Two Reported Killed in Romanian Unrest

VIENNA--The biggest protests in two years were reported in Romania, where Nicolae Ceausescu runs the Soviet bloc's last hard-line regime, and a traveler said yesterday at least two people were killed, including a child.

An unconfirmed report in the West German media said hundreds were killed.

Romania virtually sealed its borders, blocking or restricting travel from neighboring Hungary, Yugoslavia and Bulgaria, and from other countries, in an apparent effort to curtail reports of the unrest at Timisoara, in western Romania.

Arriving flights were turned back around at the Bucharest airport. Bulgarian TV said travelers were held in trains for hours before being sent back by Romanian border guards.

In a late evening report, the Yugoslav news agency Tanjug said Romanian security forces took full control yesterday of Timisoara, just 30 miles from the Yugoslav border. Ceausescu flew to Iran earlier in the day for a three-day official visit.

Premier Miklos Nemeth of Hungary said there were unconfirmed reports of protests in other Romanian cities and of soldiers being placed on alert.

A Yugoslav returning from Romania told The Associated Press police fired on the protesters and at least two people were killed.

He said other Yugoslav travelers reported seeing more bodies in Timisoara after security forces dispersed the largest anti-government protests since a protest by 10,000 workers at Brasov in 1987.

In West Germany, William Toetoek, an ethnic German writer who immigrated from Romania, was interviewed on Bremen radio and quoted witnesses in Timisoara as saying 300 to 400 protesters were killed and hundreds injured.

None of the reports of high death tolls could be confirmed.

Bishop Endre Gyulay of the Roman Catholic diocese of Szeged in Hungary, which includes Timisoara, told the church news agency Kathpress, based in Vienna, that 30 or 40 people fled across the border yesterday and reported two deaths, of an old woman and a 29-year-old man.

"I saw two dead, including a child, on the streets," he said. Other Yugoslav travelers said soldiers were seen three-deep at main intersections in Timisoara on Sunday. The official Hungarian news agency MTI quoted a Czechoslovak, not identified, as saying tanks were in the streets.

Mihnea Berindei, vice chair of the Paris-based Romanian League for Human Rights, said he had reports of police firing on the demonstrators in Timisoara.

"Shots were heard and there were injuries. Ambulances were seen rushing to and fro," he said, quoting witnesses.

"There are reports of deaths, but we don't have any figures so far because the entire area has been virtually isolated...by the security forces," Berindei said.

Anti-government protests apparently began after hundreds of ethnic Hungarians formed a human chain Friday night to prevent the eviction of the Rev. Laszio Toekes, a Reformed Church clergyman who has championed their rights, Berindei said.

Toekes had been harassed for months by Romanian authorities. He and his wife, who is pregnant, had remained inside his church since masked assailants tried to attack him in his neighboring apartment November 2, Berindei said, again quoting witnesses.

He said he did not know where Toekes was last night.

Several thousand people, most of them ethnic Romanian students and workers, protested in downtown Timisoara on Saturday and briefly occupied the Communist Party headquarters, breaking windows and smashing furniture, Berindei said.

They also broke windows of bookstores, and burned the works of Ceausescu, whose books are prominently displayed, he said.

Protest continued Sunday, then police and army units intervened and shots were fired, Berindei said.

Official media did not mention the weekend unrest, devoting themselves instead to Ceausescu's visit to Iran.

Emigres said Bucharest radio warned citizens on Sunday to remain orderly or face serious consequences, which in Romania can include long jail sentences or forced labor.

Western diplomats reached by telephone yesterday in Bucharest said the capital appeared calm but the international airport was heavily guarded.