and Covasna counties
This
typhoon which has changed Romania’s face brought about, same as elsewhere,
profitable opportunities for those willing to fish in troubled waters. So,
against the background of the country-sized revolutionary events, between
December 22-25, in the Covasna and Harghita counties, abominable deeds were
done against unarmed people, treated this way, in the first place - because
they were Romanians -, and in the second place - because of the posts they had
held. We ought to specify from the very beginning that no armed or police
resistance was faced in this region to defend the communist regime, no fire
arms were used against demonstrants - only one police NCO fired in the air when
he was threatened to be lynched, - a public announce being made that the army
and the police agreed to the ongoing changes in the country. We stressed on
this aspect to prove that these actions of a hardly imaginable vandalism had no
real support, but were started by Szecklers and Hungarians with extremist
nationalistic-chauvinist views. The aim pursued was
the “purging of the region” of any Romanian element by killing, threatenning
and browbeating police officers, by eliminating the Romanian teaching staff, by
removing the inscriptions in Romanian and the insignia of the Romanian state.1 The events were
actually interpreted as a “Hungarian revolution” whose final aim was to remove the Romanians, to make them leave or to assimilate them
to the Hungarians as fast as possible, so as, afterwards, the international
organizations be offered arguments for an autonomous status as a first step
towards approaching Hungary.2
Everything lient on according to a fully-detailed scheme. Thus, the
effort of post -revolutionary organization was aimed, under the pretext of
so-called anticommunist slogans, at the replacement of all Romanians in the
leadership of local power institutions and civil administration, at occupy
these posts with nationalist elements of former extremist views, starting a
large process of compromising everything Romanian. And this, against the
background of full-sized demonstrations where slogans were chanted which
sounded like: “Horthy, Horthy”, “Long live Hungary”, “Transylvania back to
Hungary” do not need any further comment upon. On the
occasion of the events of December 22, ‘89, and the following period, cases of
destruction and defilement were recorded in the two counties, of monuments
erected to the Romanian army, Romanian heroes, Romanian personalities and
schools, churches, cemeteries; state institutions were partially destroyed in
places like Covasna, Baraolt, Zäbala, Odorhei, Frumoasa, Lutita,
Miercurea-Ciuc.3 The Orthodox churches of Baraolt, Gheorghieni and Praid
were devastated, crosses and monuments of the Baraolt cemetery were desecrated.4 The systematic actions
planned by extremist elements, of threatening and molesting Romanians - in many
cases co-ordinated both from inside and outside the country -, attempted to
create a tensional climate for the Romanians there, this way, made to “pay
attention” that they would be killed at the slightest opposition. The crowds gathered in public squares, yelled; “These are
your enemies” (the Romanians - ed.n.), “Transylvania - a Szeckler and Hungarian
land”, ‘Covasna without stinking Romanians”, “Transylvania - independent”. All
this built up tension against the Romanians, most of whom did not resist and
left the region.5 During all that
time, the number of the cars coming from Hungary increased, and a police
officer in Harghita declared: “There were these car
plates from Hungary but all evidence was destroyed. Around December 22 there
were approximately 50 cars, then
their number increased.”6
The
marked intolerance against Romanians and the intensification of actions meant
to drive them away were brought about by the establishment of public
organizations according to the Hungarian model some with Hungarian membership -
“The Foundation for the Youth of Transylvania”, initiated by an institution in
Budapest, “The Hungarian Scouts Association in Romania”, organized according to
its correspondent in Hungary, “Alpha”, “The Catholic
Youth Organization of Tusnad Sat”, “The Hungarian Democrat Youth Organization
of Cristuru Secuiesc”, “The Free Youth Organization of Harghita”, ‘The
Hungarian Youth Democratic Association”, “The Democratic Youth Organization of
Praid”7. Gradually,
violent outbursts grew rarer, especially after Domokos Geza’s (one of the
Hungarians’ leaders in Romania) broadcast communiques, but nevertheless they
went on under a subtler shape - “pshychological terrorism” - which gave maximum
results as we are to show in another chapter. The main political force in the
two counties, which had total support of the Szeckler and Hungarian population
was naturally UDMR (a union of several Hungarian ethnic parties, founded
immediately after the Ronianian Revolution of December ‘89). It co-ordinated all the vindictive actions, while
avoiding to deliver a public statement as to the attrocities perpetrated by
Hungarian extremists, each time choosing to dispute the facts.8 Among them, nationalist elements like
Laszlofi Pall, Varszak Josef, Popp Kincses Emese, Engël Emó, Fereczs Istvan,
Haidu Gabor, Nagy Benedek, Ferenczy Ferenz, Katona Adam, Demeter Istvan
penetrated into the new local power structures, starting the process intended
to totally compromise the Romanian element.
