╥The anti-Christ died. Oh, what wonderful news,╙ a Bucharest radio announcer exulted after the dramatic announcement that President Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife Elena had been jointly executed by a firing squad.
Confirmation of Monday╒s execution of the despised pair came yesterday, when Romanian television showed viewers two bodies crumpled beneath a bullet-shattered wall.
A closeup revealed the fallen Ceausescu, his eyes open, the right side of his head stained with blood that also spattered the stone wall.
The other body was that of Elena, who had told her executioners: ╥We want to die together, we do not want mercy,╙ before she was led out with her husband to be shot.
The Ceausescus were summarily executed because of fears that loyalists were plotting a rescue attempt, Romania╒s new Prime Minister, Mr Petre Roman, said on French television yesterday.
There were pressures. We had information concerning a possible attack on the place where they were held,╙ he said.
The Ceausescus were captured on Friday in a car about 60 miles from Bucharest, after attempting to flee in a helicopter that was forced to land, said Captain Mihai Lupoi, a member of the ruling National Salvation Front.
The execution was carried out at 4pm local time by a three-man firing squad after a two-hour trial by military tribunal on Monday.
Captain Lupoi said that he had seen full videotapes of the trial and execution.
He recounted that as the couple were led out to their execution by the soldiers, Elena said to them: ╥I was like a mother to you.╙
╥What sort of a mother were you, who killed our mothers?╙ one soldier replied.
The trial and execution took place in a secret military installation whose location would never be revealed for fear of sabotage by remnants of Ceausescu╒s dreaded Securitate secret police, he said.
The television film showed the couple being taken out of an armoured car and a doctor examining Ceausescu. It then showed a lengthy scene of the two sitting in a room, possibly during their trial by the military tribunal which condemned them to death.
Ceausescu appeared almost calm, even occasionally smiling, though he looked gaunt, elderly and unshaven.
Elena by contrast was forlorn, staring dully in front of her and not reacting when her husband briefly patted her leg.
The Ceausescus had refused to collaborate with the tribunal, saying it had no authority over them, and had demanded to be tried by the Grand National Assembly (parliament) as the members of the tribunal were only ordinary citizens.
╥You can shoot us if you like but we do not recognise you as a court,╙ Ceausescu, 71, had said in his final hours.
The couple had each been offered a defence lawyer but had refused.
A military officer who asked not to be identified said that 300 soldiers had volunteered for the firing squad, but only three were chosen ╤ an officer and two privates ╤ by lottery, for the grisly task of avenging the years of increasing poverty and repression.
The Ceausescus╒ last wish was to die together, the officer said.
The Ceausescus had rejected charges of of causing the ╥genocide╙ of more than 60,000 people during their 24 years in power, the provisional government announced.
The couple were also accused of hiding more than $1 billion in foreign banks and having ruined the national economy and heritage.
Several countries criticised Romania╒s new leaders yesterday for executing Ceausescu and his wife without a public trial and said free Romania should live by the rule of the law.
The strongest criticism came from the US. ╥We regret the trial did not take place in an open and public fashion,╙ said a US statement on Monday. Britain was more sympathetic. ╥It was a civil war situation and the normally accepted standards of legality hardly obtained at the time. Although one may regret a secret trial, at the time it was not really surprising,╙ said a Foreign Office spokesman.
