The soldiers who helped overthrow the Ceausescu regime won another victory Saturday when the provisional government appointed a new defense minister of their choosing to replace the one they forced out.
Victor Anastase Stanculescu, a lieutenant general who was the economic minister, was named to replace Defense Minister Nicolae Militaru.The appointment climaxed a weeklong protest by junior and middle-level officers who demanded the dismissal of 74-year-old Militaru because they said he had not carried out the democratic reforms called for in the December revolution that toppled hard-line Communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu.
At Stanculescu's installation ceremony Saturday, interim President Ion Iliescu said the new minister "has prestige in the army and is appreciated by its command." Militaru, Iliescu said, "did not succeed in establishing a real communication with the army's command, aggravating the situation in the army to a point at which it became a source of tension for all of society."
Iliescu said Romania still faces "a grave situation of the political, social and economic spheres." He did not say who would head the economic ministry.