Multimedia Mania/abacus-multimedia-mania.iso/dp/0043/00436.txt

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$Unique_ID{bob00436}
$Pretitle{}
$Title{Romania
The Revolution of December 1989}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{V. Lucretia, G.H. Calin}
$Affiliation{News Agency Rompres}
$Subject{parties
council
december
first
national
forces
demonstrators
nsf
country
political
see
pictures
see
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}
$Date{1990}
$Log{See Tribute to the Revolution*0043601.scf
}
Title:       Romania
Book:        Romania December 1989-December 1990
Author:      V. Lucretia, G.H. Calin
Affiliation: News Agency Rompres
Date:        1990

The Revolution of December 1989

[See Tribute to the Revolution: Courtesy Embassy of Romania, New York.]

PRELIMINARIES

     The most radical anti-totalitarian and anti-communist revolution in the
East European countries - the Romanian Revolution of December 1989 - swept
away one of communism's last and probably, most horrendous bulwarks in the
Continent. Quite much about it is known. It was the first live TV broadcast
revolution.

     The Revolution was neither accident nor haphazard occurrence nor effect
of a certain international context. Decades-long oppression and destitution
had strained the Romanian's proverbial endurance and kindness to unbearable
limits. More than ten years ago the Jiu Valley miner's strike had been stifled
by cheating and repression. The Brasov workers' vigorous protest of November
1987, of a far greater scope and echo, was also promptly put down - yet its
echo continued to perdure.

     With political opponents of the regime brought to endure extremely harsh
restrictions, hardly could one contemplate the possible emergence of an
opposition front capable of quickly rallying people around it. Despite this,
people, on the brink of despair, to an ever greater degree felt like working a
major turnaround. It could no longer be late in coming. Romania's isolation in
the world had aggravated dramatically and the hostility shown to the leaders
of Bucharest, by former "socialist allies.' too, was perceived ever more
clearly.

     The Romanian Revolution - an irrepressible popular explosion - was
ignited by the popular demonstration in Timi-soara on December 15 when the
slogan Down With Ceau-sescu! was for the first time shouted. The protest
expanded over the next few days, young people and students joining it in large
numbers. The armed forces had been ordered to be ready for fight. The police
and Securitate forces, like a number of military units were ordered to step in
and disperse the demonstrators. Rampages erupted elsewhere in the city while
the demonstrators did not abandon their protest in the central zone. Big
damage was caused, Communist inscriptions and slogans, portraits of the
dictator and books were set ablaze. The protesters got hold of the council
headquarters. Military units and soldier groups were attacked. On December
17 repressive forces started shooting at demonstrators. Two days later workers
seized control of factories. The Romanian Democratic Front of Timi-soara was
created. The forces responsible for the maintenance of public order failed in
their attempt at bringing the situation under control and fighting continued
to increase the victims' toll. By December 20 people had overcome their fears.
A large demonstration gathering 150,000 people was held in the Opera Square.
The officials who had been sent from Bucharest with the mission of solving
"the crisis" failed in their attempt. On the same day the army fraternized
with demonstrators and tanks were pulled back from the city. Few hours after
the dictator's return from Iran a state of emergency was proclaimed and took
effect throughout the Timi-s county. Peasants in the villages of the Banat
joined the revolution. Club-wielding people wearing the patriotic guards'
uniform were taken by train from Craiova to Timi-soara as reinforcement of
those who were trying to stabilize the situation in the city contrary to the
orders they had been given, they fraternized with the people of Timi-soara and
went back home.

     The victory won by the people of Timi-soara, though important, was only
partial and local. The city continued to be sealed off. Authorities were still
trying to prevent the situation from getting completely out of control and did
all they could to settle "the crisis" that led them into enforcing a strict
ban on any disclosure of what was really happening in the city in that
situation, people learned what news got out either from foreign radio
broadcasts or by word of mouth, unconfirmed by official sources it was either
overstated or rumoured news.

     The truth, however could not be hidden and protests against the
dictatorial regime began being staged in ever more localities of the country.

     On December 21 it was plainly clear that popular mass opposition to
totalitarianism has spread throughout the country.

