SUMMARY

The Military faction (forces of Nicolae Ceausescu) was an armed group made up of forces from the Securitate (Departamentul Securității Statului, Department of State Security) - the secret police belonging to the Ministry of the Interior- that remained loyal to the Communist President Nicolae Ceausescu after his ouster on 22 December 1989 (see Romania: Government).

Securitate, which had served as the de facto private army of Ceausescu, numbered about 30 000 in 1989, and had access to advanced military equipment, such as helicopter gunships, armored personnel carriers, and other heavy weapons. The force also included the “Directorate 5 for the Protection of Dignitaries”, which was charged with protecting the Ceausescu family, and a 1000-strong elite anti-terrorist unit. During the rule of the Ceausescu regime, the Securitate had been an omnipresent security machine that terrorized the population into submission. The Securitate was disbanded in January 1990.