Report on the ensuring of human rights and liberties in the Republic of Moldova in 2002

The League for Defence of Human Rights of Moldova International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH, Paris-France)

R E P O R T on the ensuring of human rights and liberties in the Republic of Moldova during 2002

C H I S I N A U, January 2003

1 League for Defence of Human Rights of Moldova (LADOM)

C O N T E N T S

P A R T I I. REPORT on the ensuring of human rights and liberties in the Republic of Moldova during 2002 ...... 3 1. Introduction ...... 3 2. The ensuring of Human Rights in the context of the European Convention of Human Rights...... 6 2.1. The right to life ...... 6 2.2. Torture, inhuman or degrading treatments and punishments ...... 7 2.3. Slavery and forced labour ...... 10 2.4. The liberty and safety of the person ...... 11 2.5. The right to a fair trial ...... 14 2.6. The right to privacy ...... 16 2.7. Freedom of thought, conscious and confession ...... 16 2.8. Freedom of expression and information ...... 18 2.9. The right to peaceful meetings ...... 26 2.10. The right to property ...... 28 2.11. The right to education ...... 31 2.12. The right to free elections ...... 35 2.13. The rights of foreign citizens ...... 38 2.14. Discrimination ...... 38 3. The ensuring of human rights in Transdniestria ...... 40 4. The ensuring of human rights in TAU «Gagauz-Yeri» ...... 44 5. Conclusions ...... 45

P A R T II II. Reports on the implementation of the PACE Resolution 1280 (2002) ...... 46 2.1.Reprot on the course of implementation of the PACE Resolution clauses from April 24, 2002 by the Republic of Moldova ...... 46 2.2.Report on the implementation of the PACE resolution from 24 April 2002 by the Republic of Moldova ...... 49 III. Alternative Report on the Ensuring of Civil and Political Rights ...... 85

2 Report on the ensuring of human rights and liberties in the Republic of Moldova in 2002 PART I I. REPORT on the ensuring of human rights and liberties in the Republic of Moldova during 2002

1. Introduction In 2002 the Republic of Moldova has celebrated 13 years from its declaration of independence, 13 years of self-governing as an independent, sovereign and indivisible state. During this agitated and eventful time the inhabitants of the state have been facing the civil war, financial, economic, political and social crisis and, as a consequence, the territory of the state was divided into several parts (approximately 11% of the territory being uncontrolled by the central authorities). Unfortunately, the geopolitical situation of the Republic of Moldova had a negative impact on the development and evolution of the society and economy of the state. Since the beginning of the reforms and adoption of the new Constitution, the Republic of Moldova has sanctioned the modern democratic principles: the rule of law, market economy and the ensuring of human rights and liberties and adhered to the most important organisations and signed a series of international documents that have a valuable importance for the democratisation process of the post-totalitarian society. More over, there were times when Moldova was regarded as a leader between the promoters of democratic reforms from the South-eastern European and ex-soviet states (we are speaking about the privatisation of the state sector). But the incapacity of the authorities to solve the Transdniestrian dispute and the presence of a foreign army on the territory of the separatist region favoured the transformation of the young state with an inexperienced political class in an unstable region haunted by corruption and traffic of influence, political, social, economic and legislative instability that lead to incertitude in foreign policy, birth rate reduction, unemployment, mass emigration of citizens, trafficking in human beings and body organs etc. Thus, at the beginning of the III-rd millennium Moldova became the poorest state of Europe and one of the most social, economic and political unstable states. Since 25 February 2001, the Republic of Moldova became the first state with a Communist governance that got the majority of the electorate. The electoral message of the communists included the ceasing of many democratic reforms begun a little before, political and economic orientation towards eastern countries, restoring a series of principles of the former soviet state, increase of the living conditions of the population and peaceful solving of the Transdniestrian conflict. The experts have predicted the tensioning of the situation and the great crisis in Moldova. Unfortunately, the year 2002 proved true all their suppositions. After the estrangement of some territories of the Republic of Moldova in 2001, the crisis and cease of negotiations with the authorities from Tiraspol, the intention of introducing the Russian language as a compulsory discipline in schools and declaring it a state language, unjustified tensioning of the relationships with the neighbours, the censure of state Media means, as well as the revision of the territorial-administrative reform at the end of the year 2001, made the year 2002 be marked by mass protests of the opposition, which were supported by the independent press, civil society and intellectuality. On 9 January the Fraction of Popularly Christian Democratic Party (PCDP) from Moldova that constitutes the parliamentary opposition began manifestations of protest against the decision on the introduction of the Russian language as a compulsory discipline in schools. The protests began after the collection of thousands of signatures of the civil society against the abovementioned decision. Instead of civilised negotiations and discussions between the opposition and the power and instead of finding out ways of solving the problem, the Government emitted a decision on the replacement of

3 League for Defence of Human Rights of Moldova (LADOM) the subject „The History of Romanians “ with „The History of Moldova” and the Ministry of Justice decided to suspend the PCDP activities, fact that contributed to the outbreak of new popularly revolts. The number of protestors sometimes reached the figure of 80.000 persons, most of them being pupils, students and teachers from the educational institutions from the capital and its outskirts. The apogee was the unleashing of the Japanese strike of the journalists and employees of the „Teleradio- Moldova” State Company, that claimed for the removing of censure from the governmental Media institutions. Meantime, the protesting manifestations had been developing continuously. All these events draw the attention of the internal and international public opinion. The unwillingness of the governance to take into consideration the opinions of the citizens and the refusal of the authorities to discuss with the protestors and to give in by invoking such arguments as the mass support during elections, the absolute catch of the state power and the fulfilment of the electoral commitments made the Council of Europe the mediator of this internal conflict and the guarantee of peace and stability in Moldova. In this respect, the ensuring of fundamental human rights and liberties has become impossible. As a proof, we can take the great number of petitions submitted to the European Court for Human Rights; the disappearance of the deputy Vlad Cubreacov; the disappearance of another Moldovan official and the lack of any investigations; the unjustified and irresponsible accusations brought by some officials with regard to the financial support of protests by some internal (Transdniestrian separatists) and external forces (Romania and USA); the appearance of some xenophobia and nationalist groups that call the population for revenge; the decisions of the Constitutional Court on the illegacy of many legislative intentions of the governing party, the socio-economic situation that degraded till the lowest limits that threatened the civic peace and created favourable conditions for the appearance of new tensions in the region etc. Meantime, the press has initiated an ample anti-corruption campaign and published sensational details about the involvement of communist officials and their relatives in illegal affairs that caused prejudices to the image and development of the state. But, like in the other cases of violations of the law, the governance has ignored the reactions of protest from behalf of the press avoiding to comment on these important activities and accusations and to collaborate with the opposition, civil society and independent press. The local and foreign experts have stated for several times that after 25.02.2001, the Republic of Moldova has registered a negative evolution in the domain of the ensuring of human rights, international acts ratified by the Republic of Moldova, in its relationships with the international bodies and neighbour states. During this year the governance managed to divide the society according to several criteria, assuming all negative consequences generated by this phenomenon – instability, hostilities, hate, intolerance and incertitude. The principles and values of the state governed by the rule of law continued to be in danger due to a lot of direct and indirect, willing or unwilling attempts of the governance. Only the international bodies were able to stop the offensive of Moldovan authorities and this fact was proved during the year 2002. Thus, first of all, in 2002 was recorded the violation of the principle of the separation of powers. Although after the constitutional reform from 2000 the parliamentary system was established in the Republic of Moldova, in fact, due to the rigidity of the governing party the current regime is over- presidential. In this regime no one can oppose the decisions of the president and no one ever does it. Thus, at the moment, Moldova has all the features of a presidential system in which the president claims for more and more prerogatives, fact that is in contradiction with the Constitution. It is worth mentioning that the president of the country reserved himself the function of the leader of the Communist Party, in spite of the rule that he should resign from this function in order to become the guarantee of all citizens of Moldova. The parliamentary system is characterised by a clear separation of legislative and executive powers in the meaning of their collaboration. This separation is marked

4 Report on the ensuring of human rights and liberties in the Republic of Moldova in 2002 by the high degree of interference between the two institutions of the state, by the significant growth of the role of Government, and the true holder of the executive power is the prim-minister. Or, in Moldova the holder of the power is the president of the country who took the control over the parliament where his fraction has a majority of more than 2/3 of the mandates. Under such conditions the transparency of the governing process is completely lacking and the effects of this fact could be catastrophic for a true democracy. The continuation of developing the state of law was practically impossible during the year 2002, because this means the ensuring of the Constitution and its principles. But, when even the authorities of the state were stopped or warned by the opposition, Constitutional Court and international bodies not to breach the law and were advised to avoid law violations- one cannot speak about the establishment of a state governed by the rule of law. Another major problem consisted in suppressing of the independence of judicial power. The communist governance has already carried out some actions in the view of establishing the control over the judicial instances. Unfortunately, the third power of a state of law – the judicial power has also registered a negative evolution during 2002. This fact was marked by the stopping and regress of the judicial reform, many cases of abuses of the judicial workers, the non-ensuring of the civil rights, of the rights of the accused persons, the use of torture and degrading treatments, unjustified arrests, revenges, illegal sentences and decisions etc. The reform is developing very hardly, the best specialists in the field are even not consulted and it is completely subordinated to the wishes of the political forces. In fact, the imperfect justice does not constitute a big problem for the large masses, because the citizens do not know their rights and liberties, are afraid of potential represses and consequences of telling the truth, accepting often to loose and give in to the idea of fighting for truth and justice. The citizens lost their trust in an equitable and fair justice, in a democratic governance capable of real progresses. The citizens of Moldova trust no one and that is why are easily manipulated by different forces and structures that follow their own interests. The intervention of the legislative power in the activities of the judicial power can be also proved by some other cases: the resignation of the parliamentary lawyer Constantin Lazăr, because he contested a series of laws at the Constitutional Court and took a clear and argumented position against some legislative intentions of the governing party or the increase of age limit for the judges of the Constitutional Court, fact that, in the opposition’s opinion, helped to name a certain candidate in the function of a judge at the Constitutional Court. The Media in 2002 went through a serious task, registering both positive (by some independent publications) and negative (by the governmental Media) results. Thus the governmental Media reported the position of the governing party and the party Media continued to promote much success such as: competence, strength of opinion, professionalism, promotion of and respect for the right to opinion. The independent Media did also face serious financial crises and the authorities tried to undermine or pull out such publications, avoiding any form of collaboration with the independent and opposition journalists. As well, in the course of the year a propagandist and informational war burst out and developed between the governmental Media and some publications attached to the current governance, on the one hand and the opposition parties on the other hand. As a result, in 2002 Moldova faced the most serious social-political crisis after the armed conflict from 1992. In consequence our country „acquired” 2 PACE Resolutions and the monitoring from behalf of the international organisations with regard to the respect for the fundamental rights and freedoms and democratic norms. Because of the antidemocratic switches of the current governance, the Republic of Moldova risks to fail to take in May 2003 the presidency over the Minister’s Council of the Council of Europe. LADOM editing staff

5 League for Defence of Human Rights of Moldova (LADOM)

2. The ensuring of Human Rights in the context of the European Convention of Human Rights According to the national and international public opinion, serious breaches of citizens’ rights stipulated in the European Convention of Human Rights during 2002 in the Republic of Moldova have been registered. Along with the ratification of this important document on 13 July 1995 the Republic of Moldova, as a member state of the Council of Europe commit itself to respect the European rules in the policy of protecting human rights and fundamental freedoms stipulated in the Convention. The collaboration between the Republic of Moldova and the Council of Europe began in 1997 through the opening in Chisinau of the Information and Documentation Bureau that contributed to the familiarisation of the state and public organisations and the citizens with the principles, activity and experience of the Council of Europe. In the context of the respect for human rights and freedoms by the authorities during 2002, having as a basis the European principal document – European Convention of Human Rights, we can point out the fact that the absolute majority of its articles and provisions have not been respected and guaranteed by our country. The most serious miscompliances referred to the principle of rule of law and the guarantees with regard to the respect for human rights and freedoms, basic conditions for getting the status of a member. The Republic of Moldova has also neglected some rules related to the obligation to continue the building of a society based on the main democratic values and principles – political pluralism, rights of the individual, absolute respect for the norms of law and the common acceptance of a collective control (legal and political) over their ensuring by anyone in any circumstances. For this reason the monitoring of the situation in Chisinau by the High European Forum was initiated, or, the human rights in a member state of the Council of Europe means, first of all, the observance of the provisions stipulated in the European Convention of Human Rights and the complete fulfilment of the decisions of the European Court for Human Rights. In fact, the Republic of Moldova authorities tried to avoid the fulfilment of its obligations assumed by its adherence to the Council of Europe and by signing the Convention. This fact was proved when the Republic of Moldova decided to discuss the decision of the European Court with regard to registering the Basarabian Church, complying hardly with the respective decision. The authorities hesitated to conform to the given decision and according to the declaration of Lauri Vahtre, reporteur of the Council of Europe for the Republic of Moldova, it made this think „reluctantly”. This declaration was made during the plenary sitting of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe on 26 September 2002, after the adoption of the PACE Resolution from 24 April 2002. Although the Chişinău authorities have mimed the ensuring of the assumed commitments on international level and expressed their satisfaction towards the monitoring of the situation of the Republic of Moldova and welcomed the resolutions of the European bodies, in reality, they met only some conditions. Given the big number of serious cases of breaches of principles stipulated in the European Convention of Human Rights, in the current report LADOM tried to present those cases that prove the breaches of the rights stipulated in the Convention from behalf of the authorities. But, in some chapters we also referred to cases and situations that can have bad consequences or that were a cause of breaches of Convention’s provisions, approaching more broadly the issues, causes and their subsequent follow-ups.

