§ Mr. OppenheimTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs whether he has any information about a former lecturer at Cluj university, Romania, Mrs. Doina Cornea; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. WaldegraveMrs. Cornea was arrested, along with other Romanian dissidents, in a crackdown following a demonstration in the Romanian city of Brasov last December. Those arrests formed the subject of a demarche by the Twelve to the Romanian authorities, in January this year. Her Majesty's ambassador and his staff have since made further representations, most recently on 22 November. We shall continue to speak up on her behalf.
Mrs. Cornea apparently remains under some form of house arrest. Members of the House may have seen the courageous and moving letter that she recently published in the British press, calling on President Ceausescu to abandon his policy of forced urban and rural resettlement.
We deplore arbitrary arrests and confinement of people for expressing their opinions. Romania's record in this respect is among the worst of all the signatories of the Helsinki Final Act and Madrid concluding document. We look to the Romanian Government, as to all participants in the CSCE process, to observe in full their commitments under these documents.