The anti-Romanian articles and the abject cartoons
hinting to the Romanians in the Hungarian press (“Tromf”, “Harghita Nepe”,
“Harmoszek”) maintained the “pulse” of the chauvinist actions9. In order to prove the above
statements let us deal further with the way in which the police headquarters
were destroyed in the two counties, as well as with the treatment applied to
the employees found inside them on duty. The cruelty with which these were
handled introduces us into a totally Mediaeval atmosphere. Let us also state that the savage and cruel acts
committed do not have anything in common with the end of the 20th century 35 police headquarters in Harghita and 3
in Covasna were almost completely destroyed by the violent acts.10 Damages ran to over 10
billion lei (at the period’s exchange rate). No repairs heve been made as yet
because the offenders have not been identified. Actually they were known but
the local Hungarian majority displayed solidarity in covering the doers. Seven persons were killed in Odorheiu Secuiesc, Cristuru
Secuiesc, Dealu, Zetea, Tărgu Secuiesc, Porumbenii Man - out of wham six were
active or retired employees of the former police and secret service
institutions.11 At Ciumani, Feliceni, Avrämesti, Zetea,
Diträu, Joseni, Secuieni, Brädesti, Cŕpâlnita, Läzarea,
Dealu, police headquarters were attacked, documents were destroyed, the
buildings were set on fire, police employees of Ronianian nationality were
molested, some of them quite severely wounded.12
As for the victims, we ought to specify that
since December 20 they had received clear orders not to abuse anybody or to
make use of ammunition.13 Goods
estimated at approximately 6,000,000 lei were stolen and destroyed from over
200 dwellings of police NCO and officers. The scenario was approximately the
same all over. Big crowds gathered in front of the
police headquarters, the employees met were molested, the armament and the
ammunition were stolen14, then
heated bands went to the police officers’ homes where they destroyed
everything, then set fire and stole everything left ustanding. For example, at
Micrcurea-Ciuc, after the announcenent of the dictator’s flight, over 100,000
people gathered in the central square of the town, and after one or two hours’
time, part of them went to the police and the Security’s headquarters. There,
although no resistance was made, some of the employees inside were beaten,
communication installations were destroyed, documents were set on fire, windows
broken, and TV sets telephones and other objects found were thrown out. Part of
the cars which belonged to the police and security employees, parked in front
of the building, were set on fire, and the same happened to a patrol car
belonging to the County Police. An employee was forced up an upturned car and
obliged to address the demonstrants in Hungarian. His chance to get away
unlynched was to master the language well. Some of the offices were set on
fire. This way, a building was destroyed because of blind rage and not
“revolutionary élan”. At Gheorgheni, approximately 1000-1200 violent Szecklers
and Hungarians gathered in front of the police headquarters, broke and
destroyed everything, setting on fire cars and stealing armament. Here is what
a police officer who witnessed the events declared: “...they upturned a patrol
car, set it on fire, and broke into the headquarters. There,
they beat the officer on duty, took the armament and beat some of the few colleagues.
Then, they chased us; we passed Belghia, but I myself was followed almost to
the surroundings of Viscoi.”15 The
same witness said that those who attacked the police headquarters were armed
with crowbars, hatchets, raftman’s picks, and hoisted the Hungarian flag.
Also worth mentioning is the fact that in the same town,
even since December 10-11, 1989, anti-Romanian slogans had been written on
walls; there were also groups organizing diversionary acts.16 The persons killed in the Harghita
and Covasna counties -sg. Ferencz Emerik, employee of the police in Cristur,
sg. Danaila Gabi, vice-commander the Zelea, lt.-col.
Coman Dumitru, commander-in-chief of the Security headquarters of Odorhei, sg.
