December 24, 2003
The Assassins
Meanwhile, all over Romania, people were dying.
Of all the mysterious episodes in Romania's Revolution, this one remains the most painfully mysterious of all. Beginning on the evening of December 22 -- as the Ceausescus were being taken into custody by the military, and a new group calling itself the National Salvation Front was claiming power -- some unknown individuals began killing people all over Romania.
The "assassins" struck from a distance, with high-powered automatic weapons. They fired into crowds and buildings full of people. They may also have set some buildings on fire -- this part is unclear. But with gunfire alone, they killed dozens of people all over Romania that first evening.
The next day, it got worse.
The assassins were striking in Bucharest, in Timisoara, and in a few other cities. Nobody knew who they were; but because they killed randomly and anonymously, they struck terror far beyond their numbers. (American readers may recall the Washington, DC sniper attacks of last year. Multiply this by a hundredfold -- imagine dozens, perhaps hundreds of killers armed with automatic weapons -- and you get some idea of what was happening in Romania.)
What made it even more terrifying was that the assassins were completely mysterious. Nobody knew who they were working for; nobody knew what they wanted. At the time, most people believed that they were Securitate agents loyal to Ceausescu, trying to make the country ungovernable in order to force his return.
That may be. Certainly the Securitate was full of killers, and certainly many of them should have been deeply loyal to Ceausescu personally. And the killings stopped almost instantly as soon as Ceausescu was killed himself, and pictures of the execution broadcast on television.
But there are alternative theories. More than one of them.
For instance, many Romanians now believe that the assassins were working either for the National Salvation Front, or for a faction -- either in the Securitate or the military -- that wanted to assure itself a place at the table in the new regime. And their purpose was not to bring back Ceausescu, but to force his quick execution and public attachment to the new regime.
Another theory is that the assassins included terrorists from foreign countries that were friendly to Ceausescuīs Romania, and who had been training with the Securitate: men from Syria, Libya, or the PLO. (This one is not inconsistent with either of the theories already mentioned, but it would help to explain why theyīve never been caught.)
Here are the bare facts, as far as Iīve been able to determine them.
1) The assassins killed several hundred people over a period of about three days, starting on the night of December 22 and ending on December 25. (Christmas Eve of 1989 was not a happy time in Romania.)
2) They directed their attacks purely and entirely against civilians. They didnīt attack police, the military, government offices, or members of the new regime.
3) Their attacks seemed to be random, but were carried out in a highly professional manner. This led to a lot of confusion, including one tragic episode in which soldiers at Bucharestīs Otopeni airport fired on other soldiers -- each group apparently thinking the other was a group of assassins.
4) None of them were caught in the act; and,
5) None of them have been caught since -- not one; and,
6) Nobody has ever come forward with a confession or any other convincing evidence of just who they were and why they were killing people.
And, well, there the matter rests. The assassins killed hundreds and hundreds of people -- perhaps as many as a thousand -- in two and a half days. And then they disappeared. They may still be walking around under the sun somewhere; and, presumably, so too the men who gave them their orders.
Itīs not a happy thought, but then itīs not a happy story.
Posted by douglas at December 24, 2003 08:18 PM