2.1. The right to life The Transdniestrian separatist region is a territory politically recognised within the Republic of Moldova and, although the Moldovan authorities have no control over this territory, they are obliged to take necessary measures for securing the citizens of the state, including those from the left bank of the river Nistru, the ensuring of at least the minimum of their rights and liberties. The facts that tooke place in Transdniestria are no more a secret. The violation of human rights by the illegal regime of

6 Report on the ensuring of human rights and liberties in the Republic of Moldova in 2002

Smirnov became a norm, but, nevertheless, the right to life is a fundamental right that should be respected even by the authorities of such regimes. The capital punishment was abolished in Moldova and the Transdniestrian authorities, in their turn, have also suspended the death penalty. In this respect, one of the gravest problems is the fate of those three political detainees held in detention by the separatist regime. Their case is waiting for solution for more than 10 years and their life is permanently in danger. In 2002 the pacificatory forces have marked 10 years of activity on the territory of secessionist region. During this period, only in the Chiţcani village 40 persons have been murdered in mysterious circumstances and other tens have been illtreated and tortured. The villagers are always confronting the risk of being killed or illtreated because a group of separatist guardians settled in their village. This group was transformed in a Mafia group that managed to subdue the local power. The law enforcement agencies of the Republic of Moldova do nothing in order to protect its citizens. In 1998 the sector policeman was strangled because he tried to find the murderers of Mr. Moraru. The inhabitants are frightened and unprotected. The problem of people’s disappearance remained unsolved for the period of these ten years and the citizens from this region are as unprotected as they have been during the war. The reports of national and international organisations have listed lots of cases of mysterious disappearances, murders and ill-treatments of the persons residing in this region. Till present neither the Republic of Moldova, nor the guarantee states (Ukraine and Russia) and international bodies (OSCE) did not succeed in improving the situation of persons being under the separatist regime.

2.2. Torture, inhuman or degrading treatments and punishments The right of being protected against torture, inhuman or degrading treatments or punishments is a right directly related to the person’s integrity and human dignity of the individual. First of all, when arresting or retaining a suspected person, the law enforcement agencies should keep in mind the principle of presumption of innocence in order to avoid the imply of inadequate torture or illtreatment. Although the criteria that help to determine the state incapacity of respecting this right are quite subjective, we can firmly state that during the year 2002 Moldova has registered grave violations of Article 3 of the European Convention of Human Rights and this fact is well known by the state authorities and national and international public opinion. The degrees of forbidden punishment use have been established by the European Court of Human Rights. Further we would like to approach these degrees and bring pertinent examples of their ensuring or violation in the Republic of Moldova: Torture: inhuman treatment having as an aim the getting of information or confessions and used deliberately in order to cause atrocious and the gravest sufferings. Inhuman treatment or punishment: use of intense physical or mental sufferings. Degrading treatment: treatment that arouses in victims the feeling of fright, concern and inferiority, being capable of humiliating and abasing them, even by defeating their physical and moral resistance. One of the most pertinent examples at this chapter is the case of journalists from the independent weekly newspaper „Accente” who have been under preventive arrest. The lawyer Roman Mihăeş declared that the detention conditions of the journalist Mr. Sergiu Afanasiu were inhuman and degrading and he did not exclude the possibility of administering to the journalists some prohibited substances in order to make some confessions. The second arrested journalist declared that in the penitentiary institutions of the republic of Moldova serious violations of basic human rights take place. Mr. Valeriu Manea declared: „ when taking into consideration the attitudes towards the human being and detention conditions, the arrest from behalf of the General Department of Organised Crime and Corruption is similar to the Nazi concentration camps. 4-5 arrested persons are held in a cells of 2x2 m, height 1,75m. Because of the lack of natural and electric light the biologic processes that took place in the human body suffer great negative changes and in a short period of time the person cannot understand

7 League for Defence of Human Rights of Moldova (LADOM) what season or what time it is. The insomnia becomes a norm and the person becomes conscious of his psychic and physical degradation. The air is conditioned periodically and during the nights the air conditioner is switched off. No one cares about the health problems of the detainees. No one asks you about your health and the doctors are called only in the case of clinical deaths. The breakfast consists in a cup of tea and a slice of bread. The dinner – a plate of “borsch” (some liquid with cabbage or sauerkraut, 2-3 potatoes) and some porridge. The supper is even more modest – a slice of bread and a glass of hot water. The WC is replaced by a bucket with lid which is cleaned only in the morning. In such conditions the citizens whose guilt was not proved yet are held. Although the Prosecutor’s Office knows about the situation from this cellar, it did not enough for improving the situation, because the life from the given institution is “not sufficient” for being considered a violation of human rights. I agree that the persons suspected for committing offences should be deprived of their liberties but not also of the right to breath fresh air, to see the sun, their children, wives, mothers etc. The period of detention in this penitentiary is up to 10 days, and afterwards, according to the current legislation, the arrested person should be transferred to the penitentiary no. 3, but, in fact, the transfer is done only at the will of the director and the arrested persons can be held here for a period of 3-4 months”. Mr. Valeriu Manea, former police collaborator, declared the hunger strike and stated that he is morally illtreated because he is held together with 6 recidivists. For a former policeman, this is a „masked” punishment dangerous for the life and health of the person. Non-statutary relationships within the National Army. The degrading treatment is a well-known phenomenon for the soldiers from the National Army of the Republic of Moldova. The non-statutary relationships between the soldiers cause annually enormous moral and physical prejudicies to the health of soldiers, especially to those who are in the first year of their service. The Moldovan press wrote about several cases of violations of the provisions of the given article of the Convention. Thus, over 800 detainees from the penitentiary of Soroca declared the hunger strike, protesting against the inhuman detention conditions. Meantime, the detainees addressed letters to various national and international bodies asking them to get involved in the solving of this acute problem. The lack of financial means that could improve the conditions of detention, the corruption among the penitentiary institutions and the judiciary system’s collaborators hamper the activities and efforts of these organisations. For example, for those 10500 persons deprived of their liberty, the state allocates only 27000 lei per day, that is approximately 2 lei per day for each detainee (0,14$) . The CARPEM organisation carried out an opinion poll that gave the following results: only 28,5% of detainees know their rights, over 50% knew them partially, 50% declared that they are violated their right to information about their rights and obligations, detention regime and disciplinary rules. 46,2% stated that they have no the possibility to entertain relations with the relatives or other persons, 45,9% - pointed to the lack of medical assistance, 42,3% - they are not respected the right to have a walk at fresh air and to read the newspapers. Only 18% of detainees qualified the detention conditions as normal and good, while 24,6% - qualified them as inhuman and extremely harsh, 36,6% mentioned that their life in the isolator is difficult and extremely difficult. 2/3 of the detainees have a vital space less than 2x2 m. The detainees have the possibility to have a bath and change their clothes once in 10 days. Finally, the experts state that in order to avoid the overcrowding of penitentiaries with detainees and the spread of infectious diseases some alternative methods of detention should be promoted in the Republic of Moldova. The detention conditions in the Republic of Moldova are much lower than the accepted norms and, as a consequence a lot of persons fall ill or even lose their lives. For example, according to Mr. Valentin Sereda, general director of the Department of Penitentiary Institutions, the number of HIV- infected persons increased 6 times during a year. Mr. Sereda has also mentioned that during the last years the Department of Penitentiary Institutions has benefited from the support of Soros Foundation, UN Program for Combating AIDS - UNAIDS.

8 Report on the ensuring of human rights and liberties in the Republic of Moldova in 2002

Another problem related to the health of detainees is that of persons ill with tuberculosis. Because of the poor detention conditions, the number of detainees ill with tuberculosis is permanently increasing. At present, 10% of the total number of detainees are bearers of the tuberculosis virus. The Minister of Justice, Mr. I. Morei mentioned that the state planned to built a new penitentiary, but its construction is permanently postponed on the ground of lack of funds. He also mentioned that 3 or 4 penitentiaries are very old and the life and health of detainees held in these penitentiaries are in danger and the detention conditions are deplorable. Another positive step made by the Moldovan authorities in the view of securing the rights of persons in detention is the development of a draft law voted at the end of 2002 by the Parliament, that provide that „the letters of condemned persons or of those who are under preventive arrest addressed to national and international human rights organisations will not be read and censured by the penitentiaries’ administration”. The illtreatment of detainees is another aspect of Art. 3 of the European Convention of Human Rights. The standards of evaluating the severity degrees of state behaviour towards its detainees have been established on the basis of the submitted complaints. In this respect, the evaluation of the state respect for this right will be extremely difficult unless the letters written by the detainees to the national and international human rights organisations are read and censored by the penitentiaries’ administration. Meantime, more a more cases of abuse of power from behalf of the law enforcement agencies collaborators have been registered. The law enforcement agencies avoid the punishment of these persons in order not to damage the image of law enforcement agencies and only in most obvious and gravest cases these violations are made public. Here, we can speak about those 8 policemen from Chisinau resigned from their function for covering and supporting some groups that cheated the citizens and the case of other 4 policemen from Drochia charged with excess of power and exceeding of work empowerment. Another extremely grave case was remarked by the central press in Criuleni: after being retained for 2 months at the police sector from Criuleni, Ruslan Bâtcă, 23 years old from Chişinău, was transported to the hospital from Pruncul and the medical investigation showed that the person was very seriously ill. During the investigation, the doctors noticed the traces of violent acts applied in the regions of head, neck, breast, face and knees. Ruslan Bâtcă was retained in a perfect health state and was charged with the theft of some animals from a local household. In fact, the offender was a relative of Ruslan who took his car. Without making an investigation of the case, the policeman took Ruslan to the village Zaicani and illtreated and tortured him. He tied him to an animal and forced him to walk along the village and shout that he was the thief. At the police sector from Criuleni Ruslan Bâtcă was tortured and illtreated in an awful way (the policemen stubbed out their cigarettes on his body, he was forced to eat razor blades). During the investigation he was threaten by the commissar Armaşu. Another chapter of art. 3 provides for the prohibition of corporal punishments applied to young people. A dreadful case was recorded by the press from Popeasca, where the director of the school for children with mental and physical disabilities illtreated 30 children and the local human rights NGO’s have developed reports on this case. On 21 June 2002 the press recorded a case of illtreatment of minors by the policemen. The minor A.Pastuşoc was illtreated and beaten with the legs by policemen just in the street. Another case was registered at the auxiliary schools from Străşeni where a series of injustices and defalcations have been made by the director of this institution. This fact determined a charity organisation from Străşeni stopped to provide humanitarian help to this institution. The Ministry of Education was forced to get involved in solving this case. Over 68% of children have been subjected to at least one form of abuse in the Republic of Moldova. The situation is caused by the social-economic conditions, permanent stress, relational incompetence of the population and, not in the least, the educational peculiarities of the Moldovan population.

9 League for Defence of Human Rights of Moldova (LADOM)

Because of extreme poverty of the Republic of Moldova, many children are forced not to attend the schools and because of mass emigration of population in search for a better job, the situation of youth in Moldova is very difficult and they are often exposed to danger. For example, in Chişinău over 224 children do not attend school for various reasons. Leaving for work, the parents leave their children in the care of relatives or neighbours who often abuse the children and do not educate them adequately. According to official data, the number of children and adolescents who have abandoned the school is up to 3,6 thousands, 79% from which are from urban area. According to the data offered by UNICEF, in 117200 families from Moldova the children remained in the care of a single parent and in 13400 families the children remained in the care of grandparents and relatives. The problem of chidren abuse is very acute for our country and the abandon is a form of abuse. Meantime, many families are ruined: many parents require a sum of thousands dollars for allowing their children to leave the country together with the other parent who intends to marry abroad. The others, having returned to the country from work end their family life in crimes, because of the jealousy the kill their spouses. So, a lot of children remain in the street. Many international non-governmental organisations draw the attention of the public opinion to the great number of minors and women trafficked in order to be sexually exploited. Because of the juridical and social „illiteracy” over 12% of trafficked women are minors and they have been subjected to physical, psychic, sexual and moral abuse. In this respect, we can mention the cases reflected in the central press about the children trafficked in the Russian Federation. Thus, under the colour of a contest of beauty and through the advertising in the central press, an agency of modelling from Chişinău gathered children of 7-12 years old (promising them money awards and trips to Hollywood) for the paedophiles from the State “Duma” of the Russian Federation. This news was published by the Russian press from Moscow and republished by Moldovan journalists. The parents were paid a money advance from the total promised amount (1500$) and the children were taken for photo sessions. They were transported to Russia and abused by the paedophiles. After 3 months, the children were returned to their parents without paying any money. All these causes rooted in the unfavourable environment expose Moldovan children and youth to great risks.

2.3. Slavery and forced labour Currently, the Republic of Moldova became quite notorious in the European and other states as a „supplier” or „exporter” of „human beings “, and especially of women sold in sexual slavery. It is not excluded the fact that in this odious traffic some high officials could be involved. For example, Ruth Gabi Vermot Mangold, PACE deputy, reporter for the Republic of Moldova on social problems, has declared during an interview for the „Free Europe “ radio station that „the corrupt persons from the Government and law enforcement agencies of the Republic of Moldova favour the trafficking in human beings and human organs “. The phenomenon of trafficking in human beings in the Republic of Moldova is developing in some distinct directions: for practising prostitution and selling in slavery; for removing and transplanting human organs and tissues; for using them in pornographic industry and armed conflicts.

Usually the traffickers are escorted by their accomplices – collaborators of law enforcement agencies. For example, the journalists from the „Accente” newspaper have organised an investigation campaign on the traffickers of women. One journalist took the role of the future victim and later published an article which described in details the methods used, the persons involved and other useful information about this affairs. But, it seems to us, that the persons who had to protect them have betrayed the journalists and the life of the journalist was put in danger. Later on, the journalists have been threaten with death. A great number of citizens are forced to go illegally or half-illegally abroad in order to get a well-paid job and have the possibility to earn their livings. Most of them end in being exploited in poisoned

10 Report on the ensuring of human rights and liberties in the Republic of Moldova in 2002 conditions or in inadequate work conditions without any remuneration and then are expelled from the given country and return home ill or, even worse, die there. In the lack of a work contract and because illegal stay conditions, after having been physically, morally and economically exploited, our citizens remain in the street. Such cases were not only once reported in the Chisinau press. It referred more to the situation of Moldovan illegal emigrant in the Russian Federation. A great deal of those who left for work return home in coffins. Our authorities know quite well the current situation, but do not enough for protecting its citizens. In our opinion, the cases when a person becomes an unprotected victim, whose rights aren’t and cannot be ensured by anyone and in any circumstances could be really qualified as an example of slavery and forced labour.

