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They Were Heroes or Traitors?

03 Mar 2005   •   00:00

SPECIAL - March 3rd 2005
Fifteen years have passed since the Revolution in December 1989. Romania renounced then to apply the death penalty. Romania is now a NATO member country, and yet, some Romanians had their death sentences passed for treason maintained. Their blame was to defect to the then Western enemy.
By MARINA CONSTANTINOIU and RAZVAN BELCIUGANU

Ion Mihai Pacepa - a road of twists and turns, from top spy to defector and traitor, from being on a death sentence to being rehabilitated.
At the beginning of 2005, the most famous Romanian defector, Gen. Ion Mihai Pacepa, had his military rank restored to him. This was one of the last decisions made by former President Ion Iliescu, before ending his last mandate. In fact, he was only enforcing a decision passed by the Supreme Court of Justice in 1999, which ruled in favor of Pacepa’s appeal to the decision condemning him to death, passed by the Military Section of the Supreme Court in 1978.
Pacepa is not a man, but a symbol. He was the highest ranking intelligence officer in the former communist camp to ever defect to the United States. The intelligence he passed on the Western intelligence services were the foundation for the collapse of Communism in Romania and in the former Soviet Union.

A similar case to the one of Pacepa’s was the one of the Polish Army Col. Riszard Kuklinski, who turned his status of a traitor into one of a hero, for cooperating with the United States during the Cold War. For 11 years, Kuklinski passed to the US military secrets regarding the Warsaw Pact.

For decades, both Pacepa and Kuklinski were slandered, as were others who followed in their foot-steps with passing intelligence to the Western nations. Their acts were branded as treason and punished accordingly, with death sentences passed in their home countries and dispatching of paid killers to hunt them down around the world.

Jurnalul National recently printed an exclusive interview with Gen. Pacepa. The reactions the newspaper received were very diverse, and the conclusion we drew was that Romania needs a debate on the issue of treason. Romania needs to take a hard look at itself and deal with both its past and its present.
For the past 15 years Romania tried hard to convince the West if its loyalty. But in that part of the world, people like Pacepa and Kuklinski pass for heroes. Here, society is still divided on how to brand them and the debate is on if they betrayed the country or the regime. Did the regime-change benefit the country or not? Who are our allies? If one ruling was passed against one death sentence, scarpiong it, why not follow suit in the other cases too?

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On 2 September 1997 a Polish military court recognized that the years Kuklinski collaborated with the United States "were to the benefit of Poland" and waved all his possible guilt. In 1998, Kuklinski got back his Polish passport, from the Polish Embassy in Washington, and visited his country during the same year. He was made an honorary citizen by his birth town, Krakow.

Pacepa had his death sentence revoked and his military rank restored, but not his Romanian citizenship.
In the two months of Jurnalul National talking with him, prior to the publication of the interview, Pacepa said something that could work as a starting point in a debate on the issue in Romania. He said that he does not feel to have had his name and honor fully restored, as long as no debate took place in the civil society and no progress has been made in overturning the death sentences in the other cases too.

The United Nations and the Western governments deem the people who betrayed the Nazi and Communist regimes to not have betrayed their respective countries, but helping them. For the former Communist camp things do not go so smoothly. However, former President Boris Elztin himself made a public pardon of the "last prisoners of conscience" - as he called the former KGB officers who defected to the USA.

The same people are still regarded as traitors, in Romania, for supporting the US government in its fight against the Soviet empire. These people are now highly esteemed citizens of the Western nations which adopted them.

Mircea Raceanu, Ion Mihai Pacepa and Liviu Turcu had their names cleared of any guilt. Still, what about the other former officers?
The Romanian judiciary started out of its own initiative to solve some of these cases, but forgot about the others.
From time to time the subject surfaced in the media, but never powerful enough to ignite a debate in the civil society.

