The young journalist Dana Deac, producer of the reportage show "Prezentul simplu" from Antena 1, is well known to the viewing public for her seriousness and professionalism. His moral character, devotion and the warmth with which he approaches those who are at an impasse have made Dana Deac a true institution to which those who need help turn with confidence.
- Ms. Dana Deac, what does the name of the show you produce actually express? The present we are living is not at all simple, on the contrary, it is a real labyrinth.
- I called this show "The Simple Present" because everything around is so complicated, and we passionately complicate even the simplest situations. Our desire and ambition is to bring to the viewers only topics that interest them, in which they can recognize themselves with all their problems.
Then, we sought to give a helping hand to bitter people. At first glance, the situations we focused on might have seemed particular, but they are a synecdoche of our state of mind: very poor people, people without any support, people who had suffered judicial errors found understanding with us and, not once, a solution to their troubles. So, from the big, negative phenomena that haunt our society, to particular problems - they all found an echo on the show "Prezentul simplu". Mafia without a party - One of the big phenomena, which is undermining the Romanian society from the foundations, is corruption, which you often X-ray in your broadcasts. Does your brave and risky approach resonate? - Last year, in May, I personally carried out an investigation in connection with the Stryker business, a medical equipment business, harmful to the Romanian state. Thanks to the show "Prezentul simplu", which broadcasted the report about this business, we, the Romanian citizens, are perhaps 25 million dollars richer. But corruption is not just a phenomenon, it does not belong to a single business, it is a state of fact in Romania. It is almost impossible to dwell on corruption because, unfortunately, it exists everywhere. It is a metastasis. - Your latest investigations concern the illegal adoption of children. How did you discover this "state of affairs"?
- The press has been writing about international adoptions since 1990. Therefore, I did not dwell on this topic for the first time. I managed, with the approval of Mr. General Berechet, head of the General Police Inspectorate, to consult a series of files. I discovered that the judges had been bribed with a cartridge by Kent or other officials with a hundred dollars. Instead, the sums earned from these adoptions by the so-called "intermediaries" were fabulous.
- Have the files been submitted to the Court for trial?
- Yes, only that many files of the people involved in such transactions (because I cannot call them adoptions) are still lying, either at different levels of the Police, or at the Prosecutor's Office, or have not yet been finalized by the prosecutors and in - they arrived in court. There are enormously many people involved in such transactions, some with very high positions. Maybe that's why things stopped in place. Because otherwise I can't explain how an alleged accomplice in the theft of four chickens was sent, innocent, to prison, while people in high positions, who were guilty of corruption, are still in the same prisons functions or even advanced.
- What is the illegality/corruption of those involved in an international adoption?
- I called them "mafia without a party", because, here, international adoptions were, since 1980, during Ceausescu's time, a very shady activity. But in the nine years, under Ceausescu, Romania offered 600 children to foreigners through international adoptions, while from "90 to "99 there were over 24,000 international adoptions. And we still cannot be sure of this figure, because there have been many cases of fraudulent crossing of the border, adoptions not declared as such. There are people who testify that in the period "90-"95 whole planes with children went abroad. Until 1996, there was a situation, carried out by officials of the Prosecutor's Office, from which it is clear that in just a few months - between February 1995 and October 1995 - the Romanian Committee for Adoptions (Cra) granted only two international adoptions, while at the Passport Directorate we have over 3000 international passports for Romanian children. None of these children had passed through Cra. No one asked themselves whether these children, thousands of children, are living well or not, or if they are actually living and what It happened to them. From this uncertainty, horrible speculations like organ trafficking started.
The illegality consists in the fact that many children were brought across the border without a legal adoption sentence, without a correct address of the adoptive parents or even their correct name. I have a list of ten children adopted in Spain, and the addresses are not correct. We tried to find them on the Internet, using various websites, to discover a phone number, to contact these families and ask, for example: "What is Sorin doing?" or Ana-Maria, or Elena. Unfortunately, they are practically extinct.