2.4. The liberty and safety of the person The ensuring of liberty and safety of citizens by the public order forces is a great problem for the post-totalitarian states, as well as for those which have a rich democratic tradition. A state cannot affirm that it is a state governed by the rule of law unless it is able to ensure the safety and liberty of its citizens. The Republic of Moldova has a lot of minuses at this chapter, because we can often read in the newspapers that the most terrible violation have been committed especially by those who should counteract them. Article 5 of the European Convention of Human Rights stipulates that each person has the right to liberty and safety and no one can be deprived of his liberty excepting the cases foreseen in the law. Unfortunately, the Moldovan authorities are far away from being capable to ensure the stipulations of this article. In 2002 Moldova was in the centre of Council of Europe’s attention because of the disappearance of the Christian-democratic deputy and European parliamentary, Vlad Cubreacov. The fact that a deputy was kidnapped, deprived of his liberty and held as a hostage by unknown persons for a long period of time proved that in Moldova no one can be really protected. Moldovan authorities delayed to take necessary actions in order to find the whereabouts of the deputy and to find the kidnappers. Later on, Ilie Ilaşcu mentioned the following: „after the return of Cubreacov, Andrei Neguţă told me in Strasbourg that they knew about the whereabouts of Cubreacov just in the second day. I asked him why did they not release him. „What for? Who took him that should bring him back ” added Neguţă. He also declared that immediately after Cubreacov’s disappearance, the governing party guaranteed the international forums that the deputy is in safety and they do all the possible to release him. He retold these things in the presence of other European deputies during the reception offered by the Council of Europe President”. Lots of things remained suspected and odious and the state authorities, law enforcement agencies and even the deputy maintain absolute incertitude and doubts. The opposition declared that the governing party is culpable for the kidnapping of the deputy because it created favourable conditions for legalising the terrorism as a method of political fight and, so, the communists are the moral authors of this disappearance. Although this case was the first in the history of the Republic of Moldova, it was not the last. After 2 month of Cubreacov appearance, another state official disappeared in similar circumstances. The Director of Informational Technologies Department, Piotr Dimitrov, was kidnapped in Chişinău on 2 August 2002. Officially, the investigation structures did not find the whereabouts of Dimitrov and did not notify the public opinion on the reason of the crime. No one reminds this crime, neither the investigation structures, law enforcement agencies and state authorities, nor his relatives and friends. Only the press supposes that, because of stopping the investigation process, Piotr Dimitrov is out of danger. Sources from the General Prosecutor’s Office told the journalists that 4 persons have been arrested on the charge of kidnapping Dimitrov and mentioned that some proofs show that the kidnapping was simulated. It is supposed that Dimitrov simulated himself his kidnapping and went to Moscow. It is also supposed that Dimitrov was forced to leave the country because of some pressures

11 League for Defence of Human Rights of Moldova (LADOM) from behalf of Moldovan officials - his partners and superiors in his affairs of funds embezzlement. The persons to whom these suppositions refer did not deny this fact. These mysterious disappearances, shadowed by incertitude and followed by the authorities’ incapacity to elucidate them, prove that the country’s borders are not well defeated and the citizens’ safety is not fully secured. The press has also revealed the existence of well paid killers in Moldova. A pertinent example can serve the case of Mr. Culea. For the life of Victor Culea 5.000 $ have been paid, but he remained alive, and now he is harassed by the justice. The articles from the press present in details how two businessmen tried to get rid of the third and they found a killer to kill him for the sum of 5000 $. The killer denounced himself and it was found out that one of the person who commanded the crime was not only a businessman but also the municipal councillor from behalf of the Communist Party. Murders, attempts to people’s life and liquidation of inconvenient persons became a phenomenon more frequently met. Businessmen, policemen, lawyers, politicians or simple person are not in safety. At the same time, there are a lot of cases when the policemen or collaborators of the law enforcement agencies commit injustices, ill-treatment and serious violations of the law. Thus, in the Republic of Moldova, the law enforcement agencies become the main factors that put at risk the life and safety of citizens whereas their orbiligations are to protect and secure them. As an example we can take the case of Vasile Pruteanu, chairman of the „Romanian Spirituality” NGO from Bălţi, member of the European Movement from Moldova and the executive chairman of the Veterans’ Union of the Romanian Army and their Successors who was arrested on 25.04.2002 on charge of refusal to pay the fine of 18 lei for the breach of traffic rules. Pruteanu was illtreated just in front of the police sector from Bălţi, penned in the cell for the preventive arrest together with the detainees and was refused the medical assistance and access to a lawyer. He was released only after his wife submitted a demand to the chairman of the Bălţi Tribunal who suspended the execution of the Court’s decision. According to Vasile Pruteanu, this act was a political revenge and intimidation from behalf of authorities. Under such conditions, at great risk are exposed the persons who run entrepreneurial activities. Thus, during a press conference, the chairman of Chişinău Tribunal, Mr. Anatol Doga has mentioned the following: “From my own experience as a judge, I came to the conclusion that the businessman is at risk most of all. This is because the money are the main reason of men disappearances or liquidations. After being physically illtreated, blackmailed, prosecuted, at risk to lose their families and lives, they renounced to the idea of being a businessman”. In 2002 some cases of attempts to the life and health of businessmen have been registered (for example: the cases of Serafima Botezatu, Boris Gherşcovici etc.). The protection of witnesses is a serious problem for the law enforcement agencies. Because of high level of corruption of officials from the investigation structures and state institutions, the citizens refuse to provide evidence before the court. Sometimes, even the life and health of the victims is in danger. Under the pressures and threats of the offenders and their lawyers the victims are forced to take back their declarations. Another aspect of witnesses protection in the judiciary system of the Republic of Moldova is the problem of transforming the witnesses in suspected persons. The right of suspected person to reject any declarations and, especially those which can make worse their situation is violated. Thus, during the investigation the witness has to present veridical information and notify about all known circumstances. In some cases the witness lacks protection, because the presence of the lawyer is not obligatory. Later on, on the basis of these declarations the witness can be investigated in the quality of the suspected and his declarations as a witness can be turned against himself. The criminal terms and procedures are ensured in the Republic of Moldova only in the case when the detainee knows and asks for the ensuring of his rights. Often, even when the person askes for the ensuring of his rights he is refused and he is subjected to such procedures, which can later aggravate his situation. As for example, in the case of arrest of journalists from the „Accente” newspaper, the lawyer Roman Mihăieş declared during a press conference that „the right of defence of Afanasiu has been violated. More over, his retaining was done without the presence of a lawyer and the process

12 Report on the ensuring of human rights and liberties in the Republic of Moldova in 2002 verbal of retaining was not signed by a lawyer, fact that runs counter to the Criminal Procedure norms and constitutes a grave violation of the human rights. All investigation actions developed by the investigation structure are practically illegally. The tergiversation of transmitting the file for investigation reveals an obvious interest in the falsification of the penal file, that is laid down according to a doubtful scenario “. Although a great number of human rights violations has been registered and this fact was recognised by the Moldovan society, as well as by the law enforcement agencies and state authorities, the problem of covering the damages to the loser is very rarely met in the judiciary practice of the Republic of Moldova. When a person became the victim of an illegal arrest, detention of abuse from behalf of the law enforcement collaborators, he renounces to claim for damage, because, in most cases, it doesn’t know about the existence of this right or because they are threatened by the police collaborators. There are cases when the victim accepts to take money in order not to denounce the policemen who abused them. Usually, people refuse to bring an action for damage because they acknowledge the fact that the judiciary instances will be not fair or will minimise the damage award. The only remaining solution is the European Court for Human Rights. Although the statistics does not reveal the increase of the criminality level in the Republic of Moldova, the year 2002 was very tensioned in this respect and the cases mentioned above are a good proof of the citizens’ insecurity and unprotection. The press also published materials which revealed that, because of the corruption of judiciary system collaborators, the most terrible criminals and offenders remained at liberty (they bribe the public servants from the Ministry of the Interior, Prosecutor’s Office, judges). It is well known the fact that over 80% from the persons held in detention have minor criminal files. A great part of them are little thieves, poor and unprotected persons. In such cases, the procedure of arresting, investigation and judgement is gravely violated and, sometimes, by invoking various reasons, the judges refuse to open the files. Meantime, there are a lot of cases of disappearance of the persons who went abroad to work. It is supposed that they are held somewhere in detention and are sexually or physically abused and exploited or they have been killed. The state authorities do not enough for protecting their citizens who stay illegally abroad.. Article 1 of the Protocol no. 4 stipulates that „No one can be deprived of his liberty on the only ground that he is not able to fulfil his contractual engagements”. This stipulation is respected in Moldova only in the case when the cases became public. Sometimes, the justice can accuse the person of committing other violations than those they have been charged with and, in such a way, he is condemned for the both accusations. Here, we can present the case of Eugenia Duca, a businesswoman who was condemned to 5 years of imprisonment. According to Duca, the aim of her condemnation is „the abusive confiscation of the „Chris” Commercial Centre and her removal (including physically) from the business world “. Eugenia Duca, a well-known businesswoman was involved for a long period of time in an exhaustive court process and was retained for several times on various reasons. She and her family was threatened with death and intimidated. One of her lawyers was shoot in his arm on 25 October 2002, and the „Mercedes” of the other was robbed and the judge Vornicescu asked for his replacement with another lawyer, telling that he cannot examine this file because he was intimidated. The press wrote that the real reason of condemning Eugenia Duca is the estrangement of her possessions. After her condemnation, her possessions have been transferred to other person, a former employer of the enterprise owned by Duca. Eugenia Duca was held illegally in preventive arrest (21.12.2001 – 24.04.2002), being deprived of her right to equitable defence. She was tortured, harassed, humiliated and incarcerated. In this case, which generated a scandal of big proportions not only in the judiciary system but also within the Republic of Moldova Parliament and risks to be transmitted to the European Court of Human Rights a series of state officials have been involved.

13 League for Defence of Human Rights of Moldova (LADOM)

2.5. The right to a fair trial According to some informal information, most of cases submitted by Moldovan citizens to the European Court of Human Rights invoke the violation of the right to a fair trial. Unfortunately, the governmental and political forces from Chisinau are conscious of the created situation, but they do nothing for improving the situation. On the contrary, during the last years we could mention a considerable aggravation of the abovementioned phenomenon. During the last 5 years, the state lost most of the cases brought against it at the ECHR. All the appeals have made against the decisions of the national courts, which violated the rights of Moldovan citizens. At the moment, the material and moral damages which should be covered by the state are estimated at 900.000 lei. The Ministry of Finance mentioned that the budget does not provide for such allocations and that the state does not have them. But, at the same time, the authorities do nothing in order to stop this process and the number of petitions is considerably increasing. According to the current law, the damage should be paid from the state budget and do not affect the situation of the persons responsible and culpable of human rights violations. More over, the judge who emitted the decision in the case of Basarabian Church, which was later appealed at ECHR and considered illegal and which cause enormous prejudices to the Moldova budget and image, was advanced in his function in 2002. Instead of being punished, the judge was given favours while a lot of other innocent judges have been resigned in the course of the same year. The reform of the judiciary system is dragging and often goes beyond the democratic principles by committing abuses and neglecting the opinions and recommendations of the experts. Grave violations of human rights, imply of torture, inhuman and degrading treatment, illegal arrests and falsifications of documents, political revenges, funds embezzlements and illegal decisions still prevail. In this respect, the experts consider that beginning with 1970, 50% of the emitted decisions are passable of appeal to the European Court of Human Rights. This opinion was also shared by the Association of Free-Professional Lawyers from the Republic of Moldova. There are cases when instead of protecting their clients, as it is provided by their professional norms and current legislation, the lawyers complicate themselves the situation in order to ask for a greater sum of money as remuneration. There is a big problem with the lawyers named from the office, because they do not want to work without being additionally paid. Although, according to art. 44 of the Penal Procedural Law the state is obliged to offer a lawyer to the person who has no sufficient means for hiring him, only the youngest lawyers who want to gain experience accept such conditions. The salary of these lawyers is very law, that is 36 lei for a session. Each sector of the town has its bar association that must offer its lawyers at the request of the judiciary instance, but they do not want to come or remain unsatisfied after the session. There are cases when the lawyers do not get completely involved in the process of solving the case and do not protect effectively the client. The most professional lawyers choose their clients on financial principles. As a proof of the related facts, I want to present a case registered by LADOM at the end of 2002. The citizen T. L. confessed that the investigator advised her to hire a lawyer and proposed himself the cadidateship of one of his acquaintances, although he knew that the given person has no sufficient means to remunerate the lawyer. Profiting by the legal illiteracy of the applicant, the investigator made him sign the contract with the proposed lawyer and pay the advance and after that, the lawyer has just attended the sessions but did nothing in order to protect his client.

Profiting by the development of reforms, the governing party promotes persons loyal to them in the key state functions, although that most of them have an inadequate professional preparation and experience or have been sued at law for bribery and falsifications of documents. The representatives of professional organisations of jurists accuse the governing party of suppressing the judiciary power. They consider that the current governance aims to limit to the maximum the competence of magistrates, and the amendments made to the legislation providing for the right of the president and Parliament to pronounce for or against the candidateship in the function of judge, is a clear proof of the violation of the constitutional norms that provide for the separation of state powers. In 2002 the Constitutional Court has annulled some of the modifications adopted by the Parliament to the Law on the statute of judges, that aimed at diminishing the statute of the judges. At the same time, the Government interferes in the activity of the judiciary instances and suppresses the judiciary

