Romania Massacre Feared : Death Toll May Reach Hundreds

Shooting and fires were reported today in western Romania, where witnesses say security forces may have killed hundreds of people who protested the harsh Communist regime of President Nicolae Ceausescu.

Greek students who crossed into Yugoslavia from the Romanian city of Timisoara, site of the greatest unrest over the weekend, said shots were fired indiscriminately, “killing dozens.” They said many children were killed or wounded “because people used them as shields,” assuming security forces would hold their fire.

A Romanian doctor who arrived in Austria spoke of protesters stoning armored vehicles. He said that one vehicle drove into the crowd, crushing a woman, and that rows of people were mowed down by gunfire.

Unconfirmed reports trickling out of Romania put the death toll at up to 400. The Roman Catholic news agency Kathpress in Vienna said a doctor told them by telephone from Timisoara, 30 miles from the Yugoslav and Hungarian borders, that hundreds were wounded and deaths could surpass 400.

In Washington, the Bush Administration condemned the “brutal use of police force” in Romania and said the United States was consulting with allies about the possibility of sending independent observers to see what was happening.

“The repressive measures undertaken by the Romanian government are totally unjustified and stand in stark contrast to the positive changes taking place elsewhere in Eastern Europe,” said White House Press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater.

The Yugoslav news agency Tanjug reported from Bucharest, capital of Romania, that students there had declared solidarity with the protesters in Timisoara and, in response, police guards were posted in dormitories.

The Soviet news agency Tass said “an unusual tension is noticeable” in Bucharest. “The guarding of government agencies, plants and factories has been strengthened. . . . On the streets, soldiers armed with automatic weapons and members of the Patriotic People’s Front (militia) are patrolling. . . . Buses are packed with soldiers and policemen.”

Accounts trickling out of Romania suggested that Ceausescu, the last Stalinist ruler in the Soviet Bloc, sanctioned unprecedented force to crush the protest.

None of the accounts could be confirmed because journalists and nearly all other foreigners were barred in an effort to stop word of the unrest from spreading. Repeated attempts to telephone Bucharest from Vienna and Budapest today were unsuccessful.

Tass said Soviet authorities had been told that no Soviet tourists could be accepted “due to adverse weather conditions, the absence of snow needed for winter tourism and a great demand” for hotel space from students on holidays.

Romanians have been comparatively quiet for years, largely out of fear, but have been made restive by austerity policies that subjected the nation of 23 million to widespread rationing and other hardships.

Timisoara, a city of 350,000 people in Transylvania, is a major point of contact with other countries. Foreign traders travel there regularly to sell goods that are scarce in Romania.