Ceausescu, Defiant to End, Lectured Military Tribunal

Dictator Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife, Elena, went to their deaths by firing squad defiantly spurning the right of their military accusers to judge them.

“I will be judged only by the people,” Ceausescu repeatedly told the military prosecutor in a videotaped Romanian television broadcast late Tuesday.

The television did not show the couple’s faces when their death sentence was pronounced, but Ceausescu was heard clearly to say: “It doesn’t matter. It has no importance.”

The hourlong videotape of the final hours of the couple who ruled Romania with an iron hand for 24 years showed Ceausescu, 71, arguing angrily at the army tribunal Monday, and declaring in a loud voice: “I do not recognize this court. Read the constitution.”

“We’ve read the constitution,” an off-screen voice answered. “We know it better than you.”

“I will not answer a single question,” Ceausescu said.

The film ended with a final vignette of Ceausescu lying on his back alongside his wife in front of a concrete wall, his eyes open and blood oozing from a head wound.

The television never showed his accusers, but it broadcast their voices.

Ceausescu, wearing a black coat, and his wife sat at a table in a sparsely furnished room.

At one stage, challenged on what he had done for society, Ceausescu said: “I built hospitals.”

Questioned about food shortages, he curtly retorted: “The people have 200 kilos (440 pounds) of corn. . .”

“Who ordered the shooting of the people?” the interrogator asked.

“I will not answer a single question,” Ceausescu replied. “Do not interpret my silence as answers.

“I will only answer to the working class,” said Ceausescu, who often stared at the ceiling. “I will tell the people. I will answer to the working class.

“The people should fight to destroy this band which together with foreign powers wants to destroy the country and has carried out a coup,” Ceausescu screamed, pointing frantically with his finger.

He often wagged his finger in the lecturing gesture that was a hallmark of the hectoring profile he adopted throughout his political life.

Ceausescu emotionally waved his hand up and down and said he would answer only to Parliament. Elena occasionally smiled and mumbled.

“What possessed you to reduce the people to the state they are in?” the interrogator asked. “Not even the peasants had enough wheat and had to come to Bucharest to buy bread.

“Why did the people have to starve?”

“This is a lie,” Ceausescu said. “Think carefully. It is a lie and proves the lack of patriotism currently in the country.”

“You destroyed the Romanian people and their economy,” the interrogator said. “Such things are unheard of in the civilized world.”

“We do not intend to argue with you,” Ceausescu said. “The population had everything it needed.

“I will answer only to the people’s parliament in connection with treason and the coup and how things happened in Romanian history, and you will all answer to the people,” Ceausescu said.

Elena stared absently, with apparent lack of interest. She seemed exhausted and was slumped against the wall in her chair most of the time. But sometimes her eyes darted back and forth.

“How can you let them speak to you like that?” she said at one point. “Will you allow them to speak to an academician in such a way?”

“Let Elena Ceausescu tell us about the costs of publishing her books abroad,” the off-screen voice said.

“I gave my entire life for my people,” she said angrily, making chopping motions with her hand. “Our people.”

“On the basis of the actions of the members of the Ceausescu family, we condemn the two of you to death,” the off-screen voice said. “We confiscate all your property.”

There followed a freeze-frame, and the accused pair’s reactions were not visible.

“Please enter into the minutes that all the conditions exist to bring a verdict of guilty,” the voice said.

The off-screen voice, in an angry and decisive tone, then listed the articles under which the two were found guilty.

“We tried to get you a lawyer,” the voice said. “Your crimes were such that you merit the biggest penalty.”

Ceausescu tried to comfort his wife by touching her hand. She looked down and licked her lips.

“It is sad that you do not wish to confess the crimes you have committed against the Romanian people,” the voice said.

“You have not only deprived the people of bread and heating, but you imprisoned the Romanian spirit, which could not express itself in any way. You took oxygen from the wounded,” the voice continued.

“Your terrorists supplied themselves in the underground and opposed the people. You have drained us. . . . You call on the people. How can you face this very people?”

Elena laughed.

“This laugh says all that needs to be said about you,” the voice said. “On the basis of your behavior, you belong in a madhouse. The two of you, if you beg my pardon, should listen to what I am saying.”

Ceausescu throughout the trial often turned his head back and forth like a trapped animal.

“You have nothing to say about the revolution? The blood spilled in Timisoara?” the voice said, referring to the reported massacre of thousands of anti-government demonstrators that sparked the current unrest 10 days ago.

Ceausescu stood up. “I can only be accused by the people’s parliament. You are putschists , the destroyers of Romania’s independence.” He sat down again.

“I was respected when I went to the factories . . . “ But the voice interrupted him before he could finish.

When ordered to stand, Ceausescu and his wife refused.

“It is unanimously decided that Ceausescu Nicolae and Ceausescu Elena be given the maximum sentence for genocide against the Romanian people and the destruction of the Romanian land,” the voice said.

“I refuse to recognize this court,” Ceausescu declared.

The footage stopped.

Then shots of Ceausescu’s bloodstained corpse, previously shown on television, were screened again.

THE ROMANIA STORY

The Executions

Romanian television shows videotape of deposed leader Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife, Elena, after they were executed by a firing squad for crimes against Romania. Earlier, television showed footage of the couple at what is believed to have been their secret trial.

The Government

The revolutionary council names its informal leader, Ion Iliescu, a former official ousted by Ceausescu, as chairman of the governing council. It also names Petre Roman, a 43-year-old professor of hydraulic engineering with no political background, as prime minister.

U.S. Policy

The United States quickly recognizes the new Romanian leadership. U.S. Ambassador Alan Green presents the Romanian Foreign Ministry with an official statement welcoming the new government as the “manifestation of the political will of the Romanian people.”