     BRASOV. Workers of two industrial units (the carmaking factory and the
Tractorul works) that had kindled the November 15, 1987 protest were tightly
locked behind factory gates. After hearing of the slaughter in Timi-soara
people started assembling in the center of the city. Military helicopters were
overflying it. By 1:00 p.m. nearly 80,000 people had gathered in front of the
county council headquarters. The first demand of the negotiations started
with local authorities was the urgent dismissal of the satrap in Bucharest.

     SIBIU. In the morning a first column of demonstrators left the mechanical
works heading for the central zone where the first incidents broke out. Many
more people joined them at one moment they counted more than 60,000 persons
it was fairly difficult to disperse and retaliate against so big a crowd.

     Peaceful demonstrations making similar claims were also held in several
localities in many counties - Timi-s, Bra-sov, Cluj, Arad, Braila, Mure-s,
Dolj, Prahova and Constanta.

     BUCHAREST. Thursday (December 21) in the morning thousands of people were
heading for the central zone. A "popular rally" had been called in the former
Palace Square when the dictator, grossly distorting the truth, tried to play
for time and avert an upsurge of the revolutionary movement that had already
begun to engulf other places in the country. Angry cries and boos were louder
than the ovations played on loudspeakers and the live broadcast broke off for
a few minutes. No such thing had ever happened before. For the first time in
24 years the radio and tv broadcast resounded, upon resumption, with boos
greeting the dictator's speech. The rally came to an abrupt end it was a
fiasco. The effect was entirely different from what the organizers had
intended. The crowd broke the order-keeping forces' cordons and quit the
place throwing away placards, flags and portraits of the tyrant.

     By about 1:00 p.m. large columns of demonstrators were heading for the
centre of the capital where thousands of Bucharesters shouting anti-communist
slogans had gathered. At 2:00 p.m. there appeared on the streets in the
central zone the first armor carriers and flatbottomed military vehicles that
occupied positions. Water cannons were used. Helicopters were flying over.

     At 6:00 p.m. Ceau-sescu summoned a teleconference and ordered
demonstrations anywhere in the country to be dispersed afterwards, fire was
opened against the protesters in Bucharest. It was the tyrant's last-ditch
desperate attempt at clinging to power. The majority of demonstrators did not
desert the place. After mid-night (on the night from December 21 to 22) the
situation took a dramatic turn. It was the most terrible night that decided
the denouement of a savage clash. Not even terror proved to be of any use to
the repressive forces in their breaking down the demonstrators' will. It was
plainly clear that the dictatorship's last hour had struck.

     The Great Day - December 22.

     BUCHAREST. Early in the morning work stopped at the big works of the
city. Compact worker groups counting in the tens of thousands were marching
to the central zone. Repressive forces and protesters in ever soaring numbers
were standing face-to-face along Magheru boulevard. It was the historic moment
that changed the country's fate. At 9:3 a.m. the police force began to
disperse. At 9:5 a.m. the news leaked out that the Defence Minister, Gen.
Vasile Milea, would have committed suicide. The army fraternized with
demonstrators and went back into barracks.

     At the Central Committee headquarters, Ceau-sescu learned that the armed
forces were no longer obeying his orders and making a last-ditch attempt to
retain the power, decreed a nation wide emergency. He summoned another meeting
of the Executive Political Committee for 10:00 a.m. when he announced that a
situation arousing very serious concern had cropped up and that Gen. Milea who
had "sabotaged the measures decided and worked in close coalescence with
foreigners" had committed suicide.

     At about 11:30 a.m. he made one more try to speak to the people amassed
around the CC headquarters. After the heavy ordeal they had to endure for so
many years, people realized that the historic hour of toppling the tyrant had,
at long last, arrived. The reaction of the crowd was quick, clear and
merciless: rocks, clubs, anything they could lay hands on were flung up to the
balcony where a stammering president was seeking to address them. For the
first time, an impressive chorus of boos. The effect was extraordinary.

     Dumbfounded before such an unexpected reaction, "the nation's beloved
son" hastily went inside. Shortly thereafter he and Elena Ceau-sescu fled
aboard a helicopter that had landed on the flat roof of the building that
served as headquarters of the party's Central Committee. The dictatorship of
the Ceau-sescu clan was over. A magnific victory was won.