Szekely Gabril. retired, maj. Agachi Aurel in Tg. Secuiesc17- did not react until attacked,
although some of them had pistols on them. The killings were savagegs; the
victims were trampled underfoot, beaten, mutilated, so they could hardly he
identified. Here is what Coman Dumitru’s wife declared about her husband’s
assassination: ‘When he left the police headquarters, someone shouted “Here
comes the boss”. Then, somebody hit him with a crowbar in his head. His head
was broken and he fell. That moment he was trampled underfoot. They tore his
clothes (...) then he was taken away by sonic kind karate practitioners because the killers wanted to impale him
on the hospital’s fence, which had spikes (...) but eventually they didn’t
succeed because those karate boys threw him over the hospital’s fence (...)
where lie was taken by the doctor on duty (...) Everything
inside him was broken. His throat was cut. As I heard afterwards, a woman cut
his throat and stabbed him - Marika Maria - who fled to Hungary, and eventually
returned.”18
The
events occurred at Odorhei were videotaped, the author being afterwards
required to give it to the first Revolutionary Romanian Parliament (C.P.U.N.).
During the documentation necessary to write this book, we found out that the
tape simply disappeared: you may think of it whatever you want to. The wife of the man so savagely killed was not spared
even after the burial of her husband. As for the atmosphere created around her,
she declared: “.... when I went to the school, after dealing with the burial
and the rest, the atmosphere around me was unfriendly and I was faulted for
being a Romanian.”’19
Another
savage casualty was the assassination of sg. Cheuchisan Liviu in Dealu, who had
been working there for ten years. His wife’s testimony is explanatory enough of
the assassins’ cruelty. Several so-called revolution arrived at the police
headquarters where they found Liviu Cheuchisan, and asked him to give them a
portrait of the dictator and a flag. Shortly after that, his house was
bombarded at with stones, and he went out to speak to them but he was at once
attacked by the ones more heated by aries. After having beaten him, his wife,
who had gone out too, was also cruelly hit, and left bleeding in the mud and
while they went set on the centre of the village. He was carried inside with
difficulty, his condition altering visibly. But the aggressors, possessed by
feral instincts, dashed back into house where the whole family was: the wife,
two under age children (one aged three and the other a few months) and the
victim. Meanwhile, the whole village gathered in front of the police
headquarters. The aggressors cut off the electric wires -, it was already eight
o’clock p.m. - and broke the flat’s door with their hatchets. The victims
withdrew in one of the rooms, and blocked the door with various things, but the
aggressors succeeded to break it and began to hit the sergeant who was
agonizing on the sofa. He had his pistol but he did not fire for fear they
should lynch all his family. Realizing that the aggressors would not relent and
that his family was in danger, the sergeant jumped right into the middle of his
aggressors. One could hardly describe what followed. They effectively
slanghtered him, throwing at him all kinds of things, and then tried to set the
body on fire. Meanwhile, his wife, with the two children, was terrified be
attacked too. She was saved at about ten o’clock p.m. by a Hungarian who drew
her out of the burning house (the aggressors had set the ground floor on fire).
The husband’s body was found the day after that in the garden, completely
naked, covered with branches. Those who saw the body declared that the
perpetrators had tried to skin it with a fork. And while time, these
unimaginable scenes happened, the villagemen - Szecklers and Hungarians -
witnessed them passively, doing nothing to calm down the so-called human
beings. The wife declared afterwards that they killed him first because he was
a Romanian and then because he was a policeman. Of course all the goods
belonging to the sergeant’s family were destroyed by the fire.
