Friday, April 10, 2009

The Moldovan state blames political opponents for riots

This is a statement from the Office of The General Prosecuter in the Republic of Moldova. It is not translated into English on their site for some reason...

Synopsis: The prosecutor names the leaders of the opposition parties as legally responsible for the violent acts commited 6th of April. This statement do not mention any "Coup de etat", but material destruction, creation of disorder etc.

Original Romanian text below

The procecutor considers the actions of the organizers and participants in the meeting 6th of April called "Day of pain" inadmissible and outright illegal.

Thus, the current 6th of April, between 16:00 -23:00 Ghenadie Brega has organized a meeting with hundreds of participants, assisted by the leaders of some political parties (V. Filat, A. Tănase, V. Ungureanu, V. Pavlicenco, O. Cernei, V. Nagacevschi etc.)

The aim of the meeting was to manifestate the protest against the results of the parliamentary elections current 5th of April.

In the unfolding of the event the law concerning the organisation of meetings was broken on a number of different points ( art.6, 16, 18, 19), according to which:

  • Meetings shall be conducted peacefully only
  • The organizer has the right to conduct to protest only on the spot and in the way announced before hand.
  • Participants are obliged to respect legislation and public order
In reality, however, a number of the legal principles shave been broken, and the organizers have allowed:
  • the blocking of the main lines of communications
  • attempts at vandalizing and turning over means of public transport
  • encouraging minors to violent acts
  • participating in the state of intoxication
  • the smearing of physical persons
In contrast to the article 18, the organizers have not respected the responsibilities, they have shown irresponsibility that resulted in breaks of public order, they have not assured the maintanence of a just order, as a result of these actions the meeting ended in a large scale disorder.

In fact organizwers and participants in a large scale disorder, followed by the disorganisation of transport activities and attempts at vandalizing acts agaist it, and the smearing of physical persons, encouraging people not to obey the legitimate instructions from represents of authority and to large scale disorders, today the procecutor has initiated the criminal investigation according to article 285 CP.

The prosecutor will undertake all necessary legally available measures in safeguarding the legal order and the the public order, and urge the population to focus on these ambitions.

The press service of the General Prosecutor


Romanian text

Procuratura califică drept ilegale şi inadmisibile acţiunile organizatorilor şi participanţilor la întrunirea din 6 aprilie 2009 sub genericul „zi de doliu”.

Astfel, la 6 aprilie curent între orele 16:00 – 23:20 în Piaţa Marii Adunări Naţionale a fost organizată de către Ghenadie Brega cu participarea activă a liderilor unor partide politice (V. Filat, A. Tănase, V. Ungureanu, V. Pavlicenco, O. Cernei, V. Nagacevschi etc.) o întrunire la care au participat cîteva sute de oameni.

Scopul mitingului constînd în a manifesta protestul faţă de rezultatele alegerilor parlamentare din 5 aprilie curent.

În procesul desfăşurării lui au fost încălcate prevederile Legii privind întrunirile (art.6, 16, 18, 19), conform cărora:
- întrunirile se desfăşoară numai în mod paşnic;
- organizatorul are dreptul de a desfăşura doar în forma, locul şi termenul indicat în declaraţia prealabilă;
- participanţii au obligaţia de a respecta legislaţia şi ordinea publică

În realitate însă, au fost constatate un şir de încălcări flagrante ale prevederilor legale, şi anume, organizatori şi participanţii au admis:
- blocarea arterelor principale de transport
- tentative de deteriorare si răsturnare a mijloacelor de transport public,
- antrenarea minorilor.
- participarea în starea de ebrietate
- batjocorirea persoanelor.

Contrar prevederilor art.18, organizatorii nu au respectat obligaţiunile asumate, au manifestat iresponsabilitate soldate cu încălcarea ordinii publice, nu au asigurat menţinerea ordinii de drept, în rezultatul acestor acţiuni întrunirea transformîndu-se într-o dezordine în masă.

Pe faptul organizării şi participării active la dezordini în masă, însoţite de dezorganizarea activităţilor transportului şi tentativelor de răsturnare şi deteriorare a lui cu violenţa şi batjocura altor persoane, cu chemări la nesupunere cerinţelor legitime ale reprezentanţilor autorităţilor şi la dezordine în masă, astăzi, Procuratura a iniţiat urmărirea penală conform art.285 CP.

Procuratura va întreprinde toate măsurile prevăzute de lege întru asigurarea ordinii de drept şi ordinii publice şi focalizează atenţia populaţiei asupra necesităţii respectării ei.
Serviciul de presă al Procuraturii Generale

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi. First thanks for posting all that information on the situation in Moldova.

It is probably not the relevant post, but I really would like to ask some questions as I am trying to understand the situation in Moldova, but it is confusing to me.

How many people in Moldova identify as Moldovan and how many as Romanian?

