The Archive of the Romanian Revolution of December 1989

Penny Marshall, ITN correspondent:  “This is one of the thousands of bullets that’s been handed in or found on the streets here in Timisoara. 

To the Army it’s confirmation that they’ve been dealing with a specially-trained force…because it’s the type of bullet they’ve never seen before.”

Soldier speaking to Ms. Marshall:  “these are bullets…”

“…the explosive bullets”

Timecode – In:

Out:

28th December 1989 – Timisoara search GRAPHIC Exit the secret police ROMANIA: Timisoara: EXT Soldiers standing outside Army HQ INT Camera goes inside HQ / Officer shows and explains weapons …
A1: Mix / A2: Mix

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Doctors also reported on the wounds caused by explosive bullets (i.e. dum-dum bullets):  In this dispatch from Agence France Presse, relayed by Radio Free Europe on 25 December 1989, Dr. Aurel Mogosanu, a medic in the intensive care unit of a Timisoara hospital, says based on his thirty years of experience, some of the wounds could only have been CAUSED by EXPLOSIVE BULLETS SHOT AT THE PROTESTERS”

sursa (documentele Europa Libera disponsibile la):  http://media.hotnews.ro/media_server1/generic_file-2009-12-22-6754154-0-radio-bucuresti-25-dec-pdf.pdf (p. 49 of 82)

Irish Television (RTE) captured what were apparently the last hours of Florica Sava (see case no. 8 below)’s tragic end.  Warning:  the scene from 11:00 to 11:30 is graphic and unsettling.

posted by mikenork

Brendan O’Brien (reporter):  “Florica Sava, a 33 year old mother of two young sons, was shot from a car with a dum-dum bullet.  It caused massive internal injuries.  Doctors said she had just hours to live.”

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Alexandru Koos testified at the Timisoara trial in 1990 that among the large caliber weapons fired by the “terrorists” in the early morning hours of 23 December 1989 in Timisoara some used “explosive cartridges” (p. 128 Lucian Vasile Szabo, Jurnalisti, Teroristi, Eroi si Revolutia de la Timisoara)

http://www.banaterra.eu/romana/files/szabo_lucian_vasile_jurnalisti_eroi_teroristi_revolutia_de_la_timisoara.pdf

The anonymous USLA recruit stated separately, but similarly:

I was in Timisoara and Bucharest in December ’89.  In addition to us [USLA] draftees, recalled professionals, who wore black camouflage outfits, were dispatched.  Antiterrorist troop units and these professionals received live ammunition.  In Timisoara demonstrators were shot at short distances.  I saw how the skulls of those who were shot would explode. I believe the masked ones, using their own special weapons, shot with exploding bullets.  In January 1990, all the draftees from the USLA troops were put in detox.  We had been drugged.  We were discharged five months before our service was due to expire in order to lose any trace of us.  Don’t publish my name.  I fear for me and my parents.  When we trained and practiced we were separated into ‘friends’ and ‘enemies.’  The masked ones were the ‘enemies’ who we had to find and neutralize.  I believe the masked ones were the ‘terrorists’.[4] [emphases added]

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CASES OF PEOPLE KILLED BY DUM-DUM/EXPLOSIVE BULLETS IN TIMISOARA BETWEEN 17 AND 23 DECEMBER 1989

There are many other documented cases of the use of dum-dum/explosive bullets in Timisoara, see for example these six cases by clicking on the links:

• 17 Decembrie 1989, gloante dum-dum, Timisoara
• 17 Decembrie 1989, gloante explozibile (i.e. dum-dum), Timisoara, Calea Girocului
• 17 Decembrie 1989, gloante explozive (dum-dum), Timisoara
• 17 Decembrie 1989, gloante explozive, Timisoara (zona Piata Libertatii)
• 17 Decembrie 1989, glont exploziv (i.e. dum-dum ), Timisoara (Podul Decebal)
• 17 decembrie 1989, glont expozibil (i.e. dum-dum), Timisoara (Piata 700)

7) Masacrul de la Podul Decebal

“Pe certificatul medical de constatate a decesului soţiei scrie: plagă împuşcată torace, glonţ exploziv. Deci a explodat în inimă glonţul, iar Procuratura Militară, după declaraţiile care au fost, care le-am dat eu, mi-a dat alt certificat care zice că a fost în coloana de manifestanţi de la Podul Decebal din Timişoara şi a fost împuşcată în seara din 17 Decembrie.”

