rzhu@violet.uwaterloo.ca (Rupert Zhu) (12/24/89)
China News Digest *** China News Digest *** China News Digest *** | +---------I __L__ ___/ \ -------I +----+----+ | ___\_\_ | \./ | | -----+- | | | | | __ \/ | --+-- |--- | |---| | I----+----I | I__J/\ | __|__ | | | |---| | | | _____ \ | /| \ | | | L__-| | I I---------J / J \/ | | V | J DECEMBER 23, 1989 (II) ---------------------------- Table of Contents ----------------------------- No. Subject # of Lines 1. Ceausescu, Wife Said Captured As Battles Rage Across Romania ..... 81 2. Fighting Continues in Romania after Historic Revolution .......... 69 3. Mass Graves Discovered for Romanian Massacre ..................... 36 4. Soviets Offer Aid, Urge Allies To Support Romanian Uprising ...... 41 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Ceausescu, Wife Said Captured As Battles Rage Across Romania ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: YAWEI%AQUA.DECNET@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu Source: Associated Press, 12/23/89 Bucharest, Romania -- Dictator Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife Elena were captured Saturday, the provisional government said on Romanian television. The Ceausescus capture came 1 day after the dictator was deposed from power after 24 years. Ion Iliescu, a member of the provisional government, said the "dicta- torial family, Nicolae and Elena Ceausescu, was captured." Referring to Ceausescu as a "poison hyena," Iliescu said the former hard-line Communist president, who had ruled since 1965, and his wife would be tried. Elena Ceausescu was the second most powerful person in the country under the old regime. Iliescu also announced the capture of Emil Bobu, the third most powerful person in the country, and Ceausescu's brother, Ilie, formerly a deputy de- fense minister. No other details on the reported captures were provided. Romanian radio, like the television in the hands of the anti-Ceausescu forces, also swiftly reported the announcement of the captures. If the Nicolae Ceausescu's capture is confirmed, the development should provide a big boost to army soldiers and civilians still battling better equipped security forces loyal to Ceausescu. The fighting has claimed hundreds of lives nationwide since the dictator was ousted Friday. Ceausescu and his wife fled Bucharest Friday in a helicopter from the roof of the presidential palace, ending his 24 year rule. Their son, Nicu, a regional Communist Party chief, had already been cap- tured and shown on Romanian TV. Saturday's announcement was the first definite word from the opposition that Ceausescu was in their hands. The provisional government, known as the National Salvation Committee and comprised of generals and dissident politicians and backed by the army, declared itself for democracy and free elections. But it was clearly having trouble maintaining control. Bucharest radio and television, seized by the popular forces Friday, re- peatedly appealed to people and army units to rush to the capital and aid soldiers outnumbered by the enemy security forces. Fighting was fierce in Bucharest, where the army and civilians who took up arms were defending state television and radio headquarters and trying to capture the fire gutted presidential palace from Ceausescu loyalists. As dawn broke over Bucharest, anti-Ceausescu soldiers posted atop the TV building fought with pockets of loyalists in nearby apartment buildings in a firefight that lit up the early morning sky. Rocket-propelled grenades slammed into the TV building and defenders answered with machine-gun and rifle fire. Bucharest radio reported intense combat in Brasov, the country's second-largest city, and fighting in another central city, Sibiu. It said more than 12,000 people had been killed in Timisoara alone since the uprising began Dec. 15 with demonstrations in that western city. Scat- tered gunfire continued Saturday in Timisoara. Residents there reclaimed the streets after the army appeared to estab- lish control. The radio also announced that all political prisoners had been released. The fighting Saturday blocked urgently needed medical supplies, the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva reported. Spokeswoman Marjolaine Martin said Red Cross workers were unable to reach the center of Bucharest Saturday morning. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. Fighting Continues in Romania after Historic Revolution ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: YAWEI%AQUA.DECNET@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu Source: Associated Press, 12/23/89 Bucharest, Romania -- Outraged Romanians and rebel soldiers toppled President Nicolae Ceausescu Friday in fierce, daylong battles with troops loyal to the Soviet bloc's last dictator. Hundreds were reported killed in the fighting, which continued early Sa- turday. The rebel army and the people were in control in most places. There was only scattered pockets of resistance from pro-Ceausescu secu- rity forces, said Maj.