     The tyrant fled but he could not reach too far. Still, he could do more
harm before being caught. The dictatorial couple had to be caught fast.

     After Nicolae and Elena Ceau-sescu's flight, members of the dictator's
clique were toppled from their positions of power. The Council of the National
Salvation Front, bringing together the antitotalitarian forces and counting on
the army's support, came into being at that watershed moment.

     All power structures of the Ceau-sist dictatorship were then disbanded.
The government was dismissed, the State Council and its institutions ceased
their activity. State power passed into the hands of the NSF Council.

     Dramatic clashes flared up in Bucharest and other towns of the country
between the army which was defending the revolution and the young people who
played a crucial role in winning victory and the forces loyal to the Ceau-sist
regime.

     The NSF Council communique to the country, read over the radio and tv
stations on December 22 in the afternoon, showed that the major goals of its
provisional governing programme were:

     - abrogation of the party's exclusive leading role and institution of a
democratic and pluralist governing system

     - free elections in April

     - separation of the legislative, executive and judicial power in state.

     The Council's provisional make-up consisted of 39 members, of whom
well-reputed were Doina Cornea, Ana Blandiana, Mircea Dinescu, Laszlo Tokes,
Dumitru Mazilu, Dan De-sliu, Gen. Stefan Gu-se, Gen. Victor Stanculescu,
Corneliu Manescu, Alexandru Birladeanu, Silviu Brucan, Ion Caramitru,
Sergiu Nicolaescu, Aurel Drago-s Munteanu, Dan Mar-tian, Domoko-s Geza and Ion
Iliescu.

     December 23. In Bucharest and other cities it was a bloodbathed day.
Fighting raged in the day and grew worse at night. Attacks were launched upon
the major institutions, first of all the Television, the Radio, the General
Post Office Newscasts took the tv studio no. 4 to fame. Fire came from
everywhere, guns of all sorts were used. The army did not spare ammunition.
A large number of buildings, some of them remarkable for their cultural value
and architecture, were destroyed. Who are the terrorists Where do they hide
were the haunting questions of the day which unfortunately could not be found
any clear answer. On that first day of the post-totalitarian era, the NSF
Council's concern was to take measures such as would eliminate military
resistance, bring fighting to a halt, limit destruction and return the
situation to normalcy this explains why its attention was first focused on
military aspects.

     December 24. Fighting continued to rage, reaching its apex in nightime.
The army, virtually in control of the situation, safely guarded the major
institutions. The communique broadcast in the morning proclaimed "the
revolution's categorical triumph" it also read that "national consensus,
cooperation between creative forces, between all social categories of the
country no matter the nationality they belong to are the basic requisite
and guarantee for making true the fundamental goals of the revolutionary
process in Romania".

     December 25. Nicolae and Elena Ceau-sescu were tried by a special
military Court in a military unit in Tirgoviste. For the crimes committed
against Romania and its people the two defendants were sentenced to death
and had their fortune confiscated the verdict remained definitive and was
carried out.

     The NSF Council chose Ion Iliescu its Chairman and Dumitru Mazilu its
First Vice-Chairman. A decree signed by the NSF Council Chairman appointed
Petre Roman to the premiership of Romania until the elections. Romania ceased
to be "a socialist republic".

     As far as military actions were concerned, the execution of the two
dictators - though not immediately and entirely -, had the expected effect.
Fire continued to rage early into 1990 but terrorist actions were getting on
the wane. Much talk, guesswork even was heard of the Revolution's victims.
Sometimes fantastic figures were cited in the foreign press. After street
fights were over, official reports of the toll of victims in Bucharest,
Timi-soara, Sibiu, Bra-sov and other towns - young people most of them - read
1,033 dead and 2,383 wounded.

     Life was gradually going back to normal. The "heroic" stage of the
December revolution was over but our soul was still aching from the deep
wounds it caused. There came next the stage in which the country was
returning, despite the confusion, confrontation and upheavals that troubled
it, normal political, economic and social life.

POLITICAL EVOLUTIONS (January - December 1990)

     A January decree-law of the NSF Council regulated the political parties'
registry and activity. Romania permitted the creation of any legal political
organization - save for fascist parties or for parties propagating ideas
contrary to the State and the de jure order of the country. The first to come
into being were the so-called "historical parties" - the Christian-Democratic
National Peasant Party and the National Liberal Party. The current number of
legally-established parties is larger than 100. Twenty of them have appeared
after the May 20 general elections in which 62 parties fielded individual
nominations and 15 others agreed to run on a collective ticket all in all,
76 parties had their nominees running in the elections.