A consemnat Liza Kratochwill (Fond documentar video AMR – Mărturii Timişoara)

http://www.memorialulrevolutiei.ro/index.php?page=revista-on-line/memorial-4/masacrul-de-la-pod-i

8) Sava Florica, 33 de ani, vinzatoare la Loto-pronosport in cartierul Fabric, impuscata din mers, in Piata Traian

Barzeanu Atanasie, 65 anit, medic primar, doctor in stiinte, chirurg, Spitalul Judetean Timisoara

“…sintem deci in 18 decembrie…Pe la orele doua si patruzeci, cind inchideam o operatie–Sava Florica, 33 de ani, vinzatoare la Loto-pronosport in cartierul Fabric, impuscata din mers, in Piata Traian, dintr-un ARO [!], pacienta prezentindu-se o echimoza cu distrugerea tesuturilor (plaga in diametru de 15 centimetri), a tesuturilor din regiunea epigastrica, inclusiv a muschilor drepti abdominali, cu ruptura a colonului ascendent transvers si a jejuno-ileonului, fiind in stare de soc grav traumatic, hemoragic–, fara sa-mi poti explica nici macar acum cu ce fel de gloante a putut fi lovita, pentru ca nu am identificat nici orificiul de iesire si nici pe cel de intrare, a venit o asistenta de la Chirurgie I, care mi-a spus sa merg la domnul Ignat.”

Titus Suciu, Reportaj cu Sufletul la Gura, (Editura Facla 1990), pp. 133-134.

9) În 1989, timişoreanul Ioan Stanciu avea 42 de ani şi era operator chimist la “Spumotim”

UCIS PE TREPTELE CATEDRALEI
Acestea sunt ultimele informaţii certe pe care le-a mai aflat doamna Stanciu despre soţul ei. În rest… doar zvonuri. Ceva mai târziu, către sfârşitul lunii decembrie 1989 i s-a spus că el a ar fi fost împuşcat pe treptele catedralei din oraş. Că ar fi fost lovit în zona toracică de un glonţ exploziv care l-ar fi făcut ţăndări pe-dinăuntru. Dar nici măcar trupul nu i l-a mai găsit vreodată.Vasile Surcel 9 decembrie 1989 Jurnalul National

10) Cacoceanu Iosef (66 de ani, pensionar), 23 decembrie 1989

“Margareta Cacoveanu (59 de ani) a relatat ca sotul ei a fost impuscat, cu gloante dum-dum, dintr-o “Dacie” rosie fara numar de inmatriculare.”

(Iosif Costinas, “PROCESUL TITRATILOR [e vorba de Procesul de la Timisoara]:  ‘DE CE V-A TREBUIT REVOLUTIE?…’,” Orizont (Timisoara), nr. 42 (20 octombrie 1990), p. 5)

(aflam din paginile lui Marius Mioc ca ”Era in 23 decembrie dimineata. Ceausescu fugise iar Cacoceanu Iosef (nascut in 11 martie 1923 la Cacot – jud. Mehedinti, pensionar, fost plutonier de militie, 4 copii) a hotarit sa mearga in Centru. Sotia, Cacoceanu Margareta (nascuta in 1 mai 1931 la Cacot, pensionara) i-a zis sa nu plece ca la radio s-a anuntat ca in oras se trage, dar el n-a ascultat. Peste 10 minute doamna Cacoceanu a fost anuntata ca sotul ei a fost impuscat in Piata Traian. Dus la spitalul judetean, a raposat in 25 decembrie.”  Marius Mioc \”Destine frinte\”

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As I have noted in several previous publications, Prosecutor General Dan Voinea claimed unambiguously that special ammunition (dum-dum, vidia, or otherwise) was not used in December 1989.

