Romania Aide Denies Army Planned a Coup : East Bloc: Chief of staff says revolution was spontaneous but that discontent had been mounting.

BUCHAREST, Romania--The deputy defense minister denied Wednesday that the army had been planning a coup against dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, but he said there had been widespread discontent in the military before the revolution.

The official, Col. Gen. Vasili Ionel, who is also the army chief of staff, dismissed reports that the defense minister, Nicolae Militaru, had said the armed forces had been planning for six months to move against the Ceausescu regime.

“I declare openly and firmly that Gen. Militaru did not make such a statement,” Ionel said. “The revolution was spontaneous, but discontent had been piling up for years and years, especially since Ceausescu had been leading the country as a dictator.

“This discontent was experienced by every Romanian, civilian and military alike. The army was discontented with its treatment by Ceausescu and with the way it was used by Ceausescu as a labor force for huge projects of no value to Romania.”

But the army did nothing “to trigger off the revolution,” he said, adding: “The revolution was made by the people, and it broke out spontaneously. The army supported the revolution from the first moment.”

These statements from the army’s top commander appeared to be aimed, at least in part, at deflecting criticism that some Romanian military commanders were slow to react to the revolution and delayed giving orders to the army to join forces with the people in the streets until it was clear that Ceausescu had been ousted.

Col. Gen. Ionel said the army commanders at Timisoara, in western Transylvania, had been given orders to shoot at the demonstrators, whom Ceausescu referred to as “hooligans.”

“I declare now that the army did not shoot at the people,” Ionel said. “On the contrary, the army withdrew, erected some barricades and let the people pass. But within the army, there were infiltrators from the state security forces, and they were the ones who fired at the people. The dead of Timisoara were not killed by army bullets.”

The number of dead in Timisoara has not been determined, although the government has said that as many as 3,500 or 4,000 may have died there. Some journalists believe the death toll there is much lower. No mass graves have been found that would support such a high death toll, but there have been unconfirmed reports that some bodies were flown out of the region. The provisional government has said the death toll for the entire country may be as high as 7,000.

Ionel said the country was now fully under army control and that if any men of the security forces, the Securitate, are still at large, they are not many, were isolated and not able to fight. He dismissed rumors that a large force of Securitate men were encamped somewhere in the Carpathian mountains, preparing an attack.

“We know our country and our mountains very well,” Ionel said, “and there is no such force.”

Still, he went on, “we continue to be very careful; we keep some targets under military guard.” Tanks are still drawn up on the lawn of the Foreign Ministry, the new government’s headquarters, and the families of leading figures of the National Salvation Front and the interim government are guarded round the clock.

Ionel also denied reports that an Iranian force had been sent to help Ceausescu.

“Ceausescu had his own units of defense,” he said. “They were trained for this purpose.”

These units, he said, “numbered in the thousands” and were better trained and equipped than any other military units in the country.

“We suppose all this part of the presidential guard has been arrested,” Ionel said. “They no longer have weapons or the possibility to use them. They are all being interrogated. The interrogations have not been finished, and it has not been determined what punishment will be imposed on them. We want them to have fair trials, and prosecutors will decide on what penalties to ask for, depending on what the terrorists have done.”

Ionel declined to say how many had been arrested, and he said he could not tell how many of those arrested were civilian or military.

“Among the bodyguards and security guards, all are military-trained and some have military ranks,” he said. “But they were not dressed in military clothing. They carried no identity, and we had no idea who they were or which force they belonged to.”

The National Salvation Front has called for its committees from across the country to meet today in the capital. It will be the first gathering of the regional leaders since the revolt.

An official said the talks may develop coordination between the capital and the provinces.