Fact Checking articles on the 30th Anniversary of the Romanian Revolution (I): Most Shocking Revolution of 1989 Still Casts a Shadow on Europe (6 November 2019)

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Because the Fall of the Berlin Wall on 9 November 1989 was such a foundational event, a gamechanger, for the survival of the regimes of communist Eastern Europe, articles on the 30th anniversary of the collapse of communism in the region appear to have clustered around this date.  Thus, articles on the Romanian Revolution of December 1989 have begun to trickle out in different languages.  I will address some of the claims in some of the articles in the following series.

Journalists are unfortunately at the mercy of their interlocutors when it comes to December 1989…

Most Shocking Revolution of 1989 Still Casts a Shadow on Europe

Romania’s transition from communism was far from peaceful.

November 6, 2019, 12:00 AM EST

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2019-11-06/romania-news-30-years-after-fall-of-communism-remains-unsettled

An excerpt:
One man who’s witnessed Romania’s journey at close quarters is Mircea Gheorghe, a former policeman from Targoviste. His story starts in the revolution, when protesters feared the iron hand of the security service, the Securitate, and carries on through Romania’s troubled accession to the EU.  On Dec. 22, 1989, Gheorghe was on a training course in Bucharest when all officers were required to change into civilian clothes and head to where Ceausescu was due to speak. The square was only half full and the police were to make up the numbers. The reason only slowly dawned on him….The regime was dismantling rapidly. Stopped by Securitate officers, Gheorghe and his colleague were told to get back to base, where the military gave them weapons and took them to a cemetery in the west of the capital. They were told to seek out “terrorists” who were hiding there—only no-one was to be found. The officers were just being used as stooges to allow the army to show it was defending the revolution, he said.  “All of a sudden a military helicopter showed up and started shooting at us,” Gheorghe said. “Four or five of my colleagues were killed. I was lucky because I managed to hide and take cover.” The shock took an immediate toll: “A few days later I was completely grey. I was 31.”
The Most Shocking Revolution of 1989 Still Casts a Dark Shadow
Mircea Gheorghe outside the town hall in Targoviste.
Photographer: Rodney Jefferson/Bloomberg
What’s wrong with the above?
1) Mircea Gheorghe is a former policeman [most likely Militie, always a possibility undercover Securitate]
2) He was “on a training course in Bucharest” on 22 December 1989
3) He and the other officers were required to change into civilian clothes
4) Some of his police officer colleagues were killed by a military helicopter, but there were no “terrorists”
The cemetery in question is pretty clearly Ghencea.
Who is more credible about December 1989, Mircea Gheorghe, or the Olympic Sharpshooters who fought in Ghencea?   (And ahem, one would expect Olympic sharpshooters to know a thing or two about the weapons and munitions used by those they engaged…)