Perhaps more directly pertinent to the issue of the “terrorists,” and the question on which Voinea lays a big goose-egg, is the following.  What does Voinea have to say about allegations that there was “special ammunition used, bullets with a vidia tip or dum-dum bullets”?

Romulus Cristea:  “Did special ammunition, bullets with a vidia tip or dum-dum bullets, claim [any] victims?  The press of the time was filled with such claims…”

 Dan Voinea:  There were no victims (people who were shot) from either vidia bullets or dum-dum bullets.  During the entire period of the events war munitions were used, normal munitions that were found at the time in the arsenal of the Interior Ministry and the Defense Ministry.  The confusion and false information were the product of the fact that different caliber weapons were used, and therefore, the resulting sound was perceived differently.[29]

http://homepage.mac.com/khallbobo/RichardHall/pubs/Voineaswar091706.html

Romulus Cristea:  “Did special ammunition, bullets with a vidia tip or dum–dum bullets, claim [any] victims?  The press of the time was filled with such claims…”

Dan Voinea:  There were no victims (people who were shot) from either vidia bullets or dum–dum bullets.  During the entire period of the events war munitions were used, normal munitions that were found at the time in the arsenal of the Interior Ministry and the Defense Ministry.  The confusion and false information were the product of the fact that different caliber weapons were used, and therefore, the resulting sound was perceived differently.[2] (Emphasis added)

General Dan Voinea spoke in late 2005.  Voinea’s argument that there were no dum–dum bullets, that there were no atypical munitions used, is directly linked to his contention that there were therefore “no terrorists” in December 1989.  It has been routinely repeated in various forms by the media for well over a decade and by his supporters in intellectual circles at home and abroad.  The encomia for General Voinea before and since that December 2005 interview by noted Romanian intellectuals and Romanianists are breathtaking.  Tom Gallagher refers to him as the “indefatigable General Voinea”[5] and Western journalists have described him as “a one-man mission to uncover the truth about exactly what happened during those days.”[6]  Sorin Iliesiu justifies his claims about the Revolution squarely on Voinea’s words:

General Dan Voinea has said clearly:  The terrorists did not exist.  Those who seized power lied to protect the real criminals….The diversion of the ‘terrorists’ has been demonstrated by [the] Justice [System], not a single terrorist being found among the dead[7], wounded[8] or arrested[9].”[10][11] 

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Voinea’s claims/conclusions form the centerpiece of the Chapter on December 1989 in the Final Report of the Presidential Commission for the Study of the Communist Dictatorship in Romania, also known as the Tismaneanu Commission (p. 625)

(Dan Voinea este slavit de catre Sorin Iliesiu asa: Justiţia română a dovedit diversiunea “teroriştii” şi nu a găsit nici un terorist printre morţi, răniţi sau arestaţi. D-l gen. Dan Voinea spune clar: “Teroriştii nu au existat. S-a minţit pentru a-i ascunde pe adevăraţii criminali”….Rechizitoriul Justiţiei române, spiritul acestora regăsindu-se în Raportul [Raport Final CPADCR]…)

http://www.acum.tv/articol/7423/

Prin televiziune s-au făcut majoritatea diversiunilor, cea mai eficientă fiind reprezentată de „pericolul de moarte” omniprezent întruchipat de „teroriştii fideli dictatorului Ceauşescu”; acesta a fost arestat în 22 decembrie, într-o unitate militară din Târgovişte. Pericolul părea total credibil întrucât în perioada 22-27 decembrie au fost înregistraţi 942 de morţişi mii de răniţi. Majoritatea au fost ucişişi răniţi pe străzile din centrul capitaleişi al altor oraşe martirizate ca urmare a acestei diversiuni. Ulterior nu a fost acuzatşi judecat nici un terorist. (p. 625)

http://www.scribd.com/doc/35934916/Raport-Final-Cpadcr