Are all people who identify as Romanian anti-Russian and pro-EU and what people see as liberally oriented? How strong are any separatist ideas? And what is their political stance, in the sense that are romanian nationalsists who would like to unify with Romania, to bee seen as broadly liberal and pro-western.

How many people in Moldova identify as Russian? How many people are pro-Russia? What is their background?

What about the language? How many people see Moldovan language as separate from Romanian and how many think it is the same? What is the official stance of the Moldovan state on that question?

In general can you say more about the ways in which ethnic/language identities are integrated into politics? Like for example are there many USSR nostalgic people and if there are any is that linked to their ethinic identity?

I dont care for any 'real' ethnicity, but the way people would see it and the ways in which it is integrated with their poltiics, how it changes depending on their politics and so on.

I also would like to know more about the way protests are organized.

Is that predominantly urban students who take part in them?

Are there any notable groups and individuals that can be distinguished as more central and core to the events.
I am asking this because I would like to know how close is that movement to the series of 'color revolutions' lead by groups like say OTPOR! in Serbia 2000.

Thanks a lot

I know I put too many questions, but I think it will be really interesting (not only for me) if you post something more analytical on the situation in Moldova.

thanks again!

Maladets! said...

Hi!

Thanks for reading, and a very insightful comment. Let me first explain who I am...

I used to live in Moldova, but left more than a year ago. My data and impressions might well be outdated now. and it seems to me that many things have changed since I left.

I currently live in Bulgaria, and when I arrived here, I didnt have the impression that Bulgaria was much ahead of Moldova. Since then, however, the Moldovan state has appearantly grewn more totalitarian. I am not only speaking about the events after the elections. Also before this some friends of mine's computers were confiscated by the police, because they had blog with anti-communist content etc.

When I lived in Moldova I was rather impressed by the lowdegree of conflict between ethnical Romanians and ethnical Russians. For sure, they were two distintive communities, but the conflict didn't strike me as more infected than the relations between Swedish and Finnish in Finland, for example.

Some friends in Moldova now, say that there is a kind of Romanian-Russian aspect of the protests. On the one hand many Russians in Chisinau voted for the Liberal mayor, but people also talk about the Communists being the "party of the russians", guaranteeing a close relationship to Moscow. I guess an intersting detail here is that when the events were at their most intense, president Voronin made a public statement in Russian, not Romanian. (Russian does not hold any official status in Moldova, but it is widely used everywhere,)

Regarding Romanian-Moldovan identity it's vry difficult to answer. I guess a quite small percentage would call themself Romanian in stead of Moldovan, and most Moldovans witness that they feel like foreigners and are treated as such in Bucharest. The number of people that actually believe in a re-unification with Romania are also quite few I think.

CIA factbook says that 78,2 % of the population is Moldovan/Romanian, which sounds like an educated guess to me. But lots of people have different parents etc. so I think this question vary a lot. The rest would be different etnicities, that speak predominantely Russian.

There is definitely a Russian "over representation" in high business (or do people choose to speak russian in thse circles for other reasons?) . Also Russians definitely represent more than 20 % among well educated and cultural circles.

Also in "counter culture", Rock music etc. Russians are very viusible, so it would be wrong to automatically connect russian-ness with USSR nostalgia, or anti-liberalism.

There is notably a play with USSR symbols in russian bars, clubs etc. but this is also quite rstricted to the counter-culture, and I don't see it as a political stance for Voronin.

That being said, Romania is in the EU, and a Romanian passport makes life very much easier. Therefor Romania has an obvious connection to the west.

I didn't meet one person who thought that they spoke "moldovan". But most romanian speaking moldovans did not have any problems witht he fact that they live in Moldova and not in Romania, but they might well want a liberal government in Moldova. Again, I remind you that things might have changed since I lived in Moldova.

I myself would not call the advocates of a unification with Romania pro-wester, and definitely not liberal. This political group is very nationalistic, and go pretty far out right.

Many people say that the opposition lack any clear leaders. There are, of course a group of more prominent adversaries of the regime, among them the pretty famous Natalia Morar, the liberal perty leaders etc.

This group would be, quite pro romanian, anti putin, anti communism, very well educated and very pro western. But this is a small group.

I don't know to what degree the protests were a student movement.

Much has been written about the pivotal role the Internet played in what has been called "the Twitter revolutiuon". I think the role of Internet, was above all to spread the news about the protests outside Moldova. And a way to communicate when the government did what they could to suffocate information.

Hm... I don't know how much sense my answers make. I think one important thing to remember in comparing with OTPOR for example, is that there was not a mass movement against the communists before the elections. For sure many people might not have voted communist, but the circles active before the elections was rather small and isolated I fear. Maybe one good thing to come out of the events will be such a movement.

Who are you by, the way? Are you studying this kind of movements? I would really love to get in touch with you, please send me an email to danielnylinnilsson @ gmail.com

Greetings!
Daniel