed against those found to have participated in willingly blocking the road. Personally, I found occupying that intersection quite pointless and therefore was one of the very few who stayed on a small piece of sidewalk that the gendarmes were allowing us on, between the two sides of the road, but it was clear that not all of us could fit there even if the rest would have wanted to and it was only at 8:25 PM that we were allowed anywhere else, though Claudiu and Alex had asked the other protesters to leave the road at least five minutes before and many were trying to do just that.
After that point, we seemed to be heading back towards University Square, the gendarmes rushing ahead and keeping the road blocked with their vans as a result, even though we were all on the sidewalk by then. However, it wasn’t long before we turned left and once again ended up in the Old Town, walking rather aimlessly for a while, even the known activists admitting they didn’t know where we were going until Alex stopped and asked people whether they wanted to get back to the statues or to once again try to head towards Victoriei, the latter option apparently being favored by the vast majority. Some of those who disagreed broke away at that point, some of them walking away and others heading towards University Square on their own. Reports state that some of those who reached the statues were carded as well, though they clearly weren’t breaking any law by being there.
Since we were once again walking on narrow streets that could be easily blocked by gendarmes and our numbers were dropping, time was against us and, after finding the most obvious routes already closed when we got there, a group of protesters stopped and tried to quickly come up with a plan to get us out of that situation. However, by then it was probably already too late for plans and, probably noticing that, a few others rushed past, shouting at the rest of us to run as well, in what was becoming a rather desperate attempt to beat the gendarmes to the next intersection. When that failed, while some wasted precious moments arguing or trying to break through, others rushed back and onto the next parallel street, the fastest managing to reach Elisabeta Boulevard and then cross it to reach Cismigiu Park before the gendarmes blocked that route as well. Strangely for me, since I round to the nearest five minutes, the time I wrote down for this was 8:53 PM.
That was basically the end of the evening, since the gendarmes formed another cordon behind the protesters who weren’t fast enough to make it through and held them there, between the two cordons, for around an hour, carding and fining about half of them for taking part in an unannounced protest before finally letting them all go after people from a television station whose reporters were also held and carded there started making calls. Those of us who weren’t trapped could do nothing but watch for a few minutes, until the appearance of another group of gendarmes made us first withdraw to the park entrance and eventually, ten minutes after crossing Elisabeta Boulevard, run away and scatter in different directions when yet another group advanced towards us and then gave chase.
As far as incidents go, on top of those described above, perhaps the most notable was when a line of gendarmes that otherwise tried to stop people from continuing on the street extended onto the sidewalk and a woman was shoved forcefully before they eventually stepped aside. At the time I was sure it was a man, but that picture makes it quite clear that she was the one who was pushed into me as I was also trying to keep going legally, on the sidewalk, making me hit my chest with the camera hard enough that it still hurts a fair amount when I move even now, four days later.
As a conclusion, I’ll say that such a sudden march was necessary to save the evening and perhaps, at that point, even the entire movement, but I’ll also agree with those who say that those who led the crowd eventually went too far and should have given up after Unirii Square. In fact, as I stated above, I didn’t even see a point in occupying that place and didn’t actually participate in doing so, but returning to University Square was likely an even worse idea at that point, so let’s say that blocking that intersection for those 15 minutes or so was intended to make a point while we still had a chance to do so, yet using narrow streets to try to push forward yet again towards a place that the gendarmes were obviously set on stopping us from reaching was quite clearly a bad idea when we were so few and the fact that nobody even had a clear and solid plan was even worse. Admittedly, I went with that group as well, but I did so partly out of curiosity, wanting to have the whole story at the end of the day, and partly because I was more afraid of dropping back and being left more or less alone in an area still packed with gendarmes than of what may be waiting ahead. In addition, I tried to stay on the sidewalk as much as possible, paid close attention, reacted quickly and ran as fast as I could whenever necessary. Many others, on the other hand, seemed quite oblivious to the fact that we were playing a dangerous game at that point and the result was what it was.