The memory of Danny Huwe — is it still alive?
On the 24th of December 1989, in the evening, two foreign journalists were killed: one was run over by a tank, the French Jean Luis Calderon, and the second, the Belgium Danny Huwe, was shot while he was doing a stand up with the camera’s lights upon him.
Not only Romanian citizens died in the violent events in December ’89. Several Western journalists who came to Bucharest to document the Romanian revolution fell victim to the assassins with epaulets. Danny Huwé was married and had three children. He remains the only Belgian journalist killed in a conflict zone up to this date. In his memory, the former Răzoare Square was named Danny Huwé Square. RATB, now STB stations were also renamed after the Belgian journalist.
Which day is the most important for the Romanian revolution, is still debated. For some, the most important day of the revolution was their last day. While in Bucharest, to broadcast reports on the Romanian revolution, Danny Huwe was shot in the head by a sniper in the Răzoare area of Drumul Taberei.
The images that could have been presented by Danny Huwe, would show many people dressed in civilian clothes, without weapons, who were shot by the authorities. 18-year-old children from the top of the mountains, shot because they did not stop at the summons, and therefore they were considered terrorists. Children, shot by children — who were military that listened indiscriminately to the orders of the commanders.
However, the car in which Danny Huwe and his colleagues were arriving in Răzoare Square was cut off by a tank. The border guards started firing, and a bullet hit Huwe. Danny’s three colleagues hid behind the car until morning, then ran away, leaving their colleague’s body behind. They found his body four days later, at the hospital morgue, near the place where he was killed. Unfortunately, the spotlight on Danny Huwe was turned off.
The monument built in Bucharest in memory of the Belgian journalist Danny Huwe has been left in ruins: it no longer has the name of the journalist written on it, so that people know who it commemorates.
Several military units, including a border guard unit, but also the Prosecutor’s Offices from Constanta and Brasov admitted that they destroyed files regarding the dead victims of the Revolution. For example, at a border guard unit reports of the destruction of secret documents in connection with the body of a terrorist were found, as well as the objects found on the journalist Danny Huwe.
