Romanians are commemorating the 20 year anniversary of the fall of communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu on December 22, 1989.
 
Hundreds congregated and remembered the events which sparked the uprising 20 years ago, world media reported.
Gatherings and memorial services were held at cemeteries and sites in which the brief but bloody revolution had a direct impact, including Timisoara in the southwest of the country and the capital Bucharest.
  
Scores of people gathered in Timisoara for reenactments outside the town’s protestant church of events 20 years ago, when demonstrators against the eviction of the protestant Laszlo Tokes were crushed by communist authorities.
  
It was Tokes, a pastor from ethnic Hungarian heritage, who was considered to have galvanized the revolution through his sermons by openly propagating criticism aimed at the former Romanian dictator whilst still on power.
 
The protests eventually reached the capital Bucharest.

It was to transpire as the bloodiest and most brutal transition from one regime to another anywhere behind the Iron Curtain, with 1 100 people killed and over 3 500 wounded when Romanian army units and secret police attempted to crush the uprising.
  
On December 23 2009, wreaths will commemorate the memories of 93 people killed in Timisoara by the Securitate, Romania’s communist secret police. The town was the first to proclaim to the world that it was "free of communism oppression" and as such, it holds a special place in Romanian sentiments over those events.
  
Ceausescu and wife Elena fled after massive protests in Bucharest in which 162 people were massacred. They were captured, then tried swiftly and executed on December 25 1989.