Monday, May. 07, 1990

World Notes ROMANIA

Hope for the future is fading among many Romanians, only four months after the overthrow of dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. Last week crowds of up to 4,000 opponents of the National Salvation Front, the transitional government that took power after Ceausescu's hurried execution, protested in Bucharest against interim President Ion Iliescu, whom they accuse of still sympathizing with communism. Romanian newspapers and witnesses reported that police beat some of the demonstrators, a charge denied by the government.

The demonstrators believe the Front holds an unfair advantage in parliamentary elections slated for May 20. Some charge that the Front may attempt to rig the balloting. Critics say almost 90% of the group's members are former Communists. Iliescu's vow that a "return to the past is impossible" has failed to reassure his detractors. Says Sergiu Cunescu, chairman of the center-right Social Democratic Party: "People live in fear."