Vasile Gârneţ

Democracy and Human Rights in Republic of Moldova – ATTACKED

Moldova PEN Centre Statement

The PEN Centre from the Republic of Moldova, a filial of the World Writers Organisation based in London, strongly protests against the terror, violence and intimidation campaign launched by the communist government after the parliamentary elections from April 5, 2009.
The Communists Party promoted during the 8 years of ruling in the Republic of Moldova, a brutal constraining policy of the human rights: it had suppressed the freedom of speech, it had constantly heckled the independent press, it had undermined the independence of justice, it carried out purification measures based on political criteria within the state authorities, it had violently attacked the national values from the Republic of Moldova, bringing back Stalinist concepts regarding the language and the ethnicity of the Moldovan citizens. 
The recent electing campaign was marked by numerous legislative breaches, including a virulent denigration campaign of the democratic opposition and usage of the administrative resources by the Communists Party and none of these abuses were fought against by the relevant authorities in order to supervise and protect the compliance with legal norms. In order to diminish the electing opportunities of the opposition and to reduce its own losses during the elections, the governing party introduced a series of discriminative anti-democratic modifications to the electing legislation, it refused to open several electing sections abroad for the Moldovans who work there – about 1 million Moldovans according to non-official sources – ignoring the numerous internal demarches and the international organizations recommendations.
The state tension that our society experiences these days, after 8 years of authoritarian government of the Communists Party and of president Vladimir Voronin, has reached the top, as a result of the massive frauds during the April 5, 2009 elections performed by the communists. Being incapable of fabricating arguments, sustaining a dialogue with political forces and the civil society, the nowadays authorities has chosen the path of confrontations and political persecutions, trying to get the public opinion attention off of the accusations regarding the falsification of the elections. This is the approach in regard to the 7 April peaceful protests hijack into a series of violent incidents and attempts to destroy some state headquarters – reprehensible actions, to which the police forces did not know how to respond or simply didn’t want to.
In this very moment, the Republic of Moldova looks like a genuine constabulary state: the police has arrested about 300 youngsters, college and high-school students, who were accused of participating at anti-governmental protests. These young people, according to their own declarations and to the ones of the witnesses, are maltreated and put under brief trials right there, in the police stations, without having the chance to benefit of their elementary rights. The violent acts and the repressions which took place these days unfortunately encountered a tragedy – the death of a young man, aged 23, who died in suspect circumstances, which are to be cleared out. The police forces aggressed journalists from independent media, they have intimidated several foreign correspondents who were there to report the post-electing events from Moldova. The communist government introduced a real informational blockade: the independent media websites hardly work, the state television continues to misinform the population, by expressing only the state point of view over the events, TV channels from abroad, covering the events with news and comments, were banned in the Republic of Moldova. The April 7 events served as a pretext to the communist authorities to cease the relations with Romania – EU and NATO member state – who he accused, without grounds, to have been an accomplice at a so told coupe d’état organized by the opposition. The Romanian ambassador in Chisinau was expelled, the visa regime for the Romanian citizens was introduced, thus breaching the agreements that have been signed with the European Union. Moldovan citizens have been forbidden to enter the Republic of Moldova from Romania, being considered potential protesters against the communist regime.
Taking into account the severe political crisis installed during the last days, Moldova PEN Centre insistently requires from the actual authorities that the human rights breaching campaign stops: that all the people who were arrested under the accusation of having been participated at the April 6-7 protests are released, these persons having the right for an honest and equitable trial;
Moldova PEN Centre requires, along with other civic organizations, an international impartial investigation which would clarify the guilt and the responsibilities connected to the violent and vandalism acts consigned on April 7, in Chisinau;
Moldova PEN Centre invites the political forces to initiate a dialogue, a real communication, which would conduct to a stopping of the present conflict and cleavage state of the society;
Moldova PEN Centre requires from the communist authorities to annul the censorship and the informational embargo it had installed, to allow the access of all political forces and civil society representatives to the state TV and radio stations, not to create impediments for the foreign media representatives;
Moldova PEN Centre demands that the Moldovan Government rehabilitates the normal relations with Romania and annuls the visa regime for the Romanian citizens;
Moldova PEN Centre requests from the international community, the European Union and the United States to support the legal claims of the Moldovan citizens in respect to bringing the Republic of Moldova back to the democratic and European evolution trends, not to allow the “transnistrisation” and “belarusisation” of this state.

April 13, 2009,

Chisinau