Four men who were high-ranking officials in Nicolae Ceausescu's regime went on trial Saturday on charges they contributed to the deaths of hundreds of people during last month's revolution.
One of the four, former Politburo member Ion Dinca, told the court he was an accomplice to "criminal measures" ordered by Ceausescu to try to crush the uprising.Dinca was the only one of the defendants called to testify during Saturday's four-hour session, but the prosecution presented declarations it said were from each of the defendants admitting their guilt.
On trial are former Communist Party secretary Emil Bobu; former Interior Minister Tudor Postelnicu; and former Politburo members Manea Manescu and Dinca.
They are charged with complicity in genocide in connection with the deaths of hundreds of people during the December revolution that ousted Ceausescu's government. They face life in prison if convicted.
The military prosecutor, Col. Aurel Cosma, said each man could have prevented the killings of at least 689 people shot to death by troops by asking Ceausescu to resign. Instead, they backed his order to shoot protesters, Cosma said before presenting the declarations purported to be from the accused.
"I was a beast because I agreed to the orders of Nicolae Ceausescu," said a statement attributed to Postelnicu, 59, who partly controlled the Securitate secret police. "I decided to fight alongside him until the end."
Bobu, considered the No. 3 official in the government behind Ceausescu and his wife, Elena, was quoted as saying: "I didn't take a position. My attitude was contemptible. I was the one who suggested cremation of the victims in Timisoara" to hide evidence of the military action.
Manescu, 74, was quoted as saying: "I asked Nicolae Ceausescu not to resign. I ordered fire with war munitions. I agreed with the army's repression."
Hundreds of people crowded into a hall at the Romanian Military Academy in Bucharest to view the trial.
Prosecuting Ceausescu loyalists is a key test of the provisional government, which is struggling to gain the support of the people before free elections in May.