The
assassination of maj. Aurel Agachi of Târgu Secuiesc was another
extraordinarily savage case. He was attacked in the street, managed to enter a
chemist’s shop, but he was drawn out and lynched. The
body was left in the street, the passers-by spitted and kicked it, took his
eyes out with the stars on his epaulettes - as declared by soldiers Marian
Stroie, Viorel Postolicä, Dan Oltean - and put a coin and the emblem from his
cap on his eyelids and a rat into his mouth.20
The
retired policeman Dumitru Gheorghe was attacked in Odorhei and miraculously
succeeded to escape lynching; he declared later: “Somebody
stabbed me in the hand and broke my teeth; I took shelter in my car and they
tried to drag me out but I stepped on the gas and drove away.”21
At Cristuru Secuiesc, the ex-policeman Ferencz was killed
because he tried to protect two Romanian colleagues, Braic and Pop.22 Here is the statement of
an eye-witness: “Another policeman, a Hungarian named Ferenczi Imre was also
hit, and he ran into the yard of the cooperative from but some citizens from
Filiasi took out their knives and cut his throat. They
started to haul him out of the yard on the road, they kept hitting him although
he was dead but they said that even dead he should be crushed23. The main “count of indictment” motif
for this murder was that the victim was a friend of the Romanians. Dänŕilä
Gabi, a police NCO at Zetea was disarmed and shot with his own pistol. As to these savage crimes, only this was mentioned at the
meeting of the Executive Board of the County’ Interim Revolutionary Council:
“On December 22, 1989, four NCO officers were killed, two Romanians and two
Hungarians.”24 Consequently,
there can be no interpretation that the actions should have had an exclusive
anti-Romanian character. “But we think that it was not mentioned, on purpose,
that the Hungarian victims used to maintain friendly relations with Romanians,
thus betraying the “cause” of the Szecklers and the Hungarians. And as to the
savage killing of a Romanian police officer, Kozsokar Gabor (member of the Hungarian ethnic party - UDMR -, formerly, secretary of
the District committee of the Romanian Communist Party in Ceausescu’s time)
declared impassively: “The man was simply killed. I cannot admit
the idea that he was killed on purpose. No authors have been identified. “25A police officer in Sândominic
declared: “Everything I had gathered in five years was
stolen or set on fire in front of the police headquarters by the people in the
village.”26 Viorel
Bondrea Croitoru, taking courses in Bucharest, and for a short
time in the village of Frumoasa, returned and found everything destroyed in his
house. When he went to the village hall to require explanations, he was
threatened: “We shall see.”27 Such
acts also occurred in the Mures county, where a
Romanian NCO with a candle thrust into his hand was obliged to sing the
“Hungarian national anthem.’28
Far
from us the thought that during the communist regime no abuses were made by
some of the police employees, but we cannot approve the way things happened in
the counties of Harghita and Covasna, when police officers were ferally lynched,
without trial or analysis of their deeds. An eye-witness stressed upon the
events occurred at Vlähitä, in the county of Harghita: “I saw how the mayor was
dragged out of the village hall and beaten by the population (...) A policeman was running across a field for his life, but
they caught him, brought him in front of the village hall and hit him, kept him
naked above the waist until doctor Andrei Sima pleaded and was allowed to take
him into an ambullance.”29 In the village of Cosmeni, NCO Bondrea Croitoru Viorel was
thretened by a Hungarian, who even tried to stab him because he spoke Romanian.30 In all these cases of aggression and
destruction of goods many families remained only with a few clothes yet they
received only minor compensations, being left destitute. And in many other
cases, when compensations were claimed, the petitioners were abused by
Szecklers and Hungarians, as inspector Kalman of Miercurea-Ciuc did when he answered
the request of a Rornanian police officer whose car had been set on fire, this
way: “Go to your Romanians and have your car repaired!” Over
100 employees of the police and the former secret service had their houses
destroyed, their cars set on fire, their money and goods stolen.31 The ill-treated Romanian officers
and NCO suffered mental shocks, bodily trauma, bruises, multiple rib fractures.
For instance: captain Dobre Alexandru - mental shock,
thoracic bruise; major Ghicea loan -rib crack; sg.Cristea Grigore Vasile -
thorasc and cranial traumatisms, capt. Selincean Mihai - thorasc traumatism,
multiple rib fractures; Deaconu Neagoe - thorasc traumatism and mental shock.32 On December 20-25, 1989, 468 fire arms - out of
which 61 pistols, model 71, 102 machine pistols, 98 machine guns, 7 PSLs, 105 sporting guns, calibre 5.6 mm, 24 guns, calibre 4.5 mm, 4
hunt guns, 141 guns, model 24 disappeared from the police headquarters.33 17,832 cartridges were
stolen too, and only 2832 were retrieved later. Only
396 of the stolen fire arms were retrieved, the rest being destroyed or hidden
by those who stole them. Thus, 72 fire arms and over 15,000 cartridges34 have been irretrievably
lost. The 23 severely molested and wounded officers needed 468 days of
hospitalization afterwards. In the county of Harghita
only one molested policeman was Hungarian.35
After
the events, most of the Romanian policemen left the two counties as they were
not received anymore to their work, because of the population’s attitude. A
policeman of Gheorgheni declared that only four people remained, out of the
former 30. Thus, the police NCO Dan Dumitru declared:
“On January 5, a colonel came from
Bucharest; I went to the village hall too, to talk with him and the mayor
whether I could be received back in the village. The people of the village hall
told me there was no need for me to be there because if I stayed, I would be
killed.”36
Afterwards
he was ordered to Sovata where he stayed only a few days, being threatened by
mayor Gall Francis:“You, do you think you’ll lead Sovata?” Given the
circumstances, he thought of going some place else.
