Unrest set off by silencing of cleric
By Ian Traynor in Budapest
20 December 1989
The seeds of popular revolt that appear to be taking root across Romania were sown last Thursday in the north-western town of Timisoara when President Nicolae Ceaușescu’s security forces moved to evict the Protestant pastor, László Tőkés, who has long been a thorn in the side of the regime.
Under a court ruling, Pastor Tőkés was to be shifted east after the pressure was put on church elders who acceded to the regime’s order to move the troublesome clergy away from the town.
When the security forces sought to empty the pastor’s house of its possessions, a human chain of several dozen formed around the house, setting in train a flood of protest that was to escalate into what appears to have been a massacre on Sunday.
By Friday night, according to the prominent Paris-based Romanian activist, Mr Mihnea Berindei, the chain around the pastor’s house was 200 strong. It was at this point that police initially peacefully and totally unsuccessfully, sought to persuade the protesters to disperse.
But their numbers grew throughout Saturday. By the evening, many Romanians joined the ethnic Hungarians and the first cries of ‘wake up Romanians’ were heard. Another prominent call was for libertate, the Romanian word for freedom. It appears that although the initial protest was by the ethnic Hungarians seeking to protect Pastor Tőkés, himself a Hungarian, Romanians were quick to join the demonstrations.
There are reported to have been minor clashes with security forces on Saturday evening, but no notable casualties. It was on Sunday that the crowd turned ugly. The crowd swelled to around 10,000, making it the biggest protest in the country since the bread protests in Brasov in 1987.
Eye-witnesses say that the demonstrators marched on the local government offices and occupied them. They tore down pictures of President Ceaușescu, cut the Socialist emblem from the national flag, and set fire to any red flags they came across.
The response of the security forces was first to bring in police. As demonstrations escalated, water cannon and fire engines appeared. Some accounts say that the fire engines were attacked, overturned, and set alight. It was at this stage that tanks and troops wielding guns and naked bayonets were introduced and gunfire was heard.
By Monday the protests had spread across the region, and smaller demonstrations were reported in Arad, Cluj, Oradea and Brașov, while the security forces were mobilised across Transylvania and all the borders sealed.
East and West leaders join in condemning killings
By our foreign staff
20 December 1989
Outrage and concern at the violence in Romania during the weekend came from all parts of the world yesterday, with the Soviet Union and the US in the lead.
The White House said the repression was ‘totally unjustified’ and that the US would consult its allies on a coordinated response. European foreign ministers meeting in Brussels, condemned ‘in the strongest possible terms’ the measures taken by the Romanian security forces.
The Soviet Foreign Minister, Mr Eduard Shevardnaze, was foremost amongst those who deplored the violence. Questioned as he left Nato headquarters in Brussels, he said ‘if indeed some loss of life has occurred, I can express my very profound regret’. The Soviet Union was categorically opposed to the use of force, he added.
The Soviet news agency, Tass was also explicit about developments in Romania, stating that ‘tension was high’ inside Timisoara. It reported that Romanian state institutions were under intensified guard, and that the frontiers were closed to tourists.
There was no official comment from China which has had close relations with Romania’s President Ceaușescu.
Ceaușescu unleashes carnage: Protests spread throughout Romania
By Ian Traynor in Budapest
22 December
The streets of Bucharest turned into Europe’s own killing fields yesterday, as security forces mowed down demonstrators demanding an end to the regime of President Nicolae Ceaușescu.
The number of casualties was unknown, but a correspondent for the Yugoslav news agency Tanjug said at least 20 people had died as the security forces encircled a crowd of several thousand protesters and sprayed them with automatic gunfire.
“The police shot at everything that moved,” Tanjug reported from the scene.
The violence in Bucharest coincided with reports of widespread unrest across the country. Further military action was said to have occurred in several places.
The escalation of the Romanian uprising fuelled speculation about the imminent collapse of the Ceaușescu dictatorship. While it appeared that Mr Ceaușescu would flinch at nothing in attempting to hold on to power, Budapest was abuzz with rumours that he may be planning to seek refuge in China.
As the protest got under way in Bucharest, the strongest evidence yet emerged concerning the massacre in the north western town of Timisoara at the weekend.
The demonstrators ripped up the national flag and shouts of “Yesterday Timisoara, today Bucharest”.
In Timisoara itself, where the clashes began last weekend, tens of thousands were reported back on the streets, defying a state of emergency, a curfew, and a ban on assembly of more than five persons imposed on the region after Wednesday evening’s protest up by to 100,000 people.
The massive crowd was broken up into smaller groupings of several thousand each, as helicopters buzzed the crowd and armoured vehicles drove at speed into the crowd, crushing protestors. It was one of these smaller groups that are believed to have been the focus of the massacre. A group of several thousand, mainly young students was penned in by troops, who then opened fire, shooting indiscriminately.
The Hungarian Foreign Minister, Mr Gyula Horn, stated that between 1,000 and 2,000 people were killed in the Timișoara violence.
At the very end of a year of revolutionary and almost totally peaceful change across eastern Europe, the last Warsaw Pact bastion of Stalinism appeared on the brink of falling in an orgy of violence.
Ceaușescu goes down in blood: overthrow follows a week of carnage
Petyo Petkov and Michael Simmons in Bucharest
23 December 1989
President Nicolae Ceaușescu was overthrown yesterday and became a fugitive in the country he has ruled for 24 years as remnants of his personal troops fought bitter last battles with regular soldiers and demonstrators in the streets of the Romanian capital.
Mystery surrounded the whereabouts of the former President and his wife, Elena, last night. Bucharest television said that they had left the country. Later reports suggested the couple had been captured. Their son, Nicu, was shown on television under arrest.
(All articles are edited extracts.)
