Romania: Death of a Dictator : O.C. Family Told 2nd Relative Was Shot in Romania, Survived

As the State Department sought unsuccessfully to confirm reports of an Orange County resident’s violent weekend death in Romania, his family got word Tuesday that the brother traveling with him was wounded.

Relatives of Ionel (John) Antimie, who helped run his family’s construction business in Fullerton, said they received further word that the 21-year-old man had been killed while trying to bring food and medical aid to friends and family.

In addition, they said they now think from reports of friends in Romania that 32-year-old Constantine Antimie was wounded Monday by gunfire from government security forces while retrieving his brother’s body near the city of Cluj.

But details remain sketchy and sometimes conflict.

“At this very moment, we don’t know how bad of shape he’s in, where or what because we haven’t been able to get through to Romania ourselves,” said James Ovi of Riverside, John Antimie’s brother-in-law. Other family members said they have tried literally hundreds of times since Monday to get through to Romania by telephone, without success.

“It looks like (the brother) was injured also,” Ovi said. “And at this point, Constantine is in big danger. The fighting is not over, and nobody knows who’s on whose side.” Constantine also lived in Fullerton and worked in the family business.

The two brothers had left for Romania 10 days ago, before the outbreak of violence there and the overthrow of dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, family members said. The younger brother was planning to visit his girlfriend in the city of Radauti. But after the bloodshed began, the brothers changed plans and collected food and medical supplies in West Germany to bring to friends and relatives in Romania.

It was en route to Radauti, family members believe, that the two men were ordered by security forces to stop their rented car. Family members believe that John Antimie was then shot for unknown reasons, while his brother fled the scene. Later, relatives say, Constantine Antimie went back for his brother’s body and was wounded.

Antimie family members in Fullerton, most of whom came to the United States with the two brothers four years ago, think that Constantine was able to get his brother’s body and is making plans for burial next to his mother in the city of Margina. She died while the family still lived there.

State Department officials, however, said they could not provide information on the brothers’ fate. Theirs is one of about a half-dozen U.S. cases put on an “action list” for further investigation by the American embassy in Romania, they said.

Arthur Lindberg, consular officer with the State Department’s Romanian Task Force, said he has been unable to get information from anyone in Romania or the United States. “All we have is conflicting reports so far, and I don’t see what other leads there are to pursue right now, to be honest,” he said.

A Romanian immigrant organization and a Southern California medical relief group are preparing a $250,000 aid package to be sent to Bucharest this week, an official of Direct Relief International said Tuesday.

While casualties from the fighting in Romania remain unknown, those requiring medical treatment reportedly number hundreds of thousands, said Jean Hay, spokeswoman for the relief group.

With news of the reopening of the Bucharest airport Tuesday, the Santa Barbara group is hurrying to ready its first shipment of medical supplies, Hay said.

Antiseptics, anesthetic, bandages, sutures and other pharmaceutical equipment will be trucked to Los Angeles and then flown to Romania via Frankfurt, West Germany, she said. A Yugoslav airline has agreed to provide free transportation, she said.

Arrangements to ship the cargo were made by the Romanian Relief Society in the City of Commerce, officials said. It is continuing to request financial support from the public.

In March, 1977, the two groups delivered 1,000 pounds of pharmaceutical materials to Red Cross workers in Romania, Hay said. Most of the supplies to be shipped out this week are expected to be distributed by volunteer church workers, she said.

“We are absolutely swamped,” Hay added. “We’re trying to take care of Panama too.” For more information call (805) 687-3694.

The Romanian Baptist Church in Anaheim is also collecting cash for the relief effort. For more information, contact Pastor Daniel Branzai at (714) 670-7772.