In August last year, Jurnalul National made public the cases of so many other Securitate and Army officers who defected to NATO member states and are still under a death penalty. The article was titled: "Former spies could die by the bullet in the West" but stirred no reaction from the authorities, just as they were reading to give Pacepa back his military rank. Hence, it follows that the Romanian authorities hold a double standard, since for the same crime some are rehabilitated, and others are not.
In the following days Jurnalul National will deal with some of such cases still not solved after the Revolution of 1989, and will brought together as many opinions as possible on the matter.

The Defectors
  • 1. Capt. Ovidiu Tanasescu, born in 1941, of the UM 0503 military unit, received a death sentence and full confiscation of his personal wealth with Court Ruling 124/28.12.1981 of the Local Military Tribunal, in file 508/1981). He defected to Sweden on 25 September 1981;

  • 2. 1st Lt. Dan Stefanescu Dan
    • , born 1950, of the Foreign Intelligence Service, defected to Great Britain on 24 January 1981. He received a death sentence a death sentence and full confiscation of his personal wealth with Court Ruling 25/1981 of the Local Military Tribunal, in file 237/1981;

  • 3. 1st Lt. Corneliu Serra
    • , born 1939, of the Foreign Intelligence Service, UM 0503 military unit, defected to Sweden on 5 February 1981. He received a death sentence a death sentence and full confiscation of his personal wealth with Court Ruling 48/25.05. 1981, of the Local Military Tribunal, in file 258/1981;

  • 4. Capt. Ioan Serban
    • , born 1933, of the Foreign Intelligence Service, UM 0503 military unit, defected to Switzerland on 16 February 1981. He received a death sentence a death sentence and full confiscation of his personal wealth with Court Ruling 50/25.05. 1981, of the Local Military Tribunal, in file 238/1981;

  • 5. Capt. Andrei Luca
    • , born 1929, with the Intelligence Service of the Chief of Staff and military attaché in Bulgaria, left for Italy and defected there on 17 August. He received a death sentence a death sentence and full confiscation of his personal wealth with Court Ruling 14/23.02. 1981, from the Local Military Tribunal, in file 85/1981;

  • 6. Maj. Teodor Ioan Covaci
    • , born 1939, of the Foreign Intelligence Service, UM 0503 military unit, defected to Belgium on 24 June 1983. He received a death sentence a death sentence and full confiscation of his personal wealth with Court Ruling 77/26.12.1983, from the Local Military Tribunal, file 480/1983;

  • 7. Constantin Sprincenatu
    • , born 1949, former intelligence officer between 1973 and 1982, and working as engineer of the ARCOM company conducting construction work abroad, defected to Switzerland on 29 February 1984 and passed on secrets he had access to while an active intelligence officer. He received a death sentence a death sentence and full confiscation of his personal wealth with Court Ruling 27/16.04.1984, from the Local Military Tribunal, in file 156/1984;

  • 8. Alexandru Gheorghiu
    • , born 1924, senior diplomat with the Romanian Embassy in Washington defected to the Unites State on 19 December 1985. He received a death sentence a death sentence and full confiscation of his personal wealth with Court Ruling 28/19.05.1986, from the Local Military Tribunal, in file 226/1986;

  • 9. Capt. Vergil Baleanu
    • , born 1949, with the UM 0770/S8 military unit, defected to Austria on 3 November 1987. He received a death sentence a death sentence and full confiscation of his personal wealth with Court Ruling 35/11.07.1989, from the Local Military Tribunal, in file 249/1989;

  • 10. Capt. Nicolae Ion Horodinca
    • , born 1946, of the Foreign Intelligence Service, UM 0544 military unit, defected to the United States on 24 February 1980. He received a death sentence a death sentence and full confiscation of his personal wealth with Court Ruling 46/17.05. 1980, from the Local Military Tribunal, in file 197/1980;

  • 11. Capt. Stefan Marius Stoina
    • , born 1935, with the Foreign Intelligence Service, UM 0503 military unit, defected to Sweden on 28 May 1979. He received a death sentence a death sentence and full confiscation of his personal wealth with Court Ruling 61/22.06.1981, from the Local Military Tribunal, in file 292/1981;

