24 years since the anti-communist revolution of December 1998
Romanians celebrate 24 years since the anti-communist revolution.
România Internațional, 19.12.2013, 15:00
In Timisoara, in western Romania, the popular revolt, which had started on December 16, took on dramatic tones when the authorities were trying to get rid of the evidence of repressive activity by the security forces the days before, which had been ordered by Elena, the wife of dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. On the night of December 19, as part of Operation Rose, 43 people who had been killed during the revolt were taken from the morgue of the county hospital in Timisoara and loaded into trucks to be burned in crematoriums in Bucharest. The authorities were getting prepared to announce, once things had calmed down, that the 43 people, whom they referred to as ‘hooligans’, had fled the country.
At the same time, the working class protests in Timisoara were becoming a mass movement and expanded, with protests and strikes where economic and political demands were being shouted. People showed unheard of courage at that time as they shouted slogans against the regime, which was unheard of in a society where censorship and the cult of personality were state policy. The shouts of the people of Timisoara were shocking for the time: ‘Where are our dead’, ‘We are not hooligans’, ‘We want heating in our houses’, ‘We want meat’, We want chocolate for our children’, ‘Down with Ceausescu’, ‘Freedom’, ‘Democracy’, ‘Ceausescu’s resignation’. In some Transylvanian cities, such as Sibiu, Alba Iulia, Sebes, Deva, Targu Mures, and Brasov, an anti-Ceausescu manifesto was being circulated. On December 20, Timisoara declared itself a city free of communism.
The movement swept over Romania. Today, 24 years after the events, this city, declared a martyr city in the aftermath, remembers its dead, with flags at half mast and sirens wailing throughout the city. The survivors of the revolution are on a pilgrimage there, gathering from throughout the country to remember their comrades. Wreathes are laid on the steps of the cathedral in Timisoara, where young people were mowed down by machine gun fire. Every church in the city holds masses to remember those who died for freedom, to keep alive the memory of the sacrifices made that day.
