Catalin Ranco Pitu, the former head of Romania's Military Prosecutor's Office has told DW that the sonic weapon allegedly used during the massive protest in Belgrade on March 15 was similar to the one used by the regime of communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu during the Romanian revolution in December 1989.

Pitu spent six years investigating the 1989 revolution, which led to the fall of Ceausescu and the collapse of communism in Romania.

He told DW that the same type of sound manipulation was deployed during a mass pro-Ceausecu rally organized by the communist regime in Bucharest on December 21, 1989.

The purpose of the rally had been to convince Romanians of the "righteousness" of Ceausescu's policies and to discredit as anti-Romanian the protests in Timisoara that had begun a few days previously.

"During that rally, Romanian soldiers from a specialized psychological operations unit intervened using a tape recorder that emitted low-frequency sounds through the sound system," Pitu told DW.

That moment marked the start of the Romanian revolution in Bucharest. The next day, Ceausescu fled the capital. He was subsequently captured and executed three days later, on Christmas Day, in Targoviste.

About 1,200 people died and around 4,000 were seriously injured........

© Deutsche Welle