  • 12. Matei Pavel Haiducu
    • , born 1948, with the Foreign Intelligence Service, UM 0544 military unit, defected to France in 1982. He received a death sentence a death sentence and full confiscation of his personal wealth with Court Ruling 50/25.05. 1981, from the Local Military Tribunal, in file 421/1983;

  • 13. 1st Lt. Traian Nicola
    • , born 1949, with the Foreign Intelligence Service, UM 0544 military unit, defected abroad on 6 December 1979. He received a death sentence a death sentence and full confiscation of his personal wealth with Court Ruling 28/17.03.1980, of the Local Military Tribunal, file 77/1980;

  • 14. Lt. Col. Nicolae Vasile
    • , born 1937, with the Foreign Intelligence Service, UM 0503 military unit, defected on 10 February 1981 in Paris. He received a death sentence a death sentence and full confiscation of his personal wealth with Court Ruling 62/29.06. 1981, of the Local Military Tribunal, file 315/1981;

  • 15. Maj. Ion Constantinescu
    • , born 1938, with the Secret Service, UM 0525 military unit, defected to Germany on 12 September 1984. He received a death sentence a death sentence and full confiscation of his personal wealth with Court Ruling 4/1985, of the Local Military Tribunal, file 519/ 1984;

  • 16. Maj. Mihai Gheorghe
    • , born 1938, with the Foreign Intelligence Service, UM 0503 military unit, defected to Germany on 15 September 1981. He received a death sentence a death sentence and full confiscation of his personal wealth with Court Ruling 125/1981, of the Local Military Tribunal, file 507/1981;

  • 17. Chief Warrant Constantin Stefan Merai
    • , born 1944, with the Foreign Intelligence Service, UM 0503 military unit, defected to the United States on 22 August 1981. He received a death sentence a death sentence and full confiscation of his personal wealth with Court Ruling 101/1981, of the Local Military Tribunal, file 438/1981;

  • 18. Col. Ion Iacobescu
    •  left for the United States in 1969. Since 1960, when he was the head of the spy cell in Paris, France, he cooperated with the CIA. He was part of the famous Caraman Network. In 1970 He received a death sentence a death sentence and full confiscation of his personal wealth.

  • 19. Maj. Ioan Stana
    •  was arrested on 25.06.1985, and received a 20 year forced labor sentence and full confiscation of his personal wealth for working with the US intelligence agencies. The Revolution gave him a short lived freedom, since in 1991 the political regime led by President Ion Iliescu asked for Stana to return to prison till 2005. He immediately demanded political asylum to the United States.

  • 20. Lt. Col. Florin Brozici
    • , with the Foreign Intelligence Service, defected to Belgium in August 1982. The same year he received a death sentence and full confiscation of his personal wealth, in file 98/1982;

  • 21. Lt. Col. Marin Radu
    • , with the Foreign Intelligence Service, defected to Austria on 23 December 1982. He received a death sentence a death sentence and full confiscation of his personal wealth, in file 91/1982;

  • 22. Capt. Dan Aurel Magureanu
    • , of the Foreign Intelligence Service, defected to Austria on 12 January 1989, after crossing illegally the border with Hungary. He received a 20-year hard work sentence and full confiscation of his personal wealth, in file 213/P/1989;

  • 23. Maj. Constantin Iancu
    • , with the Ministry of Defense, defected to Turkey in April 1989. He received a 15-year hard work sentence and full confiscation of his personal wealth for treason, in file 90/P/1989;

  • 24. Constantin Chirila
    • , warrant officer with the Secret Service was arrested in 1981 and accused of spying for a NATO member country. He was sentenced to 20-year hard work and full confiscation of his personal wealth;

  • 25. Col. Vasile Constantin Ungureanu
    •  defected in April 1989 to Turkey. He was sentenced to 15-year hard work and full confiscation of his personal wealth, file 89/P/1989;

    Translated By ANCA PADURARU
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