     Apart from various dissident groups that emerged inside the traditional
parties themselves, 5 Ecologist parties and movements, 7 Republican parties
of a variety of hues, 3 Monarchist parties, about 30 Democratic. National
Democratic. National-Union or National-Reconstruction parties, movements and
fronts had their name listed in the election register as well as nearly 10
Christian and Christian-Democratic parties and organizations. Besides Unions
of 11 national minorities represented in Parliament, another 10 parties based
on ethnic criteria (3 of the Hungarians and 7 of the Romanies and Gypsies)
were also registered. Nor should we neglect mentioning the parties the major
objective of which is European integration, the common European home etc.

     A certain position vis-a-vis the newly-created bodies of State power
began taking shape since the first days of the year which, after the creation
of the new parties, became increasingly obvious. Strikes upholding economic
claims were called, protest marches and rallies were staged. There being
no parliament-like body, the media and especially the street became the
theatre of confrontations between various political forces given the large
numbers of people they attracted violent outbreaks could not be averted.

     On January 12, 1990, in the afternoon dozen hundreds of people gathered
in front of the building in Victoria Square which served as seat of the
Government and the NSF Council they demanded a dialogue with the Front which
they said should make clear its stand on several social and political problems
of the country and free elections under the UN aegis. They also demanded
details of the number of those who had fallen victim to repression, correct
information of the public in connection with the terrorists' fate, public
trials of Ceau-sescu's cronies and the terrorists, and outlawing of the
communist party.

     Prime Minister Petre Roman and other Front officials tried to commence
a dialogue which, unfortunately, the mob transformed into vociferous,
disorderly outbursts that led to some hasty decisions at odds with the
democratic spirit. Adoption of three decree-laws was announced in that
framework: outlawing of the communist party, re-institution of the death
penalty in the Criminal Code and creation of a National Commission
responsible for the solution of people's intimations and complaints.

     Admitting that those decisions had been taken under the spur of the
moment, on January 14 the National Salvation Front Council announced that a
referendum would be hold on January 28 in connection with the decree on
outlawing the communist party and re-instituting capital punishment. The
referendum, however, did not take place.

     On January 28-29. Several big works in the capital called a rally.
Demonstrators then headed for the Palace in Victoria Square, expressing
their support for and demanding NSF participation in the May elections.

     Hundreds of followers of the so-called "historical" parties - the
Christian-Democratic National Peasant Party, the National Liberal Party and
the Social-Democratic Party - arrived in the Square by the same time. The
purpose of their demonstration was to demand the National Salvation Front
and the Government to "relinquish the power monopoly and create a National
Union Council on which all political forces should have their
representatives seated".

     "The disbanding" of the NSF Council and the coming to power of an
interim coalition government of the parties that had come into being until
that moment had explicitly been demanded by the three "historical" parties on
January 20, in a communique released by the Christian-Democratic National
Peasant Party's newspaper Dreptatea.

     The day before, representatives of the NSF Council and the three parties
had met and discussed the possibility that the newly-created parties join in
the political leadership of the country without agreeing on any exact date.

     For several hours the demonstrators in the two camps conducted a very
intense dialogue in which each party pressed its viewpoint, without any
violent outburst. There followed a new meeting in the Palace in Victoria
Square between the NSF Council leadership and the three parties' officials,
which was filmed and tv broadcast for its whole duration. That time, too,
they failed to come to agreement the opposition parties were accused of
ignoring the previous understanding and of planning to overthrow the NSF
Council and the government by force.

     In a first stage the deep-toned aggressiveness of antigovernment
demonstrators prevailed over the other side, exerting considerable
psychological pressure on the representatives of the ruling power. The
dramatic appeals made on the tv station in the night from January 28 to 29
aroused the Jiu Valley miners. Nearly 5,000 miners arrived in Bucharest
to save the National Salvation Front. They firmly blamed the opposition
parties. It was the miners' first appearance on the country's political scene
as a task force.