Communists want to give Ceausescu proper burial

Romania's communists want the body of former communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu exhumed so that he can be given a decent burial.

Cristian Ion Nicolea, the leader of the Workers' Party (PMR), says that they also want the body to be examined to find the exact cause of death.

Many Romanians still suspect that video footage of the executions was faked.

Ceausescu and wife Elena were buried in secret after they were executed by firing squad during the revolution which toppled them in December 1989.

They were then buried in unmarked graves in Bucharest's Ghencea cemetery.

The graves have since been marked with headstones and have become a place of pilgrimage for Romanians made bitter by changes which have left them poorer than under the dictator.

The PMR, which does not accept former communists of the Ceausescu period as members, says that it wants the body of the dictator to be exhumed and re-buried with full Christian rites in his home town of Scornicesti.

The party has now requested newly re-elected president Ion Iliescu - a former member of Ceausescu's inner circle - to allow the exhumation to take place.

However, lawyers say that any exhumation can only take place with the consent of the Ceausescus' remaining children, Zoe and Valentin, who still live in Bucharest.