Word: timisoara
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...pastor of the Hungarian Reformed Church in the Transylvanian city of & Timisoara, the Rev. Laszlo Tokes seemed an unlikely figure to spark a revolution. But Tokes, 37, possessed a sharp tongue at a time when that attribute was rare in Rumania. Not only did he lash out against the tyrannical regime in Bucharest, but he even accused Hungarian Reformed Church leaders of collaborating with communist authorities...
...enter Rumania. The country's 23 million citizens had a long list of grievances, from shortages of - food and fuel to crushing boredom, but the proximate cause of the civil explosion was the Securitate. When its officers tried to arrest an ethnic Hungarian clergyman in the western city of Timisoara (pop. 309,000) for his outspoken opposition to the government and to the policies of his own Hungarian Reformed Church, a vigil outside his house erupted into an antiregime riot. Angry mobs smashed shopwindows, burned Ceausescu's books and portraits, and besieged party headquarters and police stations. About...
Eyewitnesses who spoke by telephone with Vladimir Tismaneanu, a Rumanian specialist at the Foreign Policy Research Institute in Philadelphia, said that army units in Timisoara refused to fire on the protesters. The Securitate summarily shot three army officers for disobeying orders, then sent in troops from its Special Assignment Brigade. After a barrage of warning shots, the security forces mowed down a line of children standing in front of the crowd before shooting the adults. The scene was so bloody that witnesses compared it with Tiananmen Square in Beijing, where the Chinese army crushed pro-democracy demonstrators last June...
...Rumanians had ignited riots before, but they had been stifled quickly. Not this time. Three days after the massacre in Timisoara, demonstrators shouting "Give us our dead!" filled the city's bloodstained streets. As word of the killing spread, marchers turned out in towns throughout the country. Because of the government's total control of travel and communications, rumors often replaced information. East European news agencies such as Yugoslavia's Tanjug and, in the new world of glasnost, even Moscow's TASS and East Germany's ADN, became important sources of news. They reported that Rumanian army troops had joined...
...applaud and wave flags on cue as he called for unity and tried to blame the riots on Hungarian "revanchists" bent on recapturing Transylvania. His rasping voice was rising to a shout when the crowd suddenly drowned him out with boos, jeers and demands for the truth about Timisoara. Visibly astonished by this face-to- face encounter with rebellion, Ceausescu froze. He quickly ended the rally and darted into the palace...