Under observation

When writer Herta Mueller accepted her Nobel Prize Thursday in Stockholm, Radu Tinu was likely watching the ceremony on television from the western Romanian city of Timisoara. He was the secret service officer who spied on Mueller in Nicolae Ceausescu's Romania.

From 1985 to 1989, Tinu served as the deputy head of Securitate, communist Romania's secret service, in the Timisoara district. Two decades after the fall of the Iron Curtain, he is the district manager of what used to be the state-run insurance company Asirom, which now belongs to the Vienna Insurance Group.

Tinu's office is spartanly furnished. On one of the shelves, there is a photograph of Ion Antonescu, Romania's pro-fascist dictator during World War II, who is considered a war criminal because of his involvement in the Holocaust in his country.

A world without doubt or regret

Tinu is a tall and robust 60-year-old with a brusque, impulsive manner. He comes from a simple peasant family, but now sees himself as part of the elite - an elite with a lot of power and few ethical standards.

"In the secret service, there is neither good nor evil," Tinu told Deutsche Welle in a telephone interview. "If I were 20 again, I would choose to work for my country's secret service, since it's an extremely interesting job. You never do the same thing two days in a row. You have to scout out, read a lot and constantly be preparing. Spy work is not something that can be done by bouncers or car washers."

The former spy's perspective is not uncommon for functionaries in dictatorships. He denies being part of a repressive system.

"I only respected the laws that were made - and not by me," Tinu said. "In the Securitate, I was working for Romania and not for Ceausescu."

That Ceausescu was the head-of-state meant the secret service was obligated to protect him, but Tinu maintained that he never worked on a political case. Like most former Securitate officers, he still lives in a world without doubt - least of all about his own role.

Mixed views of who's the victim

Tinu speaks about his victims with a mixture of arrogance and disdain. His tone changes, however, when he remembers his own arrest in December 1989 and the following two years he spent in prison.

"Sometimes I get really mean - not because that's the way I am, but because of those two years," he said. "Just imagine them dragging me, Radu Tinu, across the train station - in handcuffs! How was that possible?"

Tinu added that he has made a list of enemies. He keeps tabs on them and is glad when he learns that something bad has happened to them.

Herta Mueller was his victim, not his enemy, but he's not likely to applaud her Nobel success. He said he's read all of her books, but didn't think they were prize-worthy.

Perhaps that is because Mueller has not ceased to openly speak and write about the psychological terror she experienced due to the Securitate, the communist Romanian government, and Radu Tinu himself.

Click on the link below to read an English version of the article Herta Mueller wrote about her experience with the secret service in Romania. It was originally published in the German newspaper Die Zeit in July 2009.

Author: Keno Verseck (kjb)

Editor: Sean Sinico