Romania's bloody revolution remembered

[pampango]

Source: BBC

For this 20th anniversary of the start of the revolution in the western Romanian city of Timisoara, the Reformed Church chose to restore the original graffiti to its place under the window. This was the window from which Pastor Laszlo Tokes, an ethnic Hungarian vicar, spoke to the crowds who came to try to prevent his arrest by the Securitate - the secret police - on 16 December 1989.

The crowd swelled, and marched on Communist Party headquarters. It then returned to the streets the next day, and the security forces opened fire. As news of the massacre spread, people took to the streets in other cities, in solidarity with Timisoara. By 21 December, the waves which began in this city had built up into the tidal wave of Bucharest.

It (the station master's log book) tells how the electric power supply was cut "accidentally" between Timisoara North and Timisoara East stations. It shows details of unscheduled trains arriving in the city from other parts of Romania, loaded with workers' militia, armed with wooden bats distributed at army barracks, to punish the people for their disloyalty. One of the first successes of the crowds was to persuade those workers to join the revolt. After that, the army in Timisoara came over to the side of people too.

There is another intriguing entry, from 0755 on the morning of 21 December. The protests had spread to other cities by then, but Ceausescu was still in power in the capital. Supplementary train 1006/A, with two brand new carriages, their windows blacked out, loaded with USLA - anti-terrorist troops - arrived in the outskirts of Timisoara. From there, they set out across the botanical gardens towards the city centre. Were they sent to fight the army, and seize back control?



Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8415614.stm

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Always interesting to read how what precipitates "revolutions" when the real causes have been there for a long time.

[Swede]

1. We saw history right before our eyes.

Hard to believe it's been 20 years.

[David__77]

2. The "revolution" was essentially a KGB-inspired coup.

Across the Romanian political spectrum this is readily acknowledged. There had been political disturbances previously, but the military launched a coup at this time at the behest of the Soviets, who identified Ionescu as their choice. Ionescu did not hesitate to use the old base of the communists - the miners - to thrash the right-wing elements who opposed him in 1990-1991.