14 Report on the ensuring of human rights and liberties in the Republic of Moldova in 2002 independence. According to the experts, the suppression of justice independence and Prosecutor’s structures are the main cause of human rights violations in the Republic of Moldova. Even the former magistrates, who have been resigned as a result of the reform developed by the current governance, complain of the violation of the access to a fair, impartial, competent and independent justice. For example, the ex-chairman of the Tribunal of Chişinău, Gheorghe Ulianovschi submitted a complaint against the Republic of Moldova to the ECHR. In the complaint he wrote that after being resigned from his function, the Supreme Council of Magistracy proposed twice his candidateship in the function of a judge of the given institution. Invoking no reasons, the president of the state rejected his candidateship. It should be mentioned that his resignation was possible only after a series of modifications to the legislation made by the communists who managed to remove the inconvenient staff. Ulianovschi stated that his actions in the court were rejected, although he contested these decisions in all national judicial instances. He claimed that he was violated the rights stipulated in articles 6, 10, 11, 13 and 14 of the European Convention of Human Rights. Thus, just from the very beginning, we can state that the citizens from the Republic of Moldova are violated their right to a fair trial, because p.1 art. 6 of the Convention stipulates that the tribunal or the judiciary instance should be independent and impartial. Taking into account that the judiciary power is one of those three state powers and the most important for securing the functioning of the principles of the state governed by the rule of law, the dependence, traffic of influence and corruption from this system can be considered the gravest violation of human rights that has ill-fated consequences for the whole society. The judiciary system is one of the most corrupt structures in the Republic of Moldova and during the last years we were the witnesses of an insistent and open subordination to and suppression of the judiciary power by other state powers. During the year 2002, the Moldovan justice was accused on the violation of the provisions of art. 6 of the Convention that relates to the absolute independence from the legislative and executive powers because lots of cases submitted to ECHR: the case of Basarabian Church, the scandal between “Bucuria” factory and the prime-minister, the Moldovan Government and the Ministry of Privatisation against the Spanish Group “Union Fenosa”; Moldovan Government and the “Air Moldova” Air Company; Moldovan Government and “Air Moldova International” Air Company; Moldovan Government and “Farmaco” Ltd and, of course, the governing party and the parliamentary and extra-parliamentary opposition. The reasonable terms are a great problem for the Moldovan justice. The press informed the public opinion about several cases of deliberate violations of the procedural terms. The corruption and the traffic of influence from the judiciary system of the Republic of Moldova cannot secure the citizens the ensuring of the right to a fair trial. Due to the legislative gaps and abuses, a criminal file can be tergiversated for three, four or even ten years. There were cases when a file remained for years in the court of first instance. It is inexplicable why the courts of appeal that can judge in the first instance, that is can bring proofs, witnesses etc., give the files to the courts of first instance because of „procedural errors”. The complete lack of transparency, non-recognition of the human rights and liberties, the “legal illiteracy” of the citizens who do not know the procedures and possibilities of defending their rights and interests, as well as their mistrust in the legal solving of their problem because of the corruption and traffic of influence, are the main causes that contribute to the increase of the number of procedural terms’ violations. As a result, in line with other lots of violations, Moldovan justice faces the problem of non-execution of the courts’ decisions. This phenomenon causes extreme prejudices to the authority of justice. At present, the number of non-executed decisions reach the figure of 55.000, over 12.500 of them are from the Chişinău municipality. The most important aspect of this phenomenon is that a great deal of guilt for the non-execution of the courts’ decisions goes to the state officials, even the president of the country, deputies of the Parliament, the editorial staff of the governmental newspaper. In such a case, the efforts undertaken by the law enforcement agencies are in vain, because even the high officials of the state, through their actions and declarations, show an obvious irrespect for the ensuring of the legal principles calling the population to go round the constitutional provisions and other legal norms in order too satisfy the personal interest.

15 League for Defence of Human Rights of Moldova (LADOM)

I can’t help mentioning that due to the extremely low incomes of the population, not everybody can afford to hire a lawyer or to pay the taxes for bringing a civil action. Although, the legislation provides for the possibility of sparing the state taxes, usually the courts refuse to provide this facility. This fact frequently leads to the impossibility to bring an action or to the ceasing of the judicial processes. A great part of Moldovan population hesitates to appeal to the justice and prefer to take another way of solving their problems (the criminal way).

2.6. The right to privacy According to art. 8 of the European Convention of Human Rights, everyone should respect the private and family life of the person, his domicile and correspondence and forbids the interference of a public authority in the execution of this rights, excepting the cases provided by the law. During the year 2002 the authorities of the Republic of Moldova committed serious violations of the given article. The press published several declarations of journalists, simple people, judges, public servants and deputies that protested against the governance for the fact that they were prosecuted, their telephone calls have been listened and their correspondence controlled. Although the authorities did not formally recognise these accusations, they were forced to recognise tacitly this fact, because during a press conference, the deputy from the opposition, Vlad Cubreacov, has proved the violation of his correspondence. The letter was recorded in the presence of witnesses and then transmitted to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. Thus, in this case, the following international and national documents have been breached: art. 12 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights from 10.12.48, art. 8 of the European Convention of Human Rights from 4.11.50, art. 30 of the Republic of Moldova Constitution, art. 35 of the Criminal Law of the Republic of Moldova. It should be mentioned that not only the state structures violate these stipulations but also some structures from the business world. For example, for a sum of 400 USD, some firms from Chisinau can carry out activities and give away secrete and confidential information. Taking the name of private detectives, the former or present public servants (from the Information and Security Service and Ministry of the Interior) obtain the deciphering and recording of the telephone calls without the authorisation of the prosecutor, record the private discussions in restaurants and other public places, take pictures and records of the interested persons. For this services the client pays 400$ and concludes a contract on judiciary services. The current legislation does not allow any private structure to use the technical means for recording, deciphering and forbids the informational prosecution. The legislation allows only the collection of important information for the ensuring of legal rights and interests of legal and physical persons, collection of evidence in civil cases on the basis of contracts with the participants in the process, identification of authors and senders of anonymous letters, of plots but only with the permission of the state. These deviations and violations of the legal norms bring enormous prejudices to citizens and economic agents. The safety of affairs in the Republic of Moldova is out of any guarantees and the commercial secrets can be easily used by the concurrents and partners. This fact contributes much to the increase of number of murders, disappearances, attacks and attempts to the citizens’ life.

2.7. Freedom of thought, conscious and confession Speaking about the freedom of thought, conscious and confession in the Republic of Moldova we should mention that the situation in this respect was not favourable at all. The case of the Basarabian Church became well-known for the whole Europe. An additional proof in the favour of the violation of this right is the fact that just after the proclaiming of the ECHR decision on the case of Basarabian Church, Moldovan authorities did not want to ensure it. The Council of Europe had to insist upon and monitor for a long period of time the situation till the communist governance gave in and registered the Basarabian Church. The stubbornness of the current governance to conform itself to the ECHR

16 Report on the ensuring of human rights and liberties in the Republic of Moldova in 2002 and PACE decisions caused an enormous prejudice to the image of the Republic of Moldova and placed it in the list of the most unstable states from the political, economic and social points of view. Although the government registered the Basarabian Church, it committed a lot of others serious violations that impeded the definitive solving of the problem. This is the conclusion of the Council of Europe experts and raporteurs who decided to supervise the exact implementation of ECHR decisions. A short time after the registration of the Basarabian Church, its confessors addressed the Council of Europe an informative note which accused the Moldovan authorities of violating the rights of confessors. They wrote that the RM Government registered the Church, but the rights of the confessors to property and the freedom of free choice of religious confession continue to be violated. Meantime, the Government refused to cancel the decision from 26.09.2001 that stipulated that the Moldovan Church is the legal successor of the Basarabian Church that activated until 1940. Because of this decision, the Basarabian Church cannot regain its possession passed temporarily in the custody of the Romanian Patriarchy and the Moscow Patriarchy has no legal right over it. In this case the Government violated the provisions related to property and inheritance of the RM Constitution and of the European Convention. The Basarabian Church contested the decision from 26.09.2001 at the Court of Appeal of the Republic of Moldova, but is avoids to examine the cause. It should be also mentioned that the activity and functioning of the Basarabian Church is frequently disturbed by several provoking actions. The priests from the Moldovan Church that adhere to the Basarabian Church are often blackmailed and threatened with death and, sometimes they are physically abused just in the presence of confessors and even policemen. Such a case was described in details by the press from Chişinău. The priest Teodor Golban from Caşunca, Soroca was pulled from the church and bestially beaten by a group of villagers incited by the members of the communist party. It is supposed that the attack was prepared by the communist deputy Mihail Rusu together with the spouses Ciupac from Caşunca. A day before the incident, the teachers from the village have been warned by phone by the Educational Direction from Floresti not to take part in the “religious meeting” on the ground that the school is non-political. After 13 days, some representatives of the Moldovan Church accompanied by 13 policemen came to the village and named a new priest subordinated to the Moldovan Church. Most of villagers were against but the police used the force in order to enter the church. The confessors have been pushed and the priest’s wife was beaten in her head and stomach by the policemen from Făleşti, after which she was transported to the hospital from Floreşti. The chief of the police sector from Floreşti denied that the incident from Caşunca was provoked by the police. The proces verbal and the signatures for the replacement of the priest have been falsified and the padlocks from the church door have been changed. In January 2002, the Court from Teleneşti has suspended the file of Veaceslav Moraru from Negureni village who had adhered to the Basarabian Church and restored him in his rights. Another case is that of the priest Lebedenco. The parish from Bubuieci adhered to the Basarabian Church in September 2001. The priest of the church, Nicolae Lebedenco, declared that the conflict from the parish “Adormirea Maicii Domnului” from Bubuieci burst out one week before the New Year and was provoked by the members of the Moldovan Church. According to him, for a period of some weeks the church has been visited by groups of priests from the Moldovan Church, including the Archbishop Vladimir, Moldovan Archbishop. The priest Lebedenco said that Vladimir settled the bishop Rafael, the abbot of Monastery from Nicoreni, who has troubled the peace of the community for more than two weeks. A group of supporters of the Moldovan Church have changed the padlocks of the church door and the church has been closed during 2 weeks. This scandal was made public by the press and after a decision of the local villagers the church remained under the jurisdiction of the Basarabian Church. But the authorities continued the prosecutions of the confessors. The priest Lebedenco, addressed to LADOM for legal consulting because the representative of the current government in the territory makes pressures on the priest’s property and insist on depriving the priest of the land where his house is built.

17 League for Defence of Human Rights of Moldova (LADOM)

The Archbishop of Basarabian Church, Petru Păduraru declared the following: „Our priest was blackmailed by the criminal world and threatened with physical revenge and death …if they give not up the idea of adhering to the Basarabian Church, their family will be kidnapped, killed etc.”. We should remind that the Moldovan authorities opposed to and refused to register the Basarabian Church on the ground of social peace and security and of not unleashing open conflicts between the flocks of the 2 churches. But, as we can see, people remained very peaceful and they defend their legal rights without committing violent acts or other mass troubles. At present, another religious cult has to traverse the same way as the Basarabian Church. Although the representatives of the new confession won the process in the national instances, the state authorities refuse to register it. This fact was related by Vitalie Nagacevschi, chairman of the „Jurists for the Human Rights” Association during a TV program. At the end of 2002, the Ministry of Justice developed a draft law on religious cults. Once it will be adopted, the Ministry of Justice could impose such conditions that could threat the functioning of all the cults in the Republic of Moldova. According to the draft law, all the cults should be reregistered but only with the agreement of the local public authorities that should confirm that they have functioned in an area of at least 25 localities and for at least 25 years. Such conditions favour the Moldovan Church - structure of the Patriarchy from Moscow, because Moldova exists as an independent state only for 11 years, and the daft law requires 25 years. Thus, the new law threatens the activity not only of the Basarabian Church which was registered in 2002 under the pressure of European Community but also other cults from Moldova, as for example the Roman-Catholic Episcopacy, founded on 23 November 1993 by a decision of the Pope of Rome. Thus, the situation is very uncertain and the Council of Europe shall have a very important role in this situation – to supervise the ensuring of the freedom to confession, thought and conscious by the Moldovan authorities.

2.8. Freedom of expression and information The freedom of expression and information is a fundamental rights that stands at the basis of the evolution and existence of a democratic society. This right can be considered a barometer of the principles of the state governed by the rule of law. At the same time, the right of the person to express freely also means the assuming of some commitments and responsibilities, that is the exertion of this right should not limit other rights of other individuals. In this respect, we refer to the situation of state Media from the Republic of Moldova that through its unilateral information represents only the interests and position of the governance and produces an absolute misinformation in the society. The techniques of manipulating the masses by the means of printed and audio-visual press have been preserved from the old soviet regime. Although from the legal point of view, the democratic rules providing for the liberty of press, freedom of expression and information are still in effect, in fact, for the whole period of 2002 a considerable deviation from these principles have been noticed. So, during 2002 positive as well as negative phenomena have been registered. The positive aspect of the problem is the foundation of some truly independent Media means that try to survive in these harsh political conditions and to resist to the unfavourable economic and social conditions. The negative aspect was the establishment of censure at some publications that aimed at misinforming and manipulating of the national public opinion. Meantime, a fight burst out between the governmental media on the one hand and the independent and opposition media on the other hand. The worst thing is that the governmental Media is financed from the state budget and their position expresses only the point of view of the governing party. The opposition was practically deprived of the access to these means. The political interactive programs, debates and analysis and synthesis programs completely lack from TV and Radio programs. Thus, the governmental Media remained the only tool for the manipulation of the public opinion, because the Teleradio-Moldova State Company is the only source of information at national level. The concerns of the journalists loyal to the power are reduced to the depicting of the state institutions’ activities. As a result, those who are always speaking about the right of citizens to information are violating it most

18 Report on the ensuring of human rights and liberties in the Republic of Moldova in 2002 of all. The partisan press is concerned only with the promoting and spread of their partisan ideas and the independent press is just on its incipient stage. In general, the problem of the independent press from Moldova needs a more thorough analysis because the declaration of the independence of a newspaper or Radio station does not automatically mean that the journalists are completely independent. First of all, many of the publications that proclaimed themselves independent later disappeared or compromised themselves, losing their popularity with the masses. In Moldova, a newspaper cannot exist only from the sales and the advertising in the Republic of Moldova is usually places in the Russian newspapers (because of the imperfect legislation) so that the independent press of Romanian language faces great financial difficulties. In this case, sometimes a honest editorial staff is forced to seek other sources of existence that could not affect the independence and correctness of the journalists. In the case when the press does not function freely and there is a deficit of readers informing with news, the role of the independent press is hardly to be undermined. At the same time the degree of responsibility of the journalist increases too. Aiming at the public benefit, the independent press undermines considerably the state monopoly over Media activities and sets up an ethic code of receiving and transmitting the information. For the good functioning of the independent press it is necessary to exist a series of mechanisms of social, legislative, economic and legal protection of the press. The situation of the independent press in Moldova in 2002 has aggravated because most of them were in opposition to the governing party and its activities. For the first time in the history of Moldova there were cases of arrest of journalists on the ground of bribery and of state authorities interference in the information sphere of the state. The European officials declared that a journalist cannot be accused of bribery because he is not a state servant. And if he takes a sum of money this fact can be considered an act of commercialising the information. In our opinion, such a case can be investigated only on the accusation of fiscal evasion and not of bribery. Further, we would like to present you the case of the „Accente” weekly newspaper. After issuing some sensational articles that revealed the illegal actions of a lot of former and current officials, the journalists have been permanently intimidated, threatened and blackmailed and then the action of bribery was simulated so that to be captured in flagrant delict by the law enforcement agencies. The editorial office was searched and the law enforcement agencies confiscated all the things from the office and journalists domiciles. The activity of the newspaper became impossible because of technical reasons. The retaining and arrest of those three journalists was done with serious violations of the current legislation. Only the involvement of international bodies as well as the prompt actions of the staff and the support of their colleagues from the opposition and independent publications could stop the actions pointed against „Accente” newspaper. During an official visit to Chisinau, the General Secretary of the Council of Europe declared during a press conference that the arresting of a journalist is a very serious and grave thing and that the Council of Europe will monitor the evolution of the case. After visiting the editorial office of the newspaper, the OSCE representative in Moldova mentioned that OSCE monitors the evolution of the case and recognised that Moldova risks to be placed in the same list with Belarus in the mater of freedom of press and human rights. The editorial staff of the „Accente” newspaper asked the Prosecutor’s Office, Ministry of the Interior, Information and Security Service to get involved in the solving of the case. As a sign of protest, after the arrest of those 3 journalists, during the visit of the Secretary General of the Council of Europe in Chisinau their colleagues have picketed the road to the airport, but the delegation took another way and the journalists were not seen by the European officials. Meantime, „Accente” team has declared the hunger strike as an action of protest against the actions of the authorities and asked the resumption of the newspaper activity in 24 hours. The staff was supported by their colleagues from the independent national press and by a series of journalists from abroad who have republished a series of their material. “Accente” team addressed a grievance to the international public opinion, foreign embassies, state authorities and international bodies. It included the following: „we inform you about one of the gravest case of violation of the human rights and freedom of expression, committed in Chişinău. On 9.10.2002 three journalists from the independent publication “Accente” have been arrested in an illegal and abusive way. During the same day, the

