Romanians Lose Interest in Marking 1989 Revolution

As she has done for the past two decades on December 21, a 47-year-old woman walked alone through downtown Bucharest on Monday, starting in Piata Universitatii, the capital's main square, where she laid a few flowers by a large cross.

Then she headed to Piata Revolutiei, where there is a statue of Romania's first king, Carol I, and a monument to the people who died 26 years ago during the violent revolution which overthrew the Communist regime. There she laid more flowers.

"This is my way of paying homage to the memory of the people, some of them friends of mine, who died in 1989. I will always remember those events, which radically changed my life," said the woman, who asked to remain anonymous.

The Romanian revolution started on December 16, 1989 in the western city of Timisoara, where a priest, Laszlo Tokes, was about to be moved to another parish by the authorities. The move triggered opposition from his parishioners who were soon joined by hundreds other people as the protest turned into a demonstration.

Communist leader Nicolae Ceausescu ordered that the demonstration be suppressed by any means necessary and the army opened fire on the marchers. In the following days, protests spread to other cities across Romania.

Ceausescu sought to restore his authority on December 21 by stage-managing a show of support for his government, as he had often done before. But the ploy went disastrously wrong when the crowd interrupted his speech, jeering at him live on television.

A day later, under pressure from large crowds of angry demonstrators, Ceausescu and his wife, Elena, fled Bucharest in a helicopter. On December 25, 1989, they were executed following a brief trial.

Since then, the annual anniversary of their overthrow, an...