The European Community foreign ministers pledged immediate aid to Romania on Friday and saluted the people's courage in overthrowing the Stalinist regime of President Nicolae Ceausescu.
The International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva sent two planes with 4 tons of medical supplies to Bucharest. Two non-government aid agencies based in Paris also prepared to send doctors and medical equipment.After a special meeting called by Foreign Minister Roland Dumas of France, ministers of the 12-nation European Community said Romanians paid a "heavy price" in toppling Ceausescu, who ruled for 24 years.
"So that Romania can reclaim its destiny, the European Community and its member states solemnly reaffirm their will to give it the immediate aid and cooperation of which the Ceausescu regime has unjustly deprived it," said a statement released by the ministers.
Dumas said later the aid would be in food, but he did not specify the type or amount. He said community officials would meet next week to work out the details.
In Brussels, the European Commission decided to send $1.2 million in medical aid to be distributed by the French agencies Doctors Without Borders and Doctors of the World, the French Red Cross, the West German Red Cross and the International Red Cross.
It appeared the European Community also would review recent sanctions taken against Romania, including an announcement Thursday suspending preferential trading agreements on some Romanian products.
"The Community is ready to furnish emergency aid to the Romanian people, who have suffered so much," Dumas said.
In their communique, the ministers invited Romania to rejoin the 35-nation Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe that drafted the 1975 Helsinki accords on human rights.
The ministers saluted "the courage of the Romanian people, who reconquered the liberty to which, like all other people, they have a right."
The ministers were in Paris for the second day of a two-day meeting on coordinating trade policy with the 22-member Arab League.
Juerg Bischoff, a Red Cross spokesman in Geneva said national Red Cross and Red Crescent societies in neighboring countries were standing by to help. The Red Crescent is the Moslem equivalent of the Red Cross.
He said officials in Bucharest gave permission for the two Red Cross planes to land, he said, and "we suspect there is very little medical material in Romania at the moment."
The planes will carry seven Red Cross workers and one representative of the World Health Organization to Romania to establish longer-term requirements.
Doctors Without Borders and Doctors of the World said they were sending medical personnel to Bucharest.
"The Romanians are short of everything: first-aid, antibiotics, syringes, food and clothing," said Jacques Lebas, president of Doctors of the World.
Doctors Without Borders said it would send an eight-member medical team and 1.2 tons of equipment Friday, and more flights Saturday with 18 tons of equipment from Paris and Brussels.