19 League for Defence of Human Rights of Moldova (LADOM) collaborators of the law enforcement agencies entered the editorial office of the publication and forbade the appearance of the issue from 10.10.2002. They searched all the goods from the office: computers, database, video camera, cassettes, CDs, they cut off the telephone lines and suspended the activity of the newspaper.” The journalists have been permanently blackmailed, warned and threatened with death. According to the experts, the action that happened with the team of the newspaper constitutes a political action organised by the law enforcement agencies in order to suspend the activity of the single newspaper of journalistic investigations from the Republic of Moldova. According to the lawyer, S.Afanasiu was subjected to pressures in order to tell the sources of information of the newspaper. The Journalists’ Union from the Republic of Moldova made a Declaration through which it expresses the concern about the anti-constitutional actions of the law enforcement agencies that lead to the suspending of the „Accente” newspaper. The journalists qualified this case as a serious attempt to the democratic principles of the state governed by the rule of law, as a flagrant violation of freedom of expression and as an attempt of intimidation of Media from the republic of Moldova. After the release of the journalists and the resumption of the newspaper’s activity the persecutions and threats have not ceased. Thus, on 24.12.02 the Prosecutor’s Office from the Centre sector, Chişinău brought an action against the journalist Ileana Rusu, from the „Accente” newspaper. It is for the first time in the history of the Republic of Moldova when a journalist is charged with calumny. Such charge was qualified by the journalists from Accente as a new attempt to destroy the newspaper because it was involved in a series of civil and penal causes with the former and current state officials. The charge was considered illegal because it violates the Constitution of the Republic of Moldova, the Law on press and the European Convention of Human Rights. Another case of bribery with the involvement of a journalist was registered in Chişinău in a month after the arrest of the “Accente” team. A correspondent of the „Argumentî i factî” and „Capital” newspapers was arrested by the police. Some time before, a case of ceasing the activity of a newspaper was registered. The Russian publication „Kommersant Moldovy” was suspected of collaboration with the separatist regime from Tiraspol and the authorities decided to suspend the activity of the newspaper on the right bank of the river Nistru. Although it was supposed that the newspaper collaborated with the separatist regime, by suspending the activity of this publications, the Republic of Moldova authorities showed to the people from the both banks of the river that the human right do not count so much for them and that they use the same methods of getting rid of the inconvenient press. According to us, this gesture was illogical and ridiculous because the given newspaper could be easily purchased or obtained by the persons from the right bank of the river Nistru and, what is more important, everyone can subscribe to the „Pridnestrovie” newspaper that reflects the opinion of the unconstitutional authorities from Tiraspol. The right to information and freedom of press is flagrantly violated in the Republic of Moldova. The state authorities and, especially the president, do not collaborate with the Media. For the last two years there haven’t been organised any interactive press conferences with the state authorities, so that the journalists have been forced to address their questions to the president’s councillors who usually avoided to answer the inconvenient questions. The president avoids any meeting with the press, especially with the independent one. He does not give interviews, organise press conferences, refuses to meet and discuss with the journalists. The state structures became impenetrable for the press, any civil servant treats the journalist as a terrorist, extremist or enemy of the state. Usually, such cases lead to the diffusion of supposed information that is not confirmed by the officials and sometimes causes prejudices to human rights and interests of the citizens and of the state, as in the case of „Komsomolskaia Pravda” newspaper. On 3 December 2002 the editorial staff informed the readers that due to the uncollaboration of the Moldovan Embassy to Moscow and of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Moldova with the press and their refusal to provide information to the journalists, the staff committed a mistake in the news concerning the murders of 4 Moldovan citizens in Moscow. Another unfavourable phenomenon to principles of the modern state was the continuation of the obstruction of the press of Romanian language and the discrimination of the press from Romania

20 Report on the ensuring of human rights and liberties in the Republic of Moldova in 2002 taken in comparison with that from the Russian Federation. The situation is very grave, because the Russian Media exceeds considerably the Romanian Media. For example, in Chişinău, the cable TV includes in its package 1 national channel 2 local channels in both languages (Romanian and Russian), 5 Romanian channels, 8 Russian channels and other 3 European channels with Russian translation and 5 European channels in English, French, German and Turkish. That is more than 50% from the programs are diffused in Russian language and less than 30% in Romanian. In the domain of the Radio broadcasts, the situation is even worse. As taking into consideration that over 70% of the population speak the Romanian language and it the only official language, the deficit of informational means in Romanian and the evasion of informational means of Russian language become unexplainable and paradoxical. So, the fight of the press, civil society, intellectuality and opposition for the ensuring of these rights ended in no positive results. On the one hand, the governmental press, especially the newspaper „Moldova Suverană”, wrote lots of articles that reflected a hostile position to the neighbour state – Romania. On the other hand, another governmental newspaper of Russian language, „Nezavisimaia Moldova” develops a common project with the „Novosti” press agency from Moscow and in the „Nezavisimaia Moldova” a new headline appears. It is devoted to the reporting of main events, comments, information from the Russian Federation. The created situation was aggravated by the ceasing of broadcasting the TVR1 Romanian Channel on the territory of Moldova. This case has mobilised the civil society from Chisinau that began actions of protest and collected thousands of signatures in the favour of the Romanian channel. In spite of all the manifestations, the authorities tergiversate to rebroadcast the given channel. At the beginning the authorities invoked technical reasons for the ceasing of the broadcast, then financial reasons and in the end they unleashed the true reason of the matter – the political will of the administrative- bureaucratic system. This very case is a matter of deliberate violation of the right to information. This thing happened some months after the refusal of the Coordinating Council of Audiovisuals to sign the Agreement on the rebroadcast of the TVR2 Romanian Channel on the territory of Moldova. This channel had to be rebroadcast as a support-channel for the new Moldovan studio „EuroTV- Chişinău”. The cause of the refusal was the non- compliance with art. 13 of the Law on the Audiovisuals, that stipulates care the public institutions of the Audiovisuals should have their own broadcast volume of not less than 50%. The director of the studio, Victor Osipov, related that the CCA does not support the national producers and that the studio’s volume of programs is about 7 hours, but one month ago the CCA decided to rebroadcast the Russian channel RTR that has no proper programs at all. It should be also mentioned that from all the Russian channels rebroadcast in Moldova only one has the sufficient volume of own programs. After a thorough analysis of the CCA activities during the year 2002, we can state that this institution was transformed in a tool of the governance. The activities and decisions of the Coordinating Council of Audiovisuals have double character and register serious deviations from the principle of impartiality. The following are the cases that prove the obedience of the CCA. The case with the „Antena C” municipal radio. This radio was rejected the solicitation to exceed the airing of its program on a greater part of the Moldovan territory: Bălţi, Edineţ, Cahul and Leova. The municipal radio centre was accused by the CCA members of partiality and ideology in their programs, of political partisanship and CCA established a commission for the monitoring of the programs aired by “Antena C”. It referred mostly to the „Hyde Park” night show of the journalist Oleg Brega. CCA mentioned that by accepting this ideological program in their agenda, the centre ignored the statutary engagements. In reply, the „Antenei C” director outlined that the legislation of the Republic of Moldova even oblige the Media to promote the political pluralism and to ensure the population the right to free expression. That is why, 2/3 of all the programs aired by the centre are interactive with the participation of the population. The case with the „Vocea Basarabiei” radio. Through a CCA decision, the broadcast of the radio „Vocea Basarabiei” from Nisporeni was unexpectedly ceased. Valeriu Saharneanu, the chairman of the Journalists’ Union of the Republic of Moldova and founder of this radio qualified this action as an

21 League for Defence of Human Rights of Moldova (LADOM) abusive political command of the governing party and that it is a component part of the obstructions against national Media. Valeriu Saharneanu has also declared that at that moment he was persecuted because he got involved in the cases of the „Accente” newspaper, „TVR1" TV channel, participated in the actions of protest from winter-spring 2002 and fought against the censure at the national television and governmental newspapers. He received a letter from the law enforcement agencies and was requested to leave the first floor of the Press House without any explanations. Saharneanu states that the actions of the communist authorities constitute an aggression against the press and mentioned that , according to some informal information, all independent publications unloyal to the governance are to be suppressed. The civil society and the press from Chişinău is sure of the fact that the radio was closed at the governance command, because it aired the interactive programs with the participation of local population only in the Romanian language. The cease of the radio occurred after the plenary session of the committee of the communist party from the Nisporeni county. This action was a violation of the listeners’ rights to information. According to the legislation, the given radio had to be announced one month prior to the termination of the contracts with the partners from Prague and Washington. The owners of the radio mentioned that „because of the fact that the radio „Vocea Basarabiei” was on the list of the participants in the contest for extending the broadcast licence, CCA had not the right to liquidate us”. The case of the radio „Unda Prutului”. During the last year, CCA refused to release the broadcast license to the radio „Unda Prutului” from Bălţi. The applicant was not explained the reasons of the refusal. The case of the radio „Univers FM”. CCA has rejected the offer of launching the radio „Univers-FM”, accepting a radio from Gagauzia which would retransmit the programs of an Ukrainian radio. The „Timpuri Noi” Company that should launch the given radio centre has a modern studio and sufficient money (a grant of 76000$ from an American NGO). CCA chairman, Ion Mihailo motivated the refusal as following „the concepts are not strong enough”. The youth involved in the project suggested a list of programs of promoting a healthy way of living, cognitive programs, of promoting non-violence, anti-drugs, anti-prostitution. The impartial activity of the CCA can be justified by some unrules found out after a control developed by the Ministry of Justice. 7 from those 11 CCA members run their activities by violating the current legislation. After the control of CCA activities and of „Mir” Moldovan Representative of the Interstate Teleradiocompany, it was established that since 1996 the both chairmen violated flagrantly the law. There were cases of releasing the broadcast licenses without taking into account the legal procedures and controlling the activities of the given institutions. The Representative of the Interstate Teleradiocompany „Mir” functions without a license till present. Other violations committed by CCA: art. 33 of the Law on the Audiovisuals (CCA members should not work at other TV or Radio institutions); art. 13 of the Law on the public service (the CCA members should know the state language) etc. The Association of Free Electronic Press (APEL) has been always taking prompt actions with the view to the events related to the state authorities interference in CCA activity. In one of APEL Declarations, it mentioned that APEL „is alarmed by the involvement of the central authorities in the national audiovisuals and expresses its concern about the continuous disfavour of local production of programs. The creative activities and development conditions of local TV and Radio centres continue to be subjected to the authoritarian and centralist tendencies of state bodies”. APEL warned the decision factors about the enormous risks generated by the establishment of the centralist control on the free circuit of information of radio and TV. The declaration also includes a series of proofs related to the effects of the policy promoted by the state that is the lack of transparency in naming the CCA, clear ignorance of legal principles and CE recommendations, resignation and replacing of the general director of the „Radio Moldova” State Company. Unfortunately, this and other declarations written by APEL and other NGO’s were in vain and the situation remained the same. But, nevertheless, the most tensioned moment on this chapter was the case of the „Teleradio-Moldova” State Company, that became known in 2002 and was discussed by the Council of Europe. The reforms related to the given institution have not been completely implemented during the last years and the

22 Report on the ensuring of human rights and liberties in the Republic of Moldova in 2002 company became the trophy for the governing political parties. The given company is the main TV and radio institution in the Republic of Moldova and was always the main tool in promoting the governance ideas. But, since 2001 the communist governance established the censure, frights and dictatorship at the national Radio and TV, violating in such a way the principles of the political pluralism. The unfair and censured reporting of the events and of protesting manifestations from winter-spring 2002 from the centre of the capital determined the journalists from this company to go on strike as a sign of protest against the pressures from behalf of the governance. The journalists asked for the abrogation of political censure at the Radio and TV, the ensuring of the freedom of expression and right to information, objective reporting of the anti-communist protests, abrogation of the „taboo” on the word “Romanian”, the stopping of the russification, intimidation and persecution of the journalists for their political affiliation, stopping of the state interference in the company’s activity, introduction of Romanian programs, debates and interactive programs on political, economic and social themes. The strike of the journalists was supported by the parties from the parliamentary and extra- parliamentary opposition, civil society and intellectuality. These actions and accusations determined the state governance to take operative actions for the stopping of the process. The negotiations with the strike committee had a singe aim: to take them away and to calm the spirits. The building of the company was immediately was thronged with policemen, and the journalists who had protested were resigned. Deeply concerned about the strengthening of the tension in the Republic of Moldova, the Council of Europe adopted on 24 April a resolution that recommended the Republic of Moldova to take actions in order to improve the situation. One of the recommendations foresaw the transforming of the „Teleradio-Moldova” State Company in a public company. Even under the pressure of PACE that has monitored the situation, the Moldovan governance tried to maintain the established control, miming the transformation through the adoption of a law on the national company of public broadcast. The new law generated discontents from behalf of the parliamentary and extra-parliamentary opposition and civil society , because from the three draft laws on the statute of the company that developed by the governance was adopted. It should be mentioned that the Council of Europe disagreed with the given draft law. On 26 September PACE emitted another resolution that draw the Chisinau attention to the fact that the engagements previously assumed have not been met. The resolution also referred to the necessity for the revision of the law on the national company Teleradio –Moldova. It oblige the Republic of Moldova authorities to get involved in debates with the civil society, political opposition and specialists in the field in order to make the needed modifications. The deadline for the fulfilment of the engagement is the autumn of 2002. Unfortunately, we can state that the Republic of Moldova did not fulfil its obligation for the second time. In spite of both resolutions the situation was not improved and the censure continued. Meantime, the Parliament excluded from the Law on the Audiovisuals the stipulation related to the procedure of confirming the Radio and TV directors by the Parliament and gave this prerogative to the chairman of the Teleradio –Moldova Company,- a person loyal to the power. This fact only strengthens the influence of the state and its interference in the field of the audiovisuals. The printed governmental press has been also under the influence of the governing party. Thus, the given publications made serious deviations from the professional principles. The „Moldova Suverană” newspaper published a series of articles full of aggressions against the leaders of the opposition without leaving the space for the comments on their writings. The opposition had no possibility to bring its arguments on the pages of this newspaper. The reason of the refusal was as following: „the opposition has its own newspapers that criticise the power “. Much of the published information was presented in such a way that it attenuated the responsibilities of the governance and aggravated the situation of the opposition. Such techniques were used even in relation to the international bodies. There were cases when the governmental publications accused or criticised the international bodies. For example, on 1 October 2002, OSCE Mission to Moldova expresses in a press release its „deep exasperation” as regard to the article entitled „The History of Moldova remained the History of the Moldovan State”, published in “Moldova Suverană”, in which it