Big business with children
The illegality also consists in the fact that no taxes were charged for the huge sums in dollars - approximately 30,000 dollars for a child. These amounts have not been declared. If taxes had been levied - as is correct - the amounts thus obtained would have helped the establishments - today on the verge of extinction - where the children are kept. - Are there concrete cases of people involved in such transactions?
- Many articles from "Free Romania" published until 1996 talk about a lawyer whom I also asked to give me an interview, in the investigation I am doing. It is about Ileana Bustea, who from the 1990s until today, despite the scandals she caused in the Italian, Spanish or Israeli press, sees herself further from business, undisturbed. The articles in "Romania libera" even called prosecutors or public officials who covered such affairs. And even if in December 1996 an article in "Libera Romania" proclaimed: "Power has changed, it's time to do justice", until today - we are in the year 2000 - justice still not it was done, and my colleague's cry remained only a cry in the wilderness. I can say that my approach didn't bother anyone either, there were no reactions. Although I asked the General Prosecutor's Office next to the Supreme Court of Justice to inform me if there are files regarding the people we are investigating, I was not given any answer. When talking about corruption, the reaction is one of perplexity, of total coldness. Even more: if someone insists on discovering the corrupt, he faces many "barriers". Despite the silence of the Prosecutor's Office, I still obtained, like any journalist, official data. But I used other means than the strictly official ones.
I collaborated very well with the General Police Inspectorate, because from the beginning, General Berechet gave his consent and I was supported by the Brigade for Combating Organized Crime as much as possible. Exactly during the investigation, the two police officers who were in charge of the adoptions were changed from their position. The same Mrs. Ileana Bustea, lawyer, filed a complaint with the Prosecutor's Office against them. The accusation was that the two would have exceeded their duties. However, following the investigation of the Military Prosecutor's Office, the two were found not guilty (I even have the resolution of the Carp prosecutor). They are, indeed, innocent, but they still haven't returned to their jobs. But that remains the problem of the Ministry of the Interior. The sin is that such situations make us think. Why were they not reinstated? Why did lawyer Bustea's complaints carry so much weight, despite the fact that the two police officers were only doing their jobs?
It is sad that this troubled situation in the field of international adoptions made in Romania was the subject of some press campaigns abroad. One of the cases investigated by me, of the Italian Amatulli, produced a huge scandal in 1995. The president of Italy at the time, Scalfaro, the Italian Parliament and the empowered commission from the European Parliament accused Romania of illegal practices. Lawyer Ileana Bustea separated two brothers - a girl and a boy - entrusted by the Court to the Italian Amatulli family. She convinced the children's natural parents that the Amatulli family would give up the girl and thus obtained a second consent for Daniela Elena, but this time in favor of a Spanish family. Very quickly and inexplicably easily, he took the girl out of the orphanage and gave her to the Spaniards, who took her to Spain. And the Amatulli family, who didn't know about this whole story, consider even now, after five years, that a girl was kidnapped from them, they are still the legal parents of the girl.
Justice in two speeds
- You have touched on a hot topic. How will we be able to enter the European Community, when some of our honorable lawyers are international criminals, and Romania is considered a homeland of corruption?
- I would not blame these few, very few lawyers. After so many steps and investigations, we came to the conclusion that the illegal adoptions were made with the tacit support of the authorities. I would rather blame the Romanian authorities, which should have been the guarantor of legality and fairness. The Romanian authorities are guilty because they allowed this phenomenon to exist. Not even a high state official - paid from taxpayers' money - cared that Romania is seen so badly in the world. My shock is that after these four years, which we all waited for with so much hope, the time for justice has not yet come. For now, in Romania the law works with two measures: one, drastic, applied to many, the other, applied to some at high levels, which admits illegalities and resounding wrongdoings.
- Mrs. Dana Deac, you are a respected investigative reporter. What essential quality should such a journalist have?
- A quality that can be seen in many of my colleagues - both in the print media and on television - morality. Because, if you are not moral as an individual, you cannot make yourself heard. When you discover something, you must necessarily have morals to be credible. And, thank God, there are still moral journalists left in Romania!