Intense
pressure was put after the events of December upon the Orthodox priests, many
of them being forced to leave their parishes. Thus, at Praid, priest Eugen Micu
was threatened at night and his house was attacked, and in the morning he fled
to another village in the County of Mures. At Gheorgheni, priest Traian Pânzaru
and his wife and five children left the town as a result of the pressures made
by the 15,000 demonstrants. At Odorheiu Secuiesc, the windows of the church and
the parish house were broken. At Ciceu, priest Dumitru Mierluscă was threatened
with a knife and fled to Moldavia. At Vlăhita, priest
Apostol Dumitru was threatened with hatchets and left the village afterwards
being sent to away Dumitru Gherman, Orthodox rector of Micrcurea-Ciuc ran away
to the St.Elie Monastery of Toplita after the events in Târgu Mures, because of
the pressure, and on July 1 left the County for good.37
In
Covasna county, several Romanian shrines, craves and monuments were desecrated:
the windows of the church at Baraolt were broken;
crosses and graves in the Baraolt Orthodox cemetery were destroyed and
desecrated, fire was set to the statue of the Romanian soldier at Voinesti, in the
attempt to destroy it.38 In
Harghita County, the plaque of the monument at Ditrau was destroyed, hich was
inscribed with the following text: “Traveller, stop and remember that here rest
brave Romanian heroes fallen in the battles fought to liberate the
north-western territory of Romania from the Horthy-Hitler occupation, and
soldiers of the foreigin armies.” The local branch of
the UDMR vehemently protested against the existence of this monuments, claiming
that the text was “insolent and injurious”, as many men enrolled in the
Hungarian army during the war did not consider themselves in any way to be
Horthy proxie .39 Other monuments subjected to
destruction or desecration were:
the statuet of Mihai Eminescu at Toplita, the
commemorative plaque of which was torn off and desecrated; the monuments of the
World War II Romanian heroes at Odorhei, Frumoasa
and Lutita - in this case the commemorative plaques were replaced with others,
inscribed in the Hungarian language; the monument at Sanmartin commemorating the World War I heroes.40
Other
events with a marksed anti-Romanian character were related to the assault
against the police station in Miercurea-Ciuc, seat of the Harghita county, on
June 13, 1990. On that day in
Bucharest a movement was started which was intended to forcefully overthrow the
democratic institutios having resulted from the first post communist free elections of Ma 20, 1990. The forces of
that anti movement attacked the main institutions of the state: the Ministry of
the Interior, the Police Headquarters, the Government Building, the Television,
etc. Anyone knows that these are essential for the existence of a state. More
than that, in Romania, the Television is a nodal element, as it aired live the
only televised revolution in the 20th century, from the beginning to the end.
We must admit that in the other towns of Romania, the events in Buccharest did
not strike a big echo. But in Miercurea-Ciuc, as well as in other places, anti-Romanian movements occurred
immediately. Looking at the facts as a whole, we think it is no longer
necessary to explain the motives behind the Junc 13 "movement" in
Bucharest. During those events -which we shall further
mention in another chapter - anti-Romanian slogans were chanted, such as:
"Let's raze this Romanian institution!". "Dirty Romanians, go
away from Miercurea-Ciuc!", "Out with the Romanians!", "Now
or never".41 Part of the
police building was destroyed, the damages being evaluated at 400 million Lei. Two cars and a van were set on fire. And everything
started on account ofthe sign with the name ofthe institution, which was
written in Romanian.42
In
1990, 74 members of the staff (30officers, 41 non-commissioned officers and 3
civilian employees) were forced to leave Harghita county, and another 80 lodged
reports with a view to being sent to othercounties, due to the insecurity they
experienced and to the fact they could not send their children to school or
find jobs for their wives.43 In certain settlements in the two counties, only
Hungarian policemen were brought over or reactivated, an instance being the one
of the locality Baraolt in Covasna county.44
After the terrible
murders perpetrated on that occasion, the Hungarian-language press began a
genuine campaign to have those arrested for murder freed, as they were
considered "revolutionaries". Thus,
daily Hetfo of May 8, 1990 carried an article reading: "The
Romanian Revoludon puts its revolutionaries in the dock (...). Can a revolution
indict its own children?"45
Only that in this case a grave confusion was being made between those
who died for the sake of a just cause and the ordinary criminaîs who, blindedby
nationalist feelings, behaved in the most barbarous way possible.