23 League for Defence of Human Rights of Moldova (LADOM) make reference to the works of the seminar „Teaching Moldovan History ”, organised under the aegis of the Council of Europe. The author attributed a generic declaration regarding the seminar to a member of OSCE Mission. The article also included some derogatory comments on the parties from the opposition and on their position towards the matter of teaching history in Moldova. OSCE members declared that they made no declarations during or after the seminar and, especially, to the journalists of the „Moldova Suverană” newspaper. OSCE declared that the case was a falsification of news. OSCE Mission has also expressed its deep concern about the use of its name in the efforts taken for discrediting some political parties or their position towards the problem of history teaching. As a proof of the falsifications and manipulations from the governmental press we can consider the following case: The team of on-line „YAM” magazine (www.yam.ro) expresses its concern for the unauthorised assumption of the article “The aftermath of September 11” by the governmental daily newspaper „Moldova Suverană”. The given article was published on the web page of the Yam magazine on 19 April 2002 (www.yam.ro/articles/2002/aprilie/19/1html). It was not enough for the newspaper to take the article without the authorisation of the magazine, it also made inadmissible modifications to it. The title of the article was also changed, fact that constitutes a serious violation of the professional norms and of the right of the author. Another attempt to present the things in a false light was registered on TV. During a very controversial and aggressive TV show, „Rezonans” at the National Television, realised in the Russian language by Constantin Staris, on 13 July 2002, the answers of Mr. Rudolf Perina, USA special negotiator for the conflicts in Eurasia have been translated incorrectly, the true meaning of the Ambassador’s words being completely changed. For example, the translation of the question „what is the opinion of the Ambassador towards the reactions of some political formations’ leaders as regard to the project of regulating the Transdniestrian conflict proposed by the mediators “ sounded like this: „I am indifferent to the thinking of other politicians. We are interested only in the official position of the Moldovan governance...” In reality, the Ambassador said „I don’t know the reaction of other persons...” After the press service of the USA Embassy informed Mr dl Staris about this discrepancy, he included in his next show the true answer of the Ambassador. But the press cited the words of the ambassador in their incorrect translation, so that Her Excellency, the USA Ambassador to Moldova, Pamela Hyde Smith s-a was forced to make some explanations in the newspapers which gave the wrong translation of the interview.

The real reasons of this incident are not found out, but the press thinks that this was done deliberately in order to put into the light the current governance of the republic. Moreover, this interpretation was printed in the governmental newspaper “The Sovereign Moldova” and „Moldova Suverană” şi „Nezavisimaia Moldova”.

Another controversial case occurred on 9 May 2002. On this day, the „Pravda” newspaper sold the issue from 10 May 1945 of the newspaper with the portrait of Stalin on the first page. This fact was considered a defiance of the statality of the Republic of Moldova, of democracy and national sentiments of the population that suffered a lot after the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, organised hunger, forced collectivisation and deportations. The state authorities showed no attention towards this action. In general, the Russian press from Chişinău tries not to display their sympathy towards the current governance, although there are publications that agree totally with the governance activities. To a great extent, during the protesting manifestations the Russian press supported the governance. Some journalists even called the governance to use the force against the protesters (the publication „Komersant Plus”, the journalist V.Kosarev). The case of „Znamea” newspaper. The governing party has violated the right of citizens to information for another time when it tried to take the control over the “Znamea” (The flag) from Ciadâr-Lunga town, autonomous Gagauz region of the Republic of Moldova. During the electoral campaign the local communist authorities asked the editor-in-chief to publish for free information and advertising for the communist candidate. In reply to the editor’s refusal the central authorities, with the support of the local ones blocked the activity of the newspaper.

24 Report on the ensuring of human rights and liberties in the Republic of Moldova in 2002

After some days the journalists went on strike against the abuses and illegal actions of the communists, but in some days the editor-in-chief was resigned and the staff was threat with the suspending of the newspaper. The attack against the newspaper was motivated through the lack of materials that would reveal the real rural problems of the region. When the “Znamea” journalists met with LADOM experts they mentioned that the real reason of the conflict was the unwillingness of the staff to promote the communist candidate during the electoral campaign. This thing can be prooved by the fact that after sealing up the doors of the editorial office, the Executive Council of Ciadâr-Lunga started to edit another newspaper, using the style and symbols of the old staff. Thus, beginning with the 40 issue, the “Znamea” newspaper has appeared in two versions: one of the former staff and another of the local authorities. In the previous editions we found the advertising of the other candidates in elections: Mihail Formuzal, Ilia Stamat and Stepan Topal. But in the issue edited by the local authorities only the communist candidate is depicted in most favourable colours. After the victory of the communist deputy in elections, the local authorities subordinated totally the newspaper. The former editor-in-chief, Mr. Lev Goldberg, was forced to leave the editorial staff and founded another newspaper, „Nastoiaşcee Znamea” (The true flag), which in a short period of time had a circulation of 1500 copies, an impressing number for a newly founded newspaper. The right to petitioning is another right violated in the Republic of Moldova. To a great extent, the state institutions are to blame because they do not inform the citizens about the issues of public interest. During an international seminar the participants have discussed the article 10 of the European Convention of Human Rights. The right to expression constitutes a fundamental element of any democratic state and an essential condition for the individual development of the citizens. In this respect, the CE member states committed themselves to ensure a series of minimal standards, as for example the ensuring of the information sources pluralism and free circulation of ideas. According to a Parliament decision on the results of the control on the implementation of the Law on petitioning, the parliamentary deputies, representative of the Government and ministries are to receive regularly citizens for audience. The report showed that during the first ten months of 2002 the prime-minister has received and discussed with 62 persons, a viceprime-minister - 22, another – 36, while the General Mayor of Chisinau receives for audience 30 citizens every day. A pertinent example of this situation can be the case of Eugenia Duca. She states in a declaration addressed to the president of the country that there are 4 volumes of unanswered petitions at the General Prosecutor’s Office. The General Prosecutor answered neither of the petitions. From the great number of petitions addressed to LADOM in this respect, we can conclude that the cases of unensuring of the right to petitioning is very frequent. The right to retort is also flagrantly violated by the governmental press, as well as by some of the partisan press, fact that proves that the press in the Republic of Moldova does not function according to the professional principles and norms of a truly independent journalism. The gravest fact is that the state authorities favour the violations of these norms and principles. In the end of this chapter we cannot help concluding that the situation of the press and the ensuring of the citizens’ right to information and expression during the year 2002 has developed in contradiction with the stipulations of the international treaties and PACE recommendations. A famous international organisation for press monitoring, Freedom House has published a report on the ensuring of freedom of press in the world. The Republic of Moldova found its place on the „grey zone” of the states where the freedom of press is partially ensured and is very closed to the “black zone”. Even under such conditions, the authorities ignore the adjustment of its institutions to the international standards and rules. The central political power committed a regrettable mistake by turning back to the old practices of informational control and manipulation, by interfering in the editorial process of governmental press institutions. The associations of journalists, civil society and political opposition insist on the state non-interference in the activity of the independent publications and urge it not to block the activity of radio and TV inconvenient centres, and to release the printed governmental press from the influence of the governing party and to transform the „Teleradio-Moldova” State Company in a public institution.

25 League for Defence of Human Rights of Moldova (LADOM)

2.9. The right to peaceful meetings The citizens of the Republic of Moldova have the right to peaceful meetings only with the previous approval and authorisation of the authorities. There are cases when the protestors have to obtain authorisation from those against whom they want toprotest and this fact complicates the situation. As a proof we can take the situation of the protests from winter-spring 2002. The actions of protest organised by the parliamentary Christian-democratic opposition have not been authorised by the authorities and this fact served as a legal ground for initiating procedures of penal persecution of the organisers and for the administrative sanctioning of the participants. Although the authorities have threatened the protesters with reprisals, persecutions and legal processes, they did not give in and appealed to international bodies for support. Once with the suspending of the PCDP activities, only the involvement of the Council of Europe saved Moldova from a great and unexpected crisis. The PACE resolution condemned this gesture of Moldovan authorities and stated that the privation of the leaders of parliamentary immunity and the suspending of PCDP activity is a prohibited procedure in a state governed by the rule of law. The children and youth participation in the protesting manifestations provoked a dispute between the power and opposition. The governance has accused the opposition of involving the youth in political actions on the ground the children being irresponsible were influenced by negative factors etc. The opposition considers that the rights of children were violated by the authorities through persecutions, threats and investigations and administrative sanctions. According to the Convention on the rights of children the children can be allowed to participate in the events that can affect their lives, being free to express their own opinion. The opposition states that the occurred events were nothing else than the ensuring of the children rights, freedom of expression, freedom of thought and the right to peaceful meetings. The children have been cited, persecuted by the prosecutors who wanted to know who were the organisers and supporters of the manifestations. The opposition called the law enforcement agencies not to constrain the children to make confessions and recognise his guilt. The communist authorities used the whole repressive, administrative and bureaucratic apparatus against the protestors. Because of the fact that the nucleus of the manifestations was made up of children, pupils, students of educational institutions from the capital and outskirts, the Ministry of Education tried to play an active role in repressing the organisers and active participants in the event. Thus, during the manifestations the minister of Education, Gheorghe Sima has visited several lyceums from the capital in order to speak to the parents and teachers and to convince them to cease the protests. The press wrote several articles about the insistence and pressures exerted by the minister on the educational institutions but the law enforcement agencies began to action only in autumn when there were brought sufficient proofs of the exceeding of the minister’s attribution by Sima. During a press conference the chief of the Ministry of the Interior Press Service, Eugen Viţu, stated that Gheorghe Sima has violated the human rights, making reference to the declarations which the teachers had been obliged to sign and that stated that the teachers won’t allow the children to participate in protests. The teachers were forced to sign the declaration by a decree emitted by the minister of education. But these were only declarations and no other actions have been taken. Although the manifestations from 1 December 2002 have been authorised by authorities, the minister organised a meeting with the directors of all the schools and lyceums from Chisianu and “suggested” them not to get influenced by the political provocations hinting at the fact that they should not take part in the manifestations. According to the PCDP leader, Iurie Roşca, “at the direct indication of Voronin and Tarlev, the police and security collaborators went to all educational institutions and made the teachers to sign engagements of not to allow the pupils and staff to take part in the authorised public meeting. The minister of education, Gheorghe Sima required the deans of the universities and colleges to take all possible measures in order to impede the students and teachers to participate in the meeting. The decision factors from the Ministry of Transports and Communications, Road Traffic began a campaign of intimidation of the economic agents and owners of the transport means and threatened them with taking off the licences in order to make them not go to the meeting”.

26 Report on the ensuring of human rights and liberties in the Republic of Moldova in 2002

After the protests, the citizens from the territory of the country complained on the fact that they were impeded to come to Chisinau on 1 December 2002 and claimed that they were violated the right to free movement within the country and to fee association. Because of the fact that the insistent actions of the communist authorities did not reach the planned results, the next step was the pressures upon the directors and deans of the educational institutions. Following are the cases that could be mentioned as a proof: Bachelor 2002. After the failure of persecuting the minors on the ground that they took part in the manifestations of protest, the lyceums „Mircea Eliade”, „Gheorghe Asachi” and „Nicolae Iorga” have been excluded by the Ministry of Education from list of the bachelor centres. According to the opinion of parents, children and teachers, civil society and journalists this action was a revenge of the communist regime against the most active protestors. In this case, the experts consider that the articles 10 and 11 of the European Convention of Human Rights have been violated. The case of the lyceum “Prometeu”. The government of the Republic of Moldova offered the firms for the research and production AFN, INCO, the „Basarabia” association for the production of wine and champagne, the „Basarabia” Bank and the Association of Small Enterprises the right of cofounders of the “Prometeu” lyceum. The minister of education declared that the director of the lyceum Aurelian Silvestru has registered the institution in an abusive way. Silvestru qualified the government decision to interfere in the activities of the lyceum as a revenge for the participation of those 1400 pupils and 120 teachers in the anticommunist protests. The case of the Republican Sports Lyceum of Chișinău. After the participation of the Sports lyceum in the protests, the director of the institution was resigned from its function. The new director is a villager of the minister. The chair of gymnastics was excluded because it was the most active during the protests. On 30 November the educational process was suspended, and during the winter the authorities began capital reparations which were not ended because of the lack of financial means and, as a result, the gymnastics chair was transferred to the municipal sports lyceum without the approval of the parents. The staff of the municipal lyceum sent a letter to the ministry of education that notified the ministry that they have no sufficient rooms and hostels for the transferred students. The students attend classes although they are not included in the lists. The minister of education and the republican lyceum authorities refuse to discuss with the parents. The trainers and teachers from the lyceum have been threatened with resignation because they protested against the illegal actions of the minister. Many trainers have been visited at home by individuals that introduced themselves as police collaborators from the Botanica sector. They were handed a letter in Russian in which they were charged of the fact that by participating in the protests, they impeded the celebration of holiday from 2 September. The trainers have been „asked” to sign the false accusations but they refused. The aim of all these actions is the punishment of the persons who opposed to conform themselves to the indications of the minister of education. These actions can be also considered as actions of prevention and intimidation of the teachers and students. Meantime, being conscious of the role and position of the youth in the development of protesting actions, the communist governance made some essential modifications to the legislation in order to exert a more rigid control on the educational system. Thus, the president was mandated to approve, at the Government proposal, the foundation, reorganisation and suspending of the educational institutions, institutions of scientific researches. The minister of education was given the right to name and resign the chiefs of district and municipal Educational Directions. This modification has already generated a legal dispute between the Ministry of Education and municipal Council of Chisinau after the resignation of Anatol Mocrac, director of the Education, Science, Youth and Sports Department. These actions run counter to the principles of local autonomy. The deans of the educational high institutions will be confirmed by the Government for a period of 4 years. The university senate will propose at least 3 candidates for this function. The ministry will select only one and will propose it to Government for confirmation. At the ministry’s proposal, the

27 League for Defence of Human Rights of Moldova (LADOM)

Government can also resign the dean from its function before the expiration of its term. As we can see, it is intended to liquidate completely the autonomy of the high educational institutions and to administer the monopoly in the training sector, fact that contravenes to art. 35 of the Constitution. The assumption of the abovementioned functions by the ministry of education constitutes the beginning of the strangulation campaign of the alternative education, especially of the private one, deriving the private institutions of the right to their own educational concepts.

