The February 1990 Mineriad was a mineriad that occurred in

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north of ...

, the capital of

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

. Although it was at first non-violent, the protests later escalated. This Mineriad happened 18–19 February, less than a month after the

January 1990 Mineriad The January 1990 Mineriad was the first of the six mineriads that occurred in Romania. It started after a protest in the Victory Square of Bucharest was carried out on 28 January 1990 by Romanians of all ages, backgrounds and places of the countr ...

. Despite the demonstrators' pleas to non-violence, several persons started throwing stones into the

Victoria Palace The Victoria Palace () is a government building on the large Victory Square () in Bucharest, housing the Prime Minister of Romania and his cabinet. The Victory Palace was designed in 1937 to house the Foreign Ministry, and nearly complete in 19 ...

Government building. Riot police and army forces intervened to restore order, and on the same night, 4,000 miners headed to Bucharest. Opposition leaders and independent media speculated that the demonstration was manipulated by the Securitate and the National Salvation Front. Miners maintained their relative innocence of the violence, claiming that the agitation and most of the brutality was the work of Ion Iliescu's government agents who had infiltrated and disguised themselves as miners.

References

{{Ion Iliescu Mineriads Protests in Romania History of Romania (1989–present) History of Bucharest Jiu Valley Riots and civil disorder in Romania 1990 riots February 1990 events in Romania