Romanian President Traian Basescu on Wednesday denied allegations he had collaborated with the feared Securitate secret police during communism, and vowed to ensure its archives were made fully public, Reuters reported. Basescu, elected in 2004, ordered the opening of Securitate files last year as a cathartic move for Romania which shed communism in a bloody revolt against dictator Nicolae Ceausescu in 1989. The poor Black Sea state is among many countries in the former Soviet bloc struggling to come to terms with their past. Allegations of collaboration against politicians and civil servants in Romania have fuelled distrust in public figures and institutions. Former centrist president Emil Constantinescu has accused Basescu of collaborating with the Securitate under communism. Dan Voiculescu, the head of the Conservative Party, a small grouping in the ruling coalition, said this week he had proof of Basescu's collaboration. Basescu worked as a captain on Romania's biggest commercial ship during the Ceausescu era. He said he wrote routine reports for his superiors, but did not cooperate with the secret police. "I did not sign an agreement with the Securitate ... All I did was reports from my trips," Basescu said in a news conference. "I understand I need to make my dossier public and I will." "I want to ensure the process of revealing the files goes all the way. The longer we wait the worse it will become. And it is impossible to imagine Romania entering the EU with the files intact," he said. Romania hopes to join the European Union next year but faces a risk of a one-year delay if the bloc decides it needs more time for reforms. In recent weeks, various independent groups have put pressure on the Council for Studying the Securitate Archives (CNSAS), which holds most of Securitate files, to speed up checks on politicians, journalists and other public figures. Under Romanian law, the CNSAS is required to search the files for signs of collaboration among politicians and other public figures. The CNSAS board then votes on whether each person had collaborated or not. A broad public debate has started in Romania about guilt and reconciliation after decades of suffering under the Securitate, which had used hundreds or even millions of informers to knit a web of repression and fear under communism. Commentators say former Securitate agents have wielded some power over Romania's political and business life since the fall of Ceausescu by using information from dossiers for blackmail.