Romanian Olympic Shooter Downplays His Role in Revolution

By ELLIOTT ALMOND
April 14, 1990
12 AM
TIMES STAFF WRITER
From every revolution blossom legendary moments.
Paul Revere’s ride. Marie Antoinette’s beheading. A lone Chinese man blocking the path of a Red Army tank in Tien An Men Square.
Situations are magnified when performed in the theater of change.
But sometimes, in this chaotic environment, circumstances become muddled and legends exaggerated.
Last December, the world was entranced by an unfolding drama on the streets of Bucharest, Romania. Previously faceless citizens were voicing opposition to the repressive rule of dictator Nicolae Ceausescu.
In contrast to nearby Czechoslovakia, where the downfall of the Communist Party was accomplished peacefully, Ceausescu was being uprooted by force.
Daily televised reports showed mobs in Bucharest’s Palace Square chanting slogans and opposing the Securitat, the dictator’s private army that controlled the country through intimidation.
In 11 days of bloodshed, many riveting stories were reported. But perhaps none was as captivating as those about Romanian Olympic pistol shooters Ion Corneliu and Sorin Babii, who reportedly volunteered to flush out Communist forces and defend a military target.
Now, though, Corneliu, Romania’s three-time Olympian in pistol competition, says such reports were exaggerated.
“It’s just not true,” he said last week at the 1990 World Cup USA tournament at Petersen’s Prado Tiro Ranges in Chino.
Corneliu, 39, one of six Romanians on an international tour, downplayed his role in last winter’s fighting. He and Tiron Costica, the national team trainer, spoke about the revolution and its legacy with the help of U.S. national pistol coach, Dan Iuga, a Romanian who defected seven years ago.
“The shooters (mostly military personnel) were confined to their units,” Corneliu recalled. “They stayed put and fought from there.”
Corneliu, a major, won a gold medal at the Moscow Olympics and a silver at Los Angeles. Partially because of these performances, he recently was named president of the Romanian Shooting Federation.
During the 11 days that shook Romania, Corneliu had more important concerns than target practice at his military club in the Ghencea neighborhood of northeast Bucharest.
“During the first night of fighting, the captain of our (national) rugby team was killed and a couple others were wounded at our base,” Corneliu said. “Somehow the people were prepared to fight the regime. But you know, it is scary to start to fight. . . . They were shooting real bullets.”
Corneliu said the national shooting team missed the major battles because it was stationed outside the city center. He said that although most of the shooters were military club personnel, they were considered soldiers once the rapid-fire events began.
That was a few days before the actual fighting, Corneliu said. When it was apparent that independent movements from cities such as Timisoara were spreading throughout the country, army leaders were told to suppress the activists.
Commanders, however, emerged as a pivotal opposition force, and earned enormous prestige.
“When the time came for Ceausescu to leave, we received orders to defend our position against anybody who would try to attack,” Corneliu said. “We suddenly became part of the revolution.
“It was very lucky that the army was ordered not to move. If we had received an order to fight against the revolution it would have been a blood bath.
“The army was not trained for this kind of war in the city, and the psychological warfare. The Securitat already had alternate plans in case something like this happened. The army just wondered what it should do.”
In an effort to thwart revolutionaries, Securitat forces tried to overtake strategic points around Bucharest, including television, radio and telephone communication centers, the airport and Corneliu’s base.
Corneliu said Ceausescu’s forces wanted access to the base’s gunnery.
“They would shoot in our direction and we would answer,” he said. “But we didn’t know who was there or where they were.
“The terrorists had a lot of sophisticated equipment. So, even though they were small in numbers they could cover a great area. The Securitat ran the country, even the army.”
The loyalist sharpshooters were equipped with infrared telescopic sights and were able to pick off Romania’s revolutionary soldiers at night, the Soviet news agency Tass reported last December.
Whereas Corneliu and other Romanian national shooters were isolated in their fortress, Costica was among the thousands in Palace Square demanding Ceausescu’s ouster after 24 years of control.
Costica said the gripping, spontaneous scenes will stay with him forever.
“A separate group of security forces were dressed like riot police one day,” he said. “We were face to face with them. We asked them, ‘You’re our brothers. What are you doing?’ They did not say anything. They were unmoving, as if they were on drugs.”
Some of the poignant moments downtown occurred when armored trucks and tanks crushed people who tried to block their way. Corneliu said his brother, a doctor who worked in a hospital emergency room, treated some of those victims.
After a month’s traveling, the Romanians looked a bit weary but understood the importance of talking publicly about their country’s plight. Western curiosity has generated an endless stream of questions.
Four months ago, they would have been uncomfortable discussing the East European political landscape in the United States.
“(Before), when we left the country we couldn’t say anything,” Costica said. “We could never tell people that we didn’t believe in the Communist system but only played along because it was the only way to participate in what you wanted to do.
“Our athletes feel they have been persecuted by the system too. We didn’t get any special advantages. We would have been thrown in prison the next day if we said anything while out of the country.”
So now they talk. And they dream.
The political and economic realities have replaced the giddiness of those heady days just after Ceausescu and his family were executed.
To the west, there is the Hungarian question in Transylvania. The Romanians do not want the minority population there to join neighboring Hungary.
To the east there is the Moldavian question in the Soviet Union. The Romanians want to reunite with the Soviet republic. A secret pact by Hitler in 1939 allowed Moldavia’s annexation by the USSR.
Corneliu said he cannot predict the outcome of these pressing issues.
But revolutionary hero or not, he is proud to have played a role in determining Romania’s future.
Moreover, it is informative to read the reminiscences of the pilot of a military helicopter that flew to the Ghencea Cemetery during these days.  He recalls how the helicopter was attacked and damaged by a bullet type that was not in the arsenal of Romanian Defense Ministry forces at the time–i.e. suggesting that he like Corneliu and Babii above, had no doubt they were fighting a real enemy, the “terrorists” dismissed by the former policeman, Mircea Gheorghe…

