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| R. Eggleston |
Roland (Roley) Eggleston, RFE/RL's correspondent
in Budapest, Hungary, was in that city on December 22, 1989, when word reached him of
the startling events in Romania, He telephoned a Hungarian-Romanian-speaking
interpreter and asked her to accompany him to Romania.
At the border they
discovered most of the crossings were closed. From the radio, His interpreter learned
there was one post not far away, which was still open. They quickly drove
there. Roley Eggleston identified himself as a Radio Free Europe employee. The
officer in charge was dubious and twice searched the car thoroughly. A second
soldier jumped around them excitedly, convinced they were bringing assistance
for the revolution. Roley finally received an entry visa in his
Australian passport, but the officer cautioned them that there was still
shooting taking place on the roads.
Without incident they drove
to the nearest city, Arad, and found their way to the center square. It was now
dark. Roley said they witnessed an amazing scene. The square was
crowded with people, all kneeling, with candles, reciting the Lord's Prayer.
Although they were told there had been no incidents, and that a single member
of the dreaded Securitate was tied up in the local town hall, gunfire broke out
in the square as they departed Arad.
The road to Timisoara was
clear, and in total darkness, without the aid of street lights, they made their
way to the center of the city."1 must have become hardened from movies or
television," Roley said, "as the scene which then unfolded
seemed to be unreal." They had just parked in the square when a firefight
began between the Securitate and the Romanian army. He found himself together with his interpreter,
lying face down in the street as bullets struck around them.
Roley said the most
frightening aspects of the battle were helicopters which hovered overhead,
manned by the Securitate, shooting indiscriminately at anything that moved.
At nearly all intersections
barricades had been thrown up and manned by civilians with armbands. At one
such barricade, he asked for help in making his way to the city
hospital, where he knew much of the story of the battle of Timisoara was taking
place. He again identified himself as a correspondent for RFE. This was greeted
with cheers and praise, and shouts that, "You're the only ones who told us
the truth!"
A burly man in civilian
clothes offered to take Roley and his interpreter through the barricades
to the hospital. He was reluctant to go into the building with them, but
eventually did so.
"We were hardly
inside," he said, "when a woman doctor began screaming and
pointing at this man. People rushed up, pinned back his arms and dragged him
away. The doctor said she recognized him as being in the hospital a week
earlier, carrying a machine gun and in the company of Securitate, who were
hauling away civilians wounded in earlier fighting. 1 never saw him
again," Mr. Eggleston said.
Roley used a
hospital phone to try to call Munich but could not get through. Next to him, on
the floor, lay the body of a civilian with his arms outstretched over his head.
"I couldn't tell whether he had fallen like that or had been shot with his
hands in the air. I assumed he was one of the Securitate."
The next day he
finally found an international line at the Timisoara police station and was able
to telephone his reports to RFE/RL. Roley and his interpreter stayed
overnight in the hospital. The staff, extremely helpful, made beds available
and offered endless cups of hot tea. "We ate the same food as the hospital
staff," he said, "margarine, bread, and cold sausage."
The next day he went to
grave sites where the bodies of persons executed had been found. He described
it as a nightmare scene, with many of the bodies mutilated terribly, among them
small children.
After three days in Romania, he and his interpreter joined a convoy of automobiles, protected by
a Romanian army tank, which made its way out of Timisoara toward the Yugoslav
border.
At nearly every small
village along the way, local farmers, armed with iron bars and clubs, stopped
them despite the army tank escort and searched their cars thoroughly, looking
for members of the Securitate. Roley put his RFE/RL identification to
good use on these occasions.
They eventually reached the
Yugoslav border and from there to Szeged, where he filed another
report to RFE/RL, using the facilities of Hungarian Television, which was quick
to cooperate.
When asked how his
interpreter reacted to these "war" experiences, Roley said he
originally told her he wanted her to accompany him to the border. She was
willing to enter Romania with him, but said afterwards that the next time he
requests her services as an interpreter she will question him more thoroughly!
Roley's final
comment concerned the people of Romania: "They know nothing of democracy.
They have been kept in the dark for so long. The Radios have an important job
to do there!"
Listen here to the battle sounds of Timisoara on December 17, 1989, as broadcast over Radio Free Europe's Romanian Broadcast Service on December 20, 1989, after verification of its authenticity.
Listen here to the battle sounds of Timisoara on December 17, 1989, as broadcast over Radio Free Europe's Romanian Broadcast Service on December 20, 1989, after verification of its authenticity.
Photograph
of Timisoara courtesy of The Institute for the Investigation of
Communist Crimes and the Memory of the Romanian Exile (IICCMER). Audio, photograph of Roley Eggleston, and article courtesy of RFE/RL.
