Wounds from Timisoara 1989 - Major goals are resolved through dialogue

Writing for Kosovo Online: Zeljko Sain, Politika’s correspondent from Skopje

When you find yourself on the spot and observe the tragedy of a nation from the front row as a journalist, you are happy to have witnessed it – it's the challenge of the profession. However, as a human being, every joy is truly beyond comprehension.

Timisoara. December 1989. I was one of the many Yugoslav and foreign journalists who risked their lives to report from the epicenter of the armed conflict between the people and the security forces of the then Ceausescu's state. We covered the people's pain and suffering, scenes that sent shivers down the spines of observers on the other side of the screen.

From December 16 to Christmas, the Romanians were dying at the hands of their soldiers and secret service, directed by the then President of Socialist Romania, Nicolae Ceausescu. Three decades later, I learned from Sergey Baburin that Ceausescu met his end because he resisted Gorbachev the most in dissolving the Warsaw Pact in favor of the Americans.

At that time, we had rallies spreading throughout Serbia, starting in Kosovo – because of Kosovo. The Albanians held them on one side, the Serbs on the other. Both chanted, "Kosovo is ours!" – a chant that continues today. Televisions were focused on the development of these events, which I regularly reported on. Then, overnight, "Romania happens". The epicenter – Timisoara, not far from my hometown, Samos, just an hour's drive to the Romanian part of Banat.

I worked for TV Pristina and was a correspondent for TV Novi Sad and TV Zagreb. Listening to media reports, I proposed to the editor, Boris Srica, that I go to Timisoara. The editors did not support my idea due to the obvious risk, but I set out on my own responsibility. The allure of journalism was stronger than the desire for safety, even though I was expecting to become a father for the first time. I did not think about the possibility of death. I did not feel fear. When you love your job, there are no obstacles for you. You do not settle for watching from the sidelines. That love almost led me to death.

Timisoara. In the square between the Catholic Church and the Opera, the gathered people raised their voices against Ceausescu's regime. We faced strong security controls. National flags waved without the state emblem, and forbidden verses were spoken in Romanian. Just as we continued our way to the barracks, gunfire erupted in the square. Several people were fatally wounded, including pregnant women. The news spread rapidly. I learned that several women gave birth on the same square during the unrest. It was planned to name the children Viktor or Viktorija, depending on gender. I entered a post office and sent the first report. In such situations, there is no writing, not even on the knee. Phone in hand, report directly from the head, and direct inclusion in the news. Conveying a gruesome image colored with blood.

I spent the night in a hotel where I arrived with AP editor Jon Demishevski and a colleague from "Politika Express" Ljuba Pajkic. Snipers were doing their job from the neighboring hotel building. No sleep. A real Casablanca! From priests to scoundrels – gamblers, prostitutes, diplomatic representatives, including Vice Consul Slobodan Kreckovic.

It dawned. We are heading to the Yugoslav consulate. Someone relayed that the petrochemical plant would explode. We were literally told to fend for ourselves. However, the information was given to distance the army that had joined the people, and the Securitate took over the city.

A Yugoslav counter was spontaneously formed. Radio Belgrade journalist Petrovic opened a 24-hour telephone line with the Belgrade post office, and we were connected to our editorial offices. Janjic was connected to Tanjug, I was connected to TV Zagreb, and Petrovic was connected to Radio Belgrade. Despite the ongoing media war in Yugoslavia, we functioned in a comradely and collegial manner.

An announcement arrived that the consulate would be shot at. Nevertheless, we went out around 10 p.m., on Catholic Christmas Eve. I set out with Consul Kreckovic towards the hotel. The security service stops us on the way. Darkness. No streetlights. State of war. We don't think about how much danger we are in. I drive slowly. At one point, a muffled burst is heard. The consul moves the steering wheel and presses my foot on the gas. I drive a few more meters. I can't change gears. We stop. It seems we have avoided gunfire. I get out of the car. I feel pain in my arm and incredible warmth in the chest area. I lose strength but keep running. We enter the hotel.

I am wounded. Suddenly, I felt afraid that I wouldn't see my child. "Slobo, stop Tanjug from reporting that I am wounded. I'm about to become a father", I told Kreckovic. On the way to the hospital, I passed the place where I was wounded once again. The Securitate continues with its work. More dead and wounded.

I woke up after the operation. Demishevski, wounded in the head, is also in the hospital with me. I learned that Ceausescu was killed on December 25. Emergency medical care comes for me from Vrsac. A soldier stood near the ambulance. I watch blood squirting from the back of his head. I thought I was the next victim. However, the hope survived that I would meet my child. That child is now a lawyer, a student of Toma Fila, and I am fortunate to be proud of him today. I still remember the warmth in my soul when I crossed the then-Yugoslav border and knew that I was there, at home. The wounds from Timisoara remain as a witness to the pain of the innocent people's suffering. The experience I gained changed me, but one thing remained the same: my love for journalism. Today, with pride and love, I write for the oldest newspaper in the Balkans. For "Politika".