2.10. The right to property Although the Republic of Moldova did not draw too many investments during the last 12 years of transition, in 2002 the communist authorities undertook such actions that aimed at stopping the actions initiated and supported by international political and financial bodies. The initiatives of the communist governance contravene to the achievements previously obtained. The World Bank expressed its concern towards the latest actions and considered that the intentions of the governance to control the activity of the National Agency of Energetics Regulation (ANRE) and the idea of consolidation of the territories of land based more on administrative measures than on market principles run counter to the obligations previously assumed by the Republic of Moldova. The most serious violation was the renationalisation of the enterprises that have been already privatised. In this respect, the Government presented the list of 25 enterprises. Thus, in 2002 a series of scandals took place as regard to the renationalisation of the enterprises privatised by or together with the Western investors. This fact affected a lot the investment image of the republic of Moldova on international and European level. The year began with the case of “Farmaco”. After the National Commission of Current Assets cancelled the emission of assets in the sum of 15 mln. lei made by the “Europharm” Romanian-American group to the greatest producer of medicines from Moldova, “Farmaco”, the investor was forced to take back his investments. The Moldovan authorities made public their intentions to revise the contract on the privatisation of „Farmaco”. Although the investors managed to transform SA “Farmaco” from an enterprise with a lot of debts to the state in a prosperous one and endowed it with modern equipment and with a financial discipline, the state authorities insisted on administering their control over it. The official reason of the contract revision was the unfulfilment of the assumed obligations by the investor at the moment of the privatisation. This fact was denied by the Romanian-American group. The case of “Air Moldova”. The state representatives that own 51% of the shares of the joint enterprise „Air Moldova” Ltd have changed the director of the company. The German partner, „Unistar Ventures GMBH” company, the holder of 49% shares, was not consulted in advance and disagreed with this decision. According to the statute of the given enterprise, such decisions can be taken only with the votes of at least 75% of the shareholders’ votes. BERD sent a letter in which mentioned that: „The interference of any state in the commercial activity of companies that owns an imposing part of its assets is a matter of concern not only for BERD but also for all foreign investors “. Meantime, BERD renounced to finance the „Air Moldova” Company, because the Moldovan Government did not ensure the conditions of the given project. The case of “Air Moldova International”. The State Agency of Civil Aviation (ASAC) has withdrawn the certificate of operator of the „AIR MOLDOVA International”, company although the technical- operational audit of the Lufthansa German group confirmed the fact that this company is one of the best companies in the Republic of Moldova. After this event, ASAC nominated the „AIR MOLDOVA” company the explorer of the route Chişinău-Frankfurt. This decision was taken unilaterally and the principle of transparency was not ensured. This decision generated a new scandal between the communist authorities and foreign investors. In order to fulfil its engagements towards those 2000 clients who have already bought tickets for this route, „Air Moldova International” mandated the German company „Cirrus-Airlines” with which it had an agreement in this respect to transport the people. Moldovan authorities forbade the flights of the German company in the air passage of the Republic of Moldova and the planes had to land in Iaşi – Romania, and from there the passengers

28 Report on the ensuring of human rights and liberties in the Republic of Moldova in 2002 were transported in Chisinau by car. Later, as a sign of protest, Germany forbade the flights of Moldovan companies in its air passage, fact that forced the passengers to bear the expenses for the flight. The permanent representative of the International Monetary Fund in Chişinău thinks the cease of a private air company can greatly affect the world of affairs of the Republic of Moldova. The case of “Union Fenosa”. The Spanish company “Union Fenosa” is one of the biggest investors in the Republic of Moldova. Until the privatisation of the electrical energy networks, in the Republic of Moldova the light was frequently switched off and this fact affected much the population and the economic agents. “Union Fenosa” managed to stabilise the situation by stopping the stealing of electrical light and adopting a new way of calculating and payment of invoices. It trained the personal of the company at the western enterprises. In 2002, the communist governance attempted to the property of the “Union Fenosa” company. The Supreme Court of Justice recognised the legality of the decision of the Court of Accounts that provided for the cancellation of the contract on privatisation of the electrical networks concluded between the Government and Union Fenosa. The main reason of the decision was the fact that at the moment of privatisation some illegalities have been committed. The Union Fenosa lawyers mentioned that they were not offered the possibility to bring their arguments during the court process. The scandal has also generated negative reactions from behalf of the international bodies. Later the Moldovan officials stated that they have not too many pretensions to the Spanish investors, but the issue was not resolved yet. Even admitting the fact that some illegalities took place during the privatisation of the electrical networks, we should seek the guilt not in the investors but in the former government’s officials who allowed them. The punishment of these persons would be a good lesson for the rest of corrupt public servants from the former and current governance. At the moment of writing this report, the General Prosecutor’ s Office rejected the petition of the Court of Accounts as regard to the initiating of the cancellation procedure of the contract between „Union Fenosa” and Ministry of Privatisation. In our opinion, this fact is due to the pressure of the international financial bodies that expressed their concert towards the situation of the biggest investor of Moldova. The businessmen from Moldova, the local and international public opinion qualified the abovementioned actions as attempts against the private property. Meantime, the tendency of the communist governance to drive away the foreign investors from the country became very obvious during the last time. The current governance promotes more and more insistently a policy of nationalisation of the private sector. The verifications of the Court of Accounts, institution that was transformed in a docile tool of executing the governance command, lead to the elimination of the Drezdenbank German bank, BERD and Europharm from the investment market. The governmental Media campaign, the false declarations made by state officials, the judiciary processes and the actions of protest lead to the intimidation of the foreign investors, as for example Sudzuker, Lafarge and, especially, Union Fenosa. The accusations brought to the governance on the fact that it wants to renationalise the most important enterprises that were previously privatised in order to sale them later to the investors from the Russian Federation can be quite grounded. Officially, the Russian Federation has supported Moldovan authorities in the political, economic and social matters which were condemned and criticised by PACE. During 2002 the Russian investors privatised some important enterprises in such conditions in which the foreign investors have been absent from the lists of the claimants (the case of „Moldtelecom”, Terminal from Giurgiuleşti and wine factories). The military sector (the enterprises from the former soviet military complex of USSR) are the target of the Russian investors. The following enterprises have been already privatised or purchased: „Topaz”, „Sigma”, „Mezon” etc. The „Lukoil” company is the leader and near a monopolist on the oil and liquid gas market, „Gazprom” and „Itera” – monopolists on the natural gas market. The attack in the address of „Union Fenosa”, can be the result of the attacks of the Russian capital, because the termination of the contract with the Spanish company could be a good opportunity for the Russian company „RAO EĂS”.

29 League for Defence of Human Rights of Moldova (LADOM)

The governance favours the expansion of the Russian capital in Moldova, and the Russian investments became present in near all the economic fields of Moldova. This fact cannot be considered a bad thing, but the matter is that the Moldovan authorities offer the Russian Federation a lot of privileges, some of them being extremely exaggerated and in the disfavour of the Western investors. For example in the spring of 2002 a group of communist deputies suggested the transmission of all enterprises from the Edineţ district, including the private ones, in the running of a group of Russian businessmen, motivating that: „only in this way we can overcome the crisis!”. The specialists from the Ministry of Industry and Economy have rejected this proposal. Contrary to the international legal norms and to the declarations of Chisinau authorities not to allow the privatisation of enterprises from the left bank of the river Nistru, their strategic partners – the Russian companies, participated in the privatisation in the separatist region. For example, the „Itera” Russian corporation privatised the Metal Mill from Râbniţa, one of the biggest enterprises from the Republic of Mold ova. The situation of the patrimony of the Republic of Moldova from the territory of Ukraine remained uncertain. Although the communist majority of the Republic of Moldova Parliament ratified the Moldo- Ukrainian Treaty on the delimitation of the state frontier, through which Moldova gave Ukraine a portion of territory near the Palanca village. Meantime, by signing this document, Moldova also gave Ukraine some portions of territory near other 6 points of the frontier: Giurgiuleşti, Vulcăneşti, Basarabeasca, Carabiber, Crocmaz, Cremenciuc, as well as the greatest isle from Nistru river – Nişaliu with a surface of 104 ha. The Constitutional Court hesitated to pronounce on the constitutionality of art. 10 of the given treaty. Although for the signing of this bilateral act, the Ukraine promised the recognition of the rest tourist complexes of Moldova on the territory of Ukraine. During 1,5 years from the signing of the contract the Ukraine has recognised the right of property of the Republic of Moldova only on some of the rest complexes. This gesture of the communist deputies was condemned by the inhabitants of Palanca village, political opposition, press and civil society. The decision of the estrangement of a portion of the country’s territory should have been taken after consulting the population. The communist power from Chişinău is accused of violating the inalienable and indivisible character of the state and the territory of the state presupposes the political componence of this state sovereignty. The Basarabian Church also accused the Republic of Moldova authorities of violating the right to property. The legal rights continue to be seriously violated as regard to the Basarabian Church. The Government refused to cancel the decision from 26.09.2001 that stipulates that the Moldovan Church is the legal successor of the Basarabian Church that activated until 1940. Because of this decision, the Basarabian Church cannot regain its possession passed temporarily in the custody of the Romanian Patriarchy and the Moscow Patriarchy has no legal right over it. In this case the Government violated the provisions related to property and inheritance of the RM Constitution and of the European Convention. The Basarabian Church contested the decision from 26.09.2001 at the Court of Appeal of the Republic of Moldova, but is avoids to examine the cause. The priests that have adhered to the Basarabian Church are persecuted. A dramatic case occurred to the priest Lebedenco. The parish from Bubuieci adhered to the Basarabian Church in September 2001. The priest of the church, Nicolae Lebedenco, declared that the conflict from the parish “Adormirea Maicii Domnului” from Bubuieci burst out one week before the New Year and was provoked by the members of the Moldovan Church. According to him, for a period of some weeks the church has been visited by groups of priests from the Moldovan Church, including the Archbishop Vladimir, Moldovan Archbishop. The priest Lebedenco said that Vladimir settled the bishop Rafael, the abbot of Monastery from Nicoreni, who has troubled the peace of the community for more than two weeks. A group of supporters of the Moldovan Church have changed the padlocks of the church door and the church has been closed during 2 weeks. This scandal was made public by the press and after a decision of the local villagers the church remained under the jurisdiction of the Basarabian Church. The central bodies of the state brought an action against the priest and asked the relevant organs to cancel the right of Lebedenco over the property of the land. The instance satisfied the requirements of the Chisinau Prefecture and qualified the possession of Lebedenco as illegal and asked the

30 Report on the ensuring of human rights and liberties in the Republic of Moldova in 2002

Council of the Bubueci village to cancel its decision. On 31.01.2003 the Prefecture from Chisinau sent a letter to the Council from Bubueci which asked the examination of the decision on the sanctioning of the rights to property over the lands recieved in order to build living houses on it and the excluding of Mr. Lebedenco from the list of benefeciaries of the abovementioned right. The priest Lebedenco, addressed to LADOM for legal and informational consulting because the representative of the current government in the territory makes pressures on the priest’s property and insist of depriving the priest of the land where his house is built. It is stupid case when the authorities insist of taking off the territory where a person has built his house in a legal way. At present, LADOM together with Nicolae Lebedenco prepares the petition for the European Court of Human Rights. At the request of thousands of depositors, the Centre for Human Rights of the Republic of Moldova made an appeal to the Government through which it asked to index the money deposition to the Bank of Economies of the USSR since 1992. Because of the lack of financial means, no actions have been taken in this respect. The Constitution stipulates that the property is public or private, and the state secures the right to private property. More over, in Centre’s opinion, RM has also violated the universal declaration of Human Rights and the European Convention of Human Rights. The ombudsmen consider that the RM Parliament had not the right to suspend the action of the normative acts previously adopted. Thus, according to general rules, a normative act that has not a retroactive power cannot abrogate the order established by the document previously adopted. The communist party from Moldova has adopted a law in this respect, intending to index the given depositions. Although the intentions are very good, the local experts qualified this law as a law adopted on populist aims. First of all, the value of the deposited sums of money until 1992 and the value planned to be indexed in 2003 disadvantage completely the citizen. Thus, for example for 10.000 soviet ruble (when 1 ruble was equivalent with 1 USA$), today the citizen will be indexed over 5000 Moldovan lei (the exchange rate being 14 MDL : 1 USD), that is 357 USD. 10000 ruble constituted over 100 medium salaries and today 5000 lei constitute over 10 medium salaries. To put it in more clear terms: with 10000 ruble people could buy 50000 loafs of breads, today with 5000 lei one can buy 1820 loafs of bread. The laws provides for the indexing of these sums in a period of 15 years, fact that does not satisfy the population. According to some calculations made by the economists the citizens will receive less than 3% of the deposited sum. For example, in order to get in 2003 a sum of 1000 ruble, with the bank rate of 28%, one should deposit in 1990 40 ruble. Another major problem related to the ensuring of the right to property consists in that of returning the properties nationalised by the soviet regime. The number of such cases that were made public is very small, although during the years 40-50 thousands of families have been deported and deprived of their property. The cause of this phenomenon could be explained through the lack of clear legislation in this field and the mistrust in the possibility to return the lost property and the citizens’ illiteracy. The phenomenon of returning the nationalised properties (land, houses and goods) didn’t took much proportion, although there were submitted petitions to the European Court of Human Rights. The poverty, corruption, the low level of living, the extreme number of cases of black economy, the traffic of influence and the poor governance are the main factors that contribute to the violation of the right of property in the Republic of Moldova. The state property, that is guaranteed to all persons, is usually run badly following the aims that run counter to the state’s interests. Because all these actions have not been taken into consideration by the current governance, we should admit that they are carried out with the tacit agreement of the governance.

