W. Europe, East Bloc Hail Fall of Romanian Dictator

Western Europe rejoiced today at the downfall of Nicolae Ceausescu, pledging immediate aid, and Romania’s erstwhile Eastern allies joined in welcoming the demise of the Soviet Bloc’s last hard-line ruler.

The United States said a “terrible burden” had been lifted from Romania.

Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev read out a news update from the podium of Parliament, and Soviet deputy and space scientist Roald Z. Sagdeyev declared: “It’s a holiday.”

Leaders elsewhere saluted the courage of Romanians who were mowed down by tanks and bullets in the uprisings, the only killings in the wave of democracy spreading through Eastern Europe. Many pleaded for an end to the violence.

Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II, in “a sign of revulsion,” and Norway’s King Olav V each stripped Ceausescu of royal honors awarded a decade ago.

Romania’s exiled King Michael, deposed by the Communists in 1947, told his countrymen in a broadcast from Switzerland, “I am and will always remain with you.”

In dozens of countries, national radio and TV interrupted programs with news from Romania and gave constant updates, emanating in stunning detail from East Bloc news agencies, including the Soviet Union’s Tass press agency.

In Czechoslovakia, a newly emerging East European democracy, opposition leader Vaclav Havel pleaded with Romanians “in the name of our velvet revolution” not to take violent revenge.

“In our country, there was a slogan shouted, ‘We are not like them!’ ” Havel said in a message to Romanians. “You should ask for a just punishment for Ceausescu, but not the death penalty. Stop the wave of violence. Otherwise, it will flow over all of Europe.”

In Brussels, the European Commission of the 12-nation community announced an immediate $1.2-million grant in emergency aid to Romania.

The community’s foreign ministers, after a hastily convened meeting in Paris, promised political cooperation too.

The community’s foreign ministers, after a hastily convened meeting in Paris, promised political cooperation too. They invited Romania to rejoin the 35-nation Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe that drafted the 1975 Helsinki accords on human rights.