February 1999 Mineriad

It began on 16 February 1999, when 2,000–2,500 miners from the Jiu Valley left for Bucharest in around 50 buses as a protest against the 18-year long jail sentence given in absentia to Miron Cozma, the "leader" of the miners, for his actions in the September 1991 Mineriad against the Romanian Government.

[3] Cozma tried to escape on a bus, but he was surrounded and arrested on 17 February at around 9:00 EET along with over 500 miners.

[1][2] Some 15 miners reportedly lost their lives due to the mineriad, but this has not been confirmed by official sources.

The case of Constantin Harag is well known; he was a miner who died at the age of 49 during the event and who was buried in the village.

[1] Some time later, on 20 February 2011,[3] Cozma (who was liberated from prison on 2 December 2007)[4] returned to Stoenești to commemorate those who died during the mineriad and asked the Romanian authorities to investigate the culprits of the deaths, who were still unknown.