The last few months have seen renewed upheavals in Romania; with the miners calling for a new government that will address the deepening economic crisis, and the Iliescu government responding with the threat to impose martial law. The scenes in the streets of Bucharest have been reminiscent of the December 1989 uprising which overthrew Nicholae Ceausescu. Within months of the 1989 revolution, Romania was torn by ethnic conflict, by the deployment of worker paramilitaries on the streets, by the reappearance of the secret police and by a fraudulent election. The revolution had been hijacked and the legacy of violence and absence of democracy have continued to haunt Romanian society.