Donald Rumsfeld in Romania

As announced one month ago, the Pentagon chief, Donald Rumsfeld, was yesterday in the plane that landed on the Mihail Kogalniceanu airport, which the Americans want to transform into a powerful military base in Eastern Europe.

A lot of excitement yesterday on the military airport Mihail Kogalniceanu in Constanta. An extremely important guest was to arrive. No one other than the American Defense Minister, Donald Rumsfeld. In the afternoon, airplane C32A, another model of Boeing 707, on whose board the Pentagon chief was, landed.

INSPECTION. Why didn’t Rumsfeld come to Bucharest choosing Constanta instead? The Mihail Kogalniceanu military airport has been targeted by the Americans for a while now in order for it to host one of the most powerful USA military bases in Eastern Europe. So, the base tour has been included in Rumsfeld’s itinerary. Yesterday, the American dignitary was also to visit the mechanized 34 Wing. The Americans take into account three locations for the base settlements in Romania. Besides Kogalniceanu Airport, on the list there are also Mangalia military airport and the Babadag shooting stand.

BUCHAREST, THEN BRASOV. It is only today that Rumsfeld gets to Bucharest, where he is to meet President Ion Iliescu, Prime Minister Adrian Nastase, Ministers Mircea Geoana (External Affairs) and Ioan Mircea Pascu (National Defense). After that, the Pentagon chief will head towards Poiana Brasov, where, tomorrow, starts the informal meeting of the Defense Ministers in the NATO countries.

SUMMIT PREPARATIONS. Yesterday, on Romania’s behalf, General Ioan Sorin, the chief of the Operations Leadership in the Army’s General Major State and Director of the Work Group for the organization of the meeting, has been present in Brasov, in order to settle the last details of the NATO summit organization. Also yesterday, the Minister of Administration and Internal Affairs, Marian Saniuta, made a quick visit to the Brasov County Police Office Commandment, where he set the final things about the actions to be taken to insure the security of the road traffic and the public order and peace. The traffic restriction, the position of the traffic filters and the police operative groups for this event have been set. In Poiana Brasov there will be 35 foreign delegations and 350 journalists will be accredited, from which 150 will be foreign journalists.

RESTRICTIONS. Starting from yesterday the traffic restriction are valid from 18:00 hours, and the access in Poiana Brasov is possible only for the ones having persons or automobiles passes. The Brasov police announced the appearance of five traffic filters between Brasov and Poiana Brasov and of three filters between Poiana Brasov and Rasnov, as well as some other restriction elements on the other access roads, all approved by the Brasov Mayor.

INTERFERENCES AND CROSS-COUNTY FLIGHTS

During the summit there will be mobile telephony problems due to interference gadgets that will function due to security reasons. The passes will have five distinct colors having different access rates, and the whole area will be overseen by planes from the USA Aerial Forces and from Romania. Besides the classical security elements, electronic, chemical and biological surveillances have been also demanded for the whole area of the summit process, and a special terrain has also been prepared to take over the foreign delegations in case of the access way towards Brasov would be blocked. On the 13th of October a reception in Brasov is programmed, where President Ion Iliescu is expected. (Libiu Mateescu)