The Plow — February, 21st
Romanian Object — Army starts evacuating populations amidst local chaos
Published on Friday, February 21st, for The Guardian UK
The cylinder keeps moving towards the Hungarian border, this Friday the 21st, while Romanian military forces have started emptying cities on its trajectory.
“Around 75000 civilians will have to leave their homes to get to safety”, explained the defense minister Nicolae Ciucă in a daily press briefing in Bucarest. “We are doing everything in our power to temporarily relocate the displaced populations. Most of them will be allowed to move back to their homes when the object will have left the area, so there is absolutely no reason to panic. The situation is under control”.
The reality seemed different in western Romania, though. In the Arad region, many locals have reported hasty and brutal evacuations, leaving them no time to organize or gather their valuables. Discarded furniture, clothes, as well as cars, can be seen on roads throughout the area.
Looting scenes have also been witnessed, perpetrators raiding the thousands of suddenly emptied houses and commerces, undisturbed by otherwise overwhelmed police forces.
Echoing this chaotic situation, general Antonescu announced that, “Romania not having the necessary resources to face the events, [the army] will focus its efforts on the evacuations and entrust the exclusion zone’s military command to NATO forces”. The general indicates that an extraordinary session of the Allied Command Operations (ACO) will take place in the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE), the center of NATO’s command in Mons, Belgium.
The question of the object’s military operations might become more complex later this month, as the cylinder is expected to cross the Hungarian border on the 27th. Viktor Orban’s government’s spokesperson, János Farkas, said this morning that “Hungarian’s sovereignty shall not be challenged in the event that the object entered our national territory. It is the Hungarian people, and the Hungarian people only, that will decide the best course of action for their country”.
Hungary has been a member of NATO since 1999, and theoretically bound by formal agreements, so it remains to be seen how the country will cooperate with the organization in the next few days.
— Andréi Wales-Tushinski, special envoy, Arad.
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