Chapter 16 The Romanian Marsh As early as 1988, we started focusing on Romania, using a sister organization, “Second World Center” housed with us in the same office, as a base. The country was a strictly orchestrated communist dictatorship ruled by the megalomanical couple, Nicolae and Elena Ceaucescu’s. While the Ceaucescu maintained a ruthless, repressive machinery at home, they were welcomed with open arms by many countries in the West. Ceaucescu followed a policy independent from Moscow, and that was enough to reap recognition, support, medals and awards from Western governments and royalty. Because it gradually became less and less necessary to support the dissident movement in the Soviet Union through couriers, our small team of associates had the chance to focus their attention on a different country. At the beginning of 1989, we decided to take the chance and try to establish contacts with dissidents in Romania to see how we could best provide assistance. The very first time things went immediately wrong. After a meeting with one of the few well-known dissidents, Silviu Brucan, our courier was stopped by the police. He was released some time later, but with the clear instruction that he had to leave the country. The Romanian authorities, however, did not count on the persistence of the Dutch Ambassador; Coen Stork was not a regular Dutch diplomat. He had a very clear opinion, had no problem expressing it, and organized weekly meetings with other ambassadors in Bucharest to discuss the human rights situation in the country. Coen Stork proposed to our courier that he could stay with him as a guest. Every morning “our man” left the Embassy, and every evening he returned. He couldn’t do much, because the Securitate was watching him very closely, and, therefore, meeting dissidents without prior warning had become too dangerous. However, Romania was such a closed society that even impressions of everyday life were of interest both for our Western perception of the situation and for determining our own policy. After his return to The Netherlands, a plan of action was developed. We decided to organize a big campaign around Christmastime, during which a large group of youngsters would be sent into the country by train to hand out food parcels in various cities. It was a daring plan that eventually partially succeeded. Part of the participants were removed from the train and sent back, but another part managed to reach their destination and hand out their humanitarian aid. They belonged to the last foreigners to leave communist Romania. A few days later, the Romanian revolution started and the Ceaucescu’s were executed after a short show trial. 168 On Dissidents and Madness Convoys with humanitarian aid The revolution in Romania started a few days before Christmas 1989. All aid organizations in The Netherlands had closed their offices in connection with the upcoming long Christmas weekend, and had put on their answering machines. We were also sitting at home and followed the events on television. To our enormous surprise we suddenly saw one of our associates on TV. She was standing in the corridor of her home in The Hague and piling up bags with humanitarian aid. Neighbors were ringing the doorbell and delivering more goods. With the same overwhelming enthusiasm with which she had led campaigns for dissidents for so many years, Maya s’ Gravesande called upon the Dutch population to collect material aid in order to help the poor Romanian population. It was as if all the locked gates had been opened. The very same evening we were already back in our office in full force and a crisis center was established. Two boys, who were studying logistics, offered their help as volunteers, reorganizing our office completely. Soon the walls were covered with big maps of Romania and Holland. The telephone ran constantly; everywhere in the country, coordination points were established where goods could be delivered. Before Christmas was over, we had more than a hundred of these coordination points throughout the country. Transport firms offered free transportation. Volunteers came to us offering free transportation with campers and small vans, wanting to join the convoys. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs offered its support by providing a considerable financial donation to cover all the costs. The police offered a full set of recently replaced radio equipment. We were stupefied. Coordination Center in Amsterdam, Second World Center, Christmas 1989 A few days later, the first convoys left for Romania. We tried to make sure that they traveled in large convoys, because according to some .