http://www.resboiu.ro/povestea-purtatoarei-de-drapel-puma-74-la-revolutie/

Domnule căpitan-comandor (r) Adrian Constantinescu, în decembrie 1989 eraţi pilot militar încadrat la Regimentul 61 Elicoptere, care se afla la Titu-Boteni….

– Revenim? Ce s-a întâmplat când aţi ajuns la „Ghencea”?

– A început să se tragă în noi… I-am spus domnului Mateiciuc: „Priviţi, din dreapta se trage în noi în draci! Deja au început să ne ia bine în cătare!”. Tirul se concentra din ce în ce mai mult asupra elicopterului. Fiind gloanţe-trasoare, puteai să le vezi.

– Ştiu că elicopterul “Puma” nu avea blindaj…

– Nu. Ne-au ciuruit elicopterul, dar am avut noroc să nu ne lovească vreun glonţ, piloţi şi mecanic. Dar, din rezervoare curgea combustibilul ca prin sită. În mod normal, rezervoarele aveau un strat de protecţie dintr-o soluţie specială, care, după ce trecea glonţul, se solidifica şi astupa gaura. Dar cred că rezervoarele noastre erau simple… Domnul Mateiciuc a zis: „La vale!” Şi am plecat de-acolo, pe la „Drumeţul”, printre blocuri. În mintea noastră era următorul lucru: „Dacă zburăm la nivelul blocurilor, nu vor mai trage în noi, să nu lovească blocurile.”

– Artileria antiaeriană a tras? Mă gândesc că poate aveau aşa ceva la Minister…

– Nu, nu a tras.

– Cum a fost afectat elicopterul?

– Grav. Prin partea stângă trecea conducta instalaţiei hidraulice, de grosimea unui creion. A fost spartă de un glonţ foarte subţire, probabil de 5,5 mm. Mă întreb, cine avea pe vremea aceea aşa ceva? Trecusem de locul unde astăzi se află complexul comercial „Billa” când ni s-a aprins hidraulica stângă, ne-am uitat la indicator, am văzut că scade presiunea… Poate ştiţi, foarte mulţi au murit din cauza defectării instalaţiei hidraulice, pentru că atunci comenzile devin foarte rigide. Abia dacă doi inşi pot să le controleze. Şi, pe măsură ce părăseam cartierul „Drumul Taberei”, uşor comenzile elicopterului nostru începeau să se îngreuneze. Ne-am apropiat de locul în care autostrada spre Piteşti se intersectează cu calea ferată care duce la Roşiorii de Vede. Şi am aterizat acolo, cu vreo 200 de metri până în calea ferată. Dar nu în câmp, pe arătură, pentru că veneam perpendicular pe direcţia arăturii şi ar fi existat riscul să ne răsturnăm la afundarea roţilor în arătură. Am venit cu uşoară viteză de înaintare, uşor rulaj, comenzile fiind dificil de stăpânit. Şi am auzit în cască pilotul unui alt elicopter care se îndrepta spre Boteni că se văita că a încasat un glonţ în fesă. Noi l-am rugat să anunţe la unitate despre soarta noastră. După aproximativ o oră, o oră şi jumătate, a venit un elicopter pilotat de Octavian Tudor şi Eugen Suciu, cu o echipă tehnică. Am luat toată muniţia de pe elicopterul nostru şi am plecat la unitate.

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