El Brujo
11th October 2003, 06:15
This is a bit old but still very relevant
http://www.agitprop.org.au/stopnato/199912...224ceauapus.htm (http://www.agitprop.org.au/stopnato/19991224ceauapus.htm)
Author: Alison Mutler
Publisher/Date: Associated Press (US), December 23, 1999
Title: Romanians Question Ceausescu Death
BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) -- Ten years ago, dictator Nicolae Ceausescu and his widely despised wife, Elena, were executed after being ousted in a popular uprising. Romanians rejoiced.
Today, few Romanians are celebrating the December 1989 revolution -- and many are having second thoughts about the execution of Ceausescu -- who ruled Romania with an iron first for 25 years. He and his wife were shot to death by a firing squad after a summary trial on Dec. 25, 1989.
"The Ceausescus were killed so they couldn't talk. They should have given him a fair trial,'' said Mihai Borezescu, 55, who was stopped while passing by a monument to the victims of the revolution that spawned democracy.
"He was a human being after all,'' Borezescu said.
That was not the prevailing sentiment 10 years ago, when Romanians hailed the execution of the Ceausescus, who had lived in luxury while most Romanians went hungry and cold.
But today, with a sagging economy, rising unemployment and growing dissatisfaction with the government, Romanians seem more inclined to be forgiving of the oppressive Ceausescu era.
In opinion polls, up to two-thirds of Romanians surveyed say they led better lives under communism. In one recent poll, 20 percent of respondents said they believed Ceausescu was the best leader Romania ever had.
Some Romanians are ashamed that the Ceausescus were killed on a Christian holy day.
"It was a Christmas Day,'' said Cornelia Babes, 50. "It was wrong to kill him ... in principle.''
The subject of Ceausescu's execution is considered so delicate that the governments that succeeded him have never discussed it.
However, Valentin Ceausescu, the 51-year-old son of the late dictator, is outspoken about the way his parents were treated.
"I won't complain,'' he said in an interview with The Associated Press. "But what they did was so blatantly illegal.''
In downtown Bucharest, oval wreaths of red and white carnations, all from anti-communist groups, have been placed on memorials outside the former Communist Party headquarters. But there are no longer large outpourings of public sentiment.
On Wednesday, for example, only 70 people turned out for a re-enactment of the revolt. On Thursday, passersby did not even turn their heads to look at a marble memorial to the 1,000 people who died in the bloody revolt.
Still, one of the organizers of the Ceausescus' trial said there would have been no revolution had they been allowed to live.
"What made the revolution viable was the death of two people,'' said Gelu Voican Voiculescu, a former ambassador to Tunisia who now runs a publishing house in Bucharest.
"I buried them,'' Voiculescu said, "and I thought I'd buried communism with them.''
http://www.agitprop.org.au/stopnato/199912...224ceauapus.htm (http://www.agitprop.org.au/stopnato/19991224ceauapus.htm)
Author: Alison Mutler
Publisher/Date: Associated Press (US), December 23, 1999
Title: Romanians Question Ceausescu Death
BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) -- Ten years ago, dictator Nicolae Ceausescu and his widely despised wife, Elena, were executed after being ousted in a popular uprising. Romanians rejoiced.
Today, few Romanians are celebrating the December 1989 revolution -- and many are having second thoughts about the execution of Ceausescu -- who ruled Romania with an iron first for 25 years. He and his wife were shot to death by a firing squad after a summary trial on Dec. 25, 1989.
"The Ceausescus were killed so they couldn't talk. They should have given him a fair trial,'' said Mihai Borezescu, 55, who was stopped while passing by a monument to the victims of the revolution that spawned democracy.
"He was a human being after all,'' Borezescu said.
That was not the prevailing sentiment 10 years ago, when Romanians hailed the execution of the Ceausescus, who had lived in luxury while most Romanians went hungry and cold.
But today, with a sagging economy, rising unemployment and growing dissatisfaction with the government, Romanians seem more inclined to be forgiving of the oppressive Ceausescu era.
In opinion polls, up to two-thirds of Romanians surveyed say they led better lives under communism. In one recent poll, 20 percent of respondents said they believed Ceausescu was the best leader Romania ever had.
Some Romanians are ashamed that the Ceausescus were killed on a Christian holy day.
"It was a Christmas Day,'' said Cornelia Babes, 50. "It was wrong to kill him ... in principle.''
The subject of Ceausescu's execution is considered so delicate that the governments that succeeded him have never discussed it.
However, Valentin Ceausescu, the 51-year-old son of the late dictator, is outspoken about the way his parents were treated.
"I won't complain,'' he said in an interview with The Associated Press. "But what they did was so blatantly illegal.''
In downtown Bucharest, oval wreaths of red and white carnations, all from anti-communist groups, have been placed on memorials outside the former Communist Party headquarters. But there are no longer large outpourings of public sentiment.
On Wednesday, for example, only 70 people turned out for a re-enactment of the revolt. On Thursday, passersby did not even turn their heads to look at a marble memorial to the 1,000 people who died in the bloody revolt.
Still, one of the organizers of the Ceausescus' trial said there would have been no revolution had they been allowed to live.
"What made the revolution viable was the death of two people,'' said Gelu Voican Voiculescu, a former ambassador to Tunisia who now runs a publishing house in Bucharest.
"I buried them,'' Voiculescu said, "and I thought I'd buried communism with them.''