The World - News from March 3, 1989

A Swiss newspaper report suggested that Romania is secretly trying to sell off Western shipments of humanitarian food aid to get U.S. dollars. Neue Zuercher Zeitung, a Zurich newspaper, said its information came from documents received from Romania. It said they indicated that a foreign trade agency in the Romanian capital had offered North Korea, a Communist ally, a discounted shipment of rice, flour and other foods for payment in dollars. Romanian authorities thus stand accused “of seizing Western aid shipments for the starving, freezing population and bartering them away for hard currency,” the newspaper said. Officials at the Romanian Embassy in Bern said they were not aware of any problem.