‘Shameful but necessary’: How the Romanian rulers who starved their people met their end

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. open image in gallery 24 December 1989: Romanians jubilant at news that Ceausescus have been arrested While the once solid allies of the USSR declared democratic independence, Ceausescu ignored the pleas of his people and – perhaps more significantly – the leaders of his former fellow communist nations who urged him to reform. “The underground gay community in Bucharest was aware of how HIV was transmitted,” says activist Adrian Petrescu “And condoms could be smuggled in through Yugoslavia, but the official line was that HIV was a western plot.” So when the people finally rose against the Ceausescus there was more than just the everyday grind, the lack of hope, the lack of infrastructure and the lack of opportunity shared by all the other nations that overthrew communism in 1989. “They should have been tried properly, but other people wanted power and needed the Ceausescus out of the way.” She is talking about Ion Iliescu, who became president of the new Romania. If we had left it to the people of Bucharest there would have been lynchings Even so, the fact that the Ceausescus were shot on Christmas Day has also been a source of anger in a deeply religious country “All wrong,” says 74-year-old Simona Dobre, a retired telephonist.