-Gen. Stefan Gusa, the first deputy defense minister who joined the uprising. The rebels held the communications centers and arrested key figures from the Ceausescu regime, including the interior minister and the chief of the secret police. About 2:30 a.m. (7:30 p.m. EST Friday), security forces opened fire around Romania's radio and television headquarters, about two miles apart. But rebel troops repulsed the attacks. Dissidents and those trying to form a new leadership had been broadcasting from the TV center Friday. Fighting also was reported late Friday night in the western city of Tim- isoara, where the revolt began on Dec. 15, and in Romania's second-largest city of Brasov. Yugoslavia's Tanjug news agency later reported that the fighting in Tim- isoara had died down. The death toll from Friday's uprising was believed to be in the hun- dreds, in addition to the thousands of civilians reported killed since the start of the unrest. Provisional leader Ion Iliescu appeared on Romanian TV along with other members of a National Salvation Committee that the media said was formed to run the country temporarily. Iliescu, an old acquaintance of Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, and former Foreign Minister Corneliu Manescu said free elections would be sought by April. State-run Romanian media said Ceausescu and his wife, Elena, fled the palace by helicopter early Friday. The palace was later was set ablaze. It also was reported they had fled the country. But Tanjug said late Friday night that they had been captured, along with other ranking members of the old guard. It was not known where they were. China Saturday denied giving sanctuary to Ceausescu. Ceausescu's son, Nicu, also was reported in custody and was shown on TV with a bloody face, his arms held by a civilian and a man in a uniform. He was then taken away by his captors. Security forces were repulsed in the attacks early Saturday on the radio and TV headquarters. Occupants of the TV building ducked as shots were fired toward the win- dows and the lights went out. Rebel soldiers inside returned fire, pinning down the security forces, and repulsed the attack after about two hours. The TV station stayed on the air during the attack. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. Mass Graves Discovered for Romanian Massacre ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: YAWEI%AQUA.DECNET@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu Source: Associated Press, 12/23/89 Timisoara, Romania -- Hundreds of people Friday were digging up mass graves discovered in the forest district of Timisoara. They were trying to find the remains of their friends and relatives killed in last weekend's crack- down. Three mass graves are believed to be holding as many as 4,500 corpses of people massacred by security forces on Saturday, Sunday and Monday. Timisoara, 500 miles from Bucharest near the Yugoslav and Hungarian border, was the center of protests brutally suppressed by the regime of President Ceausescu, who was reported overthrown Thursday. West German television, apparently showing footage provided by Romanian TV, showed muddied, naked corpses being dug out and placed on white sheets, one after the other. All had their feet tied together with wire. A dead boy, about three or four years old, was shown on the ground. [CND reporter's note: the footage of the bodies was shown on CNN's World Report today. It was the most gruesome scene I've ever seen.] "Not even Hitler killed his own children, and here they used automatic machine gun bursts to strafe them down," said Slavomir Gvozdenovic, editor of a Timisoara literary review. Vasile Todorescu said he was trying to find his 20-year-old son, who disappeared during the unrest. Todorescu said the corpses had been transported by garbage trucks to the area and the drivers were later shot by the police so no witnesses would be left. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. Soviets Offer Aid, Urge Allies To Support Romanian Uprising ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: YAWEI%AQUA.DECNET@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu Source: Associated Press, 12/23/89 Moscow -- The Soviet Union Saturday sent medical supplies to Romania. It appealed to its Warsaw Pact allies to help support the uprising against Nicolae Ceausescu, but appeared to rule out military intervention. The Soviet news agency Tass said wounded Romanians likely will be flown to the Soviet Union for treatment. Tass warned that the fighting in Bucharest had endangered the lives of Soviets living in the Romanian capital. "The first planes with medicines and urgent supplies have already ar- rived in Bucharest," President Mikhail Gorbachev said. "But they still are being held up in the Bucharest airport, which is blockaded." The Soviet Red Cross, Ministry of Health and other organizations were working with similar organizations in France and Eastern Europe to provide medicine and specialists, he said. Tass said Gorbachev told the Soviet Parliament that the Kremlin "had de- cided to appeal to the governments of the Warsaw Pact states with the aim of coordinated efforts in providing support to the people of Romania." Gorbachev said "a number of other measures" were being worked out with Warsaw Pact allies, and that a special working group was monitoring events in Romania. He provided no other details. Premier Nikolai I. Ryzhkov dismissed talk of sending Soviet troops to Romania to aid the provisional Romanian government that, backed by the army, declared itself in control after Ceausescu fled Bucharest Friday. Romanian TV said earlier Saturday the Soviet Embassy had pledged person- nel and equipment to aid the uprising. The announcement followed an appeal from an unidentified army general who urged Moscow to step in because "terrorist units" had sent reinforce- ments to the capital. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- | Executive Editor: Sanyee Tang, tang@ssurf.ucsd.edu | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- | One news package was sent out on December 22, 1989. | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------