Institute for the Investigation of Communist Crimes and the Memory of the Romanian Exile

Institute for the Investigation of Communist Crimes and the Memory of the Romanian Exile (Romanian: Institutul de Investigare a Crimelor Comunismului şi Memoria Exilului Românesc, IICCMER), formerly Institute for the Investigation of Communist Crimes in Romania, is a government-sponsored organization whose mission is to investigate the crimes and abuses conducted while Romania was under communist rule, prior to December 1989.

Following the Romanian Revolution, Romania’s Communist government was overthrown and a democratic president was elected in May 1990.

The main objectives of the Institute are the gathering of data, documents and testimonies regarding all oppressive actions exerted by the system, and notifying the state’s criminal investigation departments.

[4] According to a 2006 report presented to Romanian President Traian Băsescu, up to one million people were killed or persecuted by communist authorities in Romania.

[5] In December 2009, France 24, the French-based news agency, reported on the Institute’s progress in documenting the communist crimes in Romania, including finding the buried remains of some of the many thousands of people alleged to have been murdered.