When I thought that, after the fall of the Berlin Wall, there would be no more bloody conflicts, thirty-four years later, since my injury in Romania, where I reported on the murder of the Ceausescu couple, new wars are shaking the world, with epicenters in Ukraine, the Balkans, and the Middle East. Once again, civilian populations suffer, and journalists die, even though they are not military targets. However, bullets do not discriminate but provide arguments for the negotiating table. The battlefield is set in lands that have a special significance for Christianity and Orthodoxy, and a special interest for Eastern and Western centers of power, from where, far from the war disaster, this bloody game is orchestrated.

Studying the political situation after the Great and Second World Wars, and reflecting on reports from war zones in Europe when socialism was collapsing, I learned that after every war, warring parties must sit down at the table. So, all great, especially war goals, are resolved through dialogue. The Ukrainian conflict with Russia cannot be resolved differently—otherwise, the gaze is directed towards an apocalyptic solution, and then humanity will witness and participate in a historical humanitarian catastrophe.

To avoid this, it is necessary to provide Russia with a security buffer around the borders of the Russian Federation, something the Ukrainian President cannot achieve without the active participation of the United States, which is already contained in quiet diplomacy. On the other hand, China waits intelligently and patiently for the development of events as an opportunity for a perfect assessment of the situation and gradual movement towards the top of the economic pyramid on European soil, without neglecting, at any moment, the Silk Road and new possibilities enabled by Erdogan – the opening of the world's longest and highest bridge, in the Dardanelles, and Vucic's "Falcon" in Serbia.

Hypocrisy is also an important ingredient in every war event. The Ukrainian President felt it on his own skin. In such situations, state leaders lose the support of their people, but not everyone can return to the office, as Churchill did, who extracted the core of interest from every state friendship or enmity. The double game began with Gorbachev when, in 1989, he handed over the keys of the Warsaw Pact to Bush senior, after which the USSR, as well as the SFR Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia, disintegrated, and all countries with a communist monism were replaced by democratic pluralism. According to his advisor Valentin Ivanovich Karasyov for "Politika", Gorbachev was afraid of the Third World War and was too weak to resist the eternal adversary – the USA. Moreover, he left Malta in 1989 without guarantees that NATO would not threaten the security of the USSR.

Admittedly, since then, it was considered that the Cold War had ended, but as today's events have shown, it was just a cunning move by the West to enable the expansion of NATO in the former USSR territory and bring it closer to the borders of today's Russia. Russia was then militarily and politically weakened, patiently building its military, political, and economic power, for which it needed about thirty years.

While leaderships changed every five years or even earlier in democratic countries, Russia, with Putin at the helm, built long-term democracy based on principles that suited this great power to stand on its own feet. Russia's advantage lies precisely in the fact that Putin, as President since 2002, kept his close associates by his side for decades, along with Lavrov, the Foreign Minister since 2004. Both know how diplomats and statesmen worldwide behave diplomatically and statesmanlike. All their opponents have much less experience. On the other hand, Trump was ousted, and the Biden administration underestimated Putin's moves.

Although Europe advocates for peace, Macron will not receive the significant role of being declared the man who stopped the war in Ukraine. The Balkans have been thrown into the fire, and it is questionable how Europe will sacrifice this region for its security. Erdogan's role, although his country is a significant member of NATO, must not be neglected. Turkey has excellent relations with Russia and significant factories in Ukraine that are of strategic military interest, and it controls the Bosphorus and Dardanelles. The control of the Bosphorus is particularly significant, with the possible prohibition of the passage of military ships, which would not be suitable for both Russia and NATO.

The whirlwind of war engulfs everything in its path, and the consequences are there for all of us to see. Peace, which the whole world longs for, can only be achieved through negotiations at the green table. However, the opportunity for the start of a dialogue that would lead to successful negotiations was recently missed in Skopje, at the 30th OSCE Ministerial Council, attended by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. He hinted that Russia was ready for dialogue and could negotiate with everyone. However, Blinken, the US Secretary of State, Raab, the UK Foreign Secretary, and Borrell, the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, left Skopje before the plenary session where Lavrov spoke convincingly about the political and security situation in the world. Nevertheless, we hope that a meeting of representatives of world powers, on which the achievement of world peace depends, will happen soon, and that the world, instead of the whirlwind of war, will be filled with peace and prosperity.