European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - December 27, 1989, Darmstadt, Hesse                                The stars and stripes Page 10 columns Charles t. Powers Ceausescu ruled Romania through fear lies Nicolae Ceausescu s monster died monstrously thursday night. As his 24-year-old dictatorship in Romania careened into its final blood soaked Days Nicolae Mccau a Csc along with his wife Elena his son and his net work of family retainers probably realized that they could expect Little mercy or sympathy from 23 million romanians who have endured a despotism that at the last seemed to slip into outright madness. The end of Power for the Ceausescu family came amid blood flames and chaos. In one Swift delirious and error filled Day the Ceausescu fled in the morn ing by helicopter from a presidential Palace that was ablaze at Nightfall. Gunfire from Ceausescu s dreaded Security at his praetorian guard of secret police raked the streets directed at crowds that had gathered to celebrate. These gunmen the once All powerful enforcers of Ceausescu s strange concept of socialist Progress were left amid the rubble of his vision. It was a frightful Climax and it was All the creation of Nicolae and Elena Ceausescu. Or As romanians called them him and her they were the architects of a Security apparatus the likes of which experts say was rivalled Only by that of Kim ii Sung in North Korea. It was a Security apparatus that was built up alongside the military which it outnumbered most estimates say 700,000 to 180,000. It employed prostitutes and bellhops and eavesdrop pers of every description professional and Amateur As Well As bodyguards and thugs. It was a system As a frightened romanian woman told a reporter two year Sago that was based on sickness. We Are All becoming sick Here she had said. Allow us. All of us except the new Man and new woman " she meant Ceausescu s vision of a new socialist humanity maybe them most of  Ceausescu s new socialist humanity lived for most of the last decade at the Center of a huge National lie the focal Point of which was the fiction of Public ado ration for Ceausescu himself for his ubiquitous 6-foot portraits and mannered slogans his endlessly televised and carefully staged Tours of factories his scheme to bulldoze about 20 percent of Bucharest into oblivion to make Way for a grand Avenue of government build Ings his increasingly pitiful attempts to portray him self As an International statesman and peacemaker. In the midst of All this romanians have lived since the Early 1980s at a level of privation that i unique in Europe. In a drive to retire an International debt of $11 billion and thus free himself from any outside pressure Ceausescu deprived his people of food heat and Light. Two Winters ago romanians in Bucharest lined up for hours to buy plastic bags of Chicken feet or if they were Lucky a chunk of unspeakable Gray sausage. The rest of the Chicken so far As anyone knew was exported to raise Money to retire the National debt. In 1987, when soviet president Mikhail s. Gorba Chev came for a visit a supermarket was stocked full for his approval. When the limousines pulled away William Sexton Stalin saurus. Police could not control the crowds that stormed the Market to get at the food. In the Winter romanians were allowed 35 kilowatt hours of electricity resulting in rooms dim with 40 Watt bulbs. Power usage Over that limit resulted in electricity Bills that exceeded the average monthly pay. The City of Bucharest with nearly 2 million inhabit ants was blacked out at night like a City at War with Only every fifth Street Light turned on. The resulting gloom was fittingly sinister. Foreign visitors especially journalists were conspicuously Fol Lowed. Watchers were everywhere. As in some heavy handed movie portrayal of a police state agents eaves dropped from behind the potted Palms in hotel lob Bies lurked in shadowed doorways listened in on bugged telephones. They were of course meant to be conspicuous for that was an intended element of fear and fear was the controlling mechanism for Ceausescu s March toward socialist  by and Large it worked. No organized opposition was allowed to form. Her family and his were seeded throughout the government and the party a ring of nepotism Protection and corruption that was meant not Only to ensure Loy Alty but also most romanians believed aimed at establishing a dynasty. As of thursday morning eight of the 10 members of the ruling politburo were members of his family or hers. As the year s stunning events in Eastern Europe echoed around him Ceausescu stood firm. At a party Congress in november he spoke for five hours without break before the obedient throngs of party apparatchiks who stood again and again on Cue to deliver sustained applause. The Confidence seemed to last until the end. Television footage of his appearance before a crowd in Bucharest on thursday snowed him with a look of near amazement on his face As he lifted his hands Palm downward As if in a gesture aimed at calming the sea trying to silence the taunts of a crowd that would hear no More. He seemed utterly stunned that such a thing could happen. He even tried again Friday morning sketchy reports from Bucharest said As he appeared on the Balcony of the Palace tried to speak and was met with shouts of death death the Ceausescu then went to the helicopter waiting on the roof and began their futile panicked journey in search of a plane to Fly them out of the country to the Safe embrace of a rare political system that would have shared their taste for Public discipline and obedience. C Uang Minim violence of romanian change raises questions the violent collapse of Romania s stalinist dictatorship May represent a major gain for Eastern european democracy but some Western experts be Lieve it poses potentially grave dangers for soviet president Mikhail s. Gorbachev. Analysts said Leader Nicolae Ceausescu might be replaced by another authoritarian regime possibly Mil itary. They have lost Charles Gati an Eastern Europe specialist at Union College in Schenectady n.y., said of Ceausescu s hard line communists but i m not sure we have won yet. There Are democratic forces and there Are other forces and it is by no Means Clear Howit will come  experts noted that while pressure for democratic Reform has brought dramatic changes in Moscow s other Warsaw pact allies Only in Romania has it led to violent overthrow of a Long entrenched Leader and heavy loss of life. They also recalled that if nothing else rapidly disappearing hard line communism had imposed a measure of predictability on a Corner of Europe Long rent by extreme nationalism. The regional tensions there that figured in both world wars Are still present particularly in and around Romania. That added to the experts nervousness Over the next developments in Romania As Well As in the soviet Union. Gorbachev s problem As defined by Michael Man Delbaum of the Council of foreign relations in new York is two fold the slow Pace of his own reforms and As Eastern Europe Abandons communist discipline the powder Keg of ethnic nationalism. All the dominoes have now fallen with the exception of the biggest one of All Mandelbaum said. From 1985 to 1988 the soviet Union was in the Lead. Now it s in the rear the least reformed and that going to affect Western perceptions As Well As the de Bate within the soviet Union. He added what Gorbachev is practising is Liberal communism and Liberal communism is proving to be unstable and in Eastern Europe a  several analysts identified one potential powder Keg As Moldavia a territory of 4.5 million ethnic romanians annexed by the soviet Union after world War ii. There is a National front organization a Strong nationalist separatist movement Mandelbaum said. The Only reason it has t raised the reunification Issue in the past is that Ceausescu s regime was so  another separatist Issue looms in the opposite end of Romania in Transylvania which was transferred from Hungary to Romania in the peace settlement of world War i. Ceausescu s repression of Transylvania s ethnic hungarians was one of the Early Sparks of Las week s rebellion. Kenneth t. Join an expert on Romania at the University of California Berkeley agreed there is a Good Chance that the next regime might take what he called an ethnic orientation. But he discounted the possibility of problems wit the soviet Union predicting the next regime would be Friendly with Gorbachev and Hungary. Jowitt foresaw the possibility of a military regime at the outset but he said Ceausescu so re pressed and humiliated the population there s a very Good Chance that the reforms will be As Radical As Hun Gary where the communist party reconstituted itself under the Banner of democratic socialism. C 1m9,