Ceausescu’s Execution

The execution of Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu illustrates the virtual impossibility of due process being dispensed by a revolutionary tribunal. Had the National Salvation Front conducted an open trial, one that required the prosecution to prove its allegations, while allowing Ceausescu the right of a legal defense, the verdict would have been the same, and so would his well-deserved sentence.

Regardless of whether a kangaroo court or a constitutional court had passed sentence on Ceausescu, he still would have taken his rightful place in history along side the likes of Quisling, Laval, Stalin and Idi Amin. The problem with Ceausescu’s summary execution is, that like the French Revolution 200 years ago, revolutionary justice provides the opportunity for a modern-day Robespierre to emerge from the existing vacuum and begin another reign of terror.

To this end, it is critical that Romanian nationwide elections be held within the shortest possible time, and that the trials of Ceausescu’s police state traitors be postponed until a duly elected government is in place.

MICHAEL A. SCOTT

Glendora