2.11. The right to education Because of the deep crisis from the Moldovan economy, the education system degraded very much during the last years. The general poverty and miserable salaries of the staff from the educational system determined a great part of teachers to leave for work abroad. There is a deficit of didactical staff especially in the schools from rural localities and the retired teachers are forced to go to work. For example, each second teacher from the Sămăşcani village, Orhei district works in the building

31 League for Defence of Human Rights of Moldova (LADOM) sites from Russia. According to some data, in 3 months, 450 persons from Şoldăneşti, most of them being teachers and doctors, perfected their acts in order to go abroad. In such a situation, the schools from Şoldăneşti risk to remain without teachers. Meantime, it should be mentioned that only 258 teachers from the total number of 370 solicited by the Department of Education, Science, Youth and Sports of the General Mayoralty of Chisinau accepted to work in schools and lyceums. After the recent increase of the teachers’ salaries, a young specialist receives a salary of 298 lei or 341 lei, depending of the studies. The teacher with has the greatest experience and period of work get 467 lei, that is 50% of the minimal consumption basket. In general, in 2002 only 38% of the pedagogical universities graduates went to work in schools. Because of the poverty many children do not attend school. They do not have clothes, shoes, necessary school supplies. There are frequent cases when the parents who went abroad left their children in the care of relatives, neighbours, friends and these one do not care much about the situation of children and, in such a way the children take the way of streets. According to the statistics, children constitute the greatest quota of poors in the Republic of Moldova – 31% (more than 226000 children). The student’s scholarship in 2002 constituted approximately 70 lei (5 USA $), while the minimal consumption basket is 15 times bigger). A student needs at least 700-750 lei annually in order to buy the necessary books. Many students are forced to work in miserable and inadequate conditions in order to earn their livings. Usually after studies the graduates cannot find a place of work. The situation of the technical-material basis of educational institutions is deplorable – each forth primary and secondary educational institution needs capital reparation. 44 schools are damaged. 72% of gymnasiums, 13% of normal schools and 19% of lyceums do not have informatics laboratories. In general one computer goes to 74 pupils from gymnasiums, 62 pupils from lyceums and 55 from schools. In December 2002 the activity of many schools was stopped because of the insufficiency of coal. For example, in Orhei district the schools’ activities are suspended for the second year consecutively because of the cold. Initially, the Orhei Municipal Council adopted a decision on reducing the lesson to 35 minutes of study in educational institutions but later it was suspended at all. The teachers solicited the Government „to assume the responsibility for the normal development of educational process and liquidation of consequences of the poor communist administration”. In a rating of the qualities of studies, the UNICEF Research Centre „Inocenti” /Italia/, classified the Republic of Moldova on one of the last places. The report also mentions that „the number of pupils who do not attend school has considerably increased in Moldova”. Meantime, a paradoxical phenomenon occurred: the sporadic increase of the number of high educational institutions, while the quality of teaching is inadequate. Moldova is also mentioned among the countries with the poorest material basis for the educational system. The corruption phenomenon is present in the educational system too. Thus, in order to get a bachelor diploma it is not necessary to pass the exams, you can buy with the help of advertising from the newspapers. In this way you can also buy other documents and acts. We can mention that, while the legal framework of the Republic of Moldova provides for the ensuring of the right to education to all its citizens, in fact the state does not secure an equal ensuring of this right. The state does not take necessary measures for the improving of the situation from the educational domain, fact that contributes to the worsening of the given phenomenon. In our opinion, the most terrible thing is the increased number of children who do not attend schools, regardless of the fact that the legislation provides that the primary education is compulsory. The case of the Medicine Faculty of ULIM. The Medicine Faculty of the Free International University of Moldova suspended its activity on the basis of the National Council of Academic Evaluation and Accreditation decision on 16 July 2002. The given decision provides for the transfer of students to other institutions until 1 September 2002. But, in order to be transferred to other institutions the students had to pass a series of confirmation exams. Meantime, the Initiative Group notifies that the regulation provisions related to the transfer of students and evaluation of knowledge do not cover

32 Report on the ensuring of human rights and liberties in the Republic of Moldova in 2002 their colleagues from abroad who have been transferred without being imposed certain conditions. In the students and graduates opinion this act constitutes an act of discrimination towards the rest of students. Under such conditions, the graduates and postgraduates from the Republic of Moldova have to reconfirm their studies, although their evaluation was once done through a Governmental decision in a legal way. No arguments have been brought in the favour of the taken decision and the experts think that it was an artificial tool for dissolving the Medicine Department of ULIM. Through an open letter addressed to the official bodies of the state, the students ask the governance to explain the following thing: how it happened that the clinical bases of ULIM became useful and good for the “N.Testemiţeanu” State Medicine University. The teachers also became qualified enough for teaching at the state university, only the students and graduates are not prepared enough. The last question put to the governance was on which legal basis the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Moldova does not recognise the diplomas released by the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Moldova? And if the Ministry of Education adopted a Regulation of transferring the students from one university to another within the same state, why it was necessary for the Ministry of Health to develop another? The Initiative Group asks for the ensuring of the RM legislation and their unconditioned transferring to another institution as well as the recognition of the diploma released by the Ministry of Education. LADOM experts together with the Initiative Group concluded that the authorities violated the following normative acts: • art. 35 of the Constitution; • par. 6 art. 35 and par. 3 art. 10 of the Law on education no. 547 from 21.07.1995; • par. 7 art. 7 and art. 8 of the Law on evaluation and accreditation of the educational institutions from the Republic of Moldova no. 1257-XIII from 16.07.1997. In 2002 the Republic of Moldova has registered some other cases on this issue. Due to anti-Romanian beliefs and position the communist governance caused a scandal of proportion, named the scholarships scandal. During 10 years of independence, Romania supported the Republic of Moldova in various fields, but the most appreciated and important was the collaboration between the two states in the domain of exchange of students and pupils. Thousands of youth from the Republic of Moldova had the opportunity to study at some of the best universities from Romania, getting the studies which they could not get in Moldova. The specialists trained in Romania have been much appreciated in Moldova. But the communists manage to diminish and block the relationships between the neighbouring states. The Minister of Education, Gheorghe Sima, invoked various reasons in order to tergiversate the signing of the traditional Protocol of collaboration between the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Moldova and the Ministry of Education and Science of Romania. In spite of daily manifestations of protests of the youth and their parents at the Government doors and the campaign developed by the political opposition, press and civil society, the Moldovan Government did not give in. The minister of education declared that: “The great number of Moldovan students who studies abroad can impede the educational reform and put the state at the risk of remaining only with the primary educational system”. He also mentioned that the refusal of Moldovan party to sign the protocol and to accept those 2000 offered scholarships is in the interest of the Moldovan state. The Moldovan officials have continued to mime the negotiations, avoiding a transparent process of negotiations or announcing a clear and reasonable reason of rejecting the offered scholarships. The government also rejected the scholarships for the Romanian University extensions in the Republic of Moldova. The parents and candidates for university studies in Romania received no answers to their solicitations of being respected their rights to education. In such a case, the Moldovan authorities adopted a wise method: they offered the graduates who wanted to go to Romania for studies free of charge scholarships in the state institutions of the republic of Moldova. It is clear that the conditions offered by the Chisinau government were net inferior to those proposed by the Romanian party. The Moldovan Government offered other 200 scholarships for these graduates (although it promised 1000, and Romania offered

33 League for Defence of Human Rights of Moldova (LADOM)

2000). The parents and their children who protested in front of the Government set up a Committee who continued the negotiations with the Ministry in charge of Romania. Thus, the Ministry from Bucharest allowed Moldovan citizens to submit their applications at the 4 University centres that are situated near the borders between Romania and the Republic of Moldova. The ignoring of international acts and domestic legislation by the communist authorities from Chişinău constitutes a great violation of the rights of youth and children to the freedom of education, of the rights of parents to decide on the type of educational institution and form of education, as well as of the right of didactical staff to the freedom of professional activity realisation. He unwillingness to sign the Protocol of collaboration with the Romanian party generated various strikes of the students, graduates, parents and teachers. The civil society took attitude towards this problem, which was artificially invented by the Republic of Moldova in order to display their political whims. The National Youth Council of Moldova (CNTM) expressed its disagreement with the actions of the minister of education. Through these acts, the rights of youth to education were intentionally and unjustified limited by the authorities. CNTM was reserved in commenting on the concluding of such agreements with other states, processes that lack transparency and the participation of the civil society and trade unions. According to the Declaration of Teachers from the Republic of Moldova, the communist authorities have violated the following legal norms: • art. 35 of the Republic of Moldova Constitution (the right to education); • art. 41, 60 and 64 of the Law on education; • art. 9 of the Law on youth; The principle of freedom as regard to education sanctioned in a series of international acts joint by Moldova: • art. 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; • art. 13-3 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; • art. 28-3, art. 29-1c of the Convention on the Rights of Children; • art. 2b, 3a, 3b, 3c, 3d, 3e, 4a, 4d, 5a, 5b of the Convention on the fight against discrimination in the educational field; • art. 66 of the Recommendations on the statute of didactical staff; • art. 7 and 16 of Recommendations on the education in the spirit of international comprehension, collaboration and peace and human rights education; • UNESCO International Congress: educational development management and planning (1990- 1991): Part 1, art. 2a, Part 2, art. 3. • art. 2 of the First Protocol of the European Convention of Human Rights; • Part 1, art. 1, 2, 5, 6 and 7 of the European Parliament Resolution on the freedom of education within the European Community; • art. 16 of the European Parliament Declaration on the fundamental rights and liberties; • Commission of the European Community: General and Professional Education within the European Community. Medium terms orientations: The principle of diversities ensuring; • art. 126-1, 126-2, 127-2, par. 5 of the Treaty on the European Union (1992); • Convention for European Cooperation and Security; • European Forum for liberty and education: Final Document of the Reunion from Vienna (1989): art. 64, 65, 66, 68, 69, 70, 71; • art. 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 of the Declaration on the human right to freedom of education;

34 Report on the ensuring of human rights and liberties in the Republic of Moldova in 2002

• Memorandum on the role of education in the process of European integration (1991): Part I par. 1; Part II; Part III, art. 2, 3, 5, 6, 7-1, 7-5, 7-6, 7-7, 7-9, 10-1, 10-3; Part IV art. 1, art. 2 par. 2, art. 3, 4; Part V, art. 1, 2, 4; • Recommendations on the laws of education: Part I, Part II, al. 1,3,5,6; Part III (1). During the videoconference realised by the League for Defence of Human Rights on 31 July 2001 in collaboration with the „Pro-Democracy” Romanian Association, the participants had a debate on this issue. During the debates, the representatives of the youth NGO’s from the both countries expressed their disagreement with the tergiversation of the signing of the Moldo-Romanian Protocol. The participants in the conference came to the conclusion that by refusing and tergiversating to sign the abovementioned protocol, the Moldovan authorities discriminate a great part of their citizens, limit and violate their rights to education. Meantime, NGO’s leaders asked the Republic of Moldova Government to ensure the fundamental rights of youth as regard to education and training and to sign the Protocol of collaboration on the exchange of scholarships between Romania and Moldova.

Another problem emerged a bit later after the abovementioned conflict. This problem concerned the extensions of the Romanian Universities in the Republic of Moldova. The matriculation in these institutions was also boycotted by the Moldovan party, which managed to stop their normal functioning during the academic year 2002-2003. The situation with the extension of the „Dunărea de Jos” University from Galaţi, founded in 1999 at Cahul within the „Dunărea de Jos” Euroregion. This Euroregion was constituted on the basis of the „Treaty on the good neighbourhood relationships and cooperation between Romania, Republic of Moldova and Ukraine”, of the Protocol of trilateral collaboration between the Governments of Romania, Republic of Moldova and Ukraine, signed on 4.07.1999 by the presidents of Romania, Republic of Moldova and Ukraine, as well as of other bilateral acts signed between the three states.

The students matriculated to this University extension in 2002, as well as their parents appealed to LADOM for the solving of their problems, because the activity of the University extension was paralysed for the I-st years students. In this respect, LADOM has organised a round-table with the participation of one representative of the League of Students from Cahul, press and local authorities and one representative of the „Dunărea de Jos” Euroregion. Although they have been invited, the officials from the Ministry of Education did not come to the meeting. Meantime, the Romanian party decided to transfer those 100 students from Cahul to Galaţi, Romania. At present, at the insistence of the parents, LADOM prepares to start an action against the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Moldova.

We can’t help mentioning that the communist authorities have ignored the stipulations of the bilateral and trilateral agreements, violating the right of youth to education and training. Though these actions, the Government proved its stubbornness and disrespect for its citizens.

2.12. The right to free elections Free election on the basis of universal, equal and secret suffrage, with secret voting, developed in conditions that secure the free expression of people’s opinion – all these are the condition of the European Convention of Human Rights, stipulated in art. 3 of the First Protocol. Due to democratic mechanisms, the Communist Party of the Republic of Moldova have won the parliamentary elections from 25 February 2001, obtaining the absolute majority of the mandates in the Republic of Moldova Parliament. But, after coming to power in a democratic way, the Republic of Moldova has revived the old undemocratic practices of governance, transforming the mechanisms of the state governed by the rule of law in instruments docile to the governance. After a year of communists governing, the Christian –democratic opposition initiated ample manifestations of protest aimed to overthrow the Communist Party. Because this fact is practically impossible, in order to temper the governance anti- constitutional intentions, the parliamentary opposition and civil society has proposed for several

35 League for Defence of Human Rights of Moldova (LADOM) times the consulting of the population in the most important issues. All of them have been rejected by the state authorities and Central Electoral Commission.

The referendum on the statute of the Russian language. The first refusal to consult the population through a referendum was registered in the beginning of the year. Thus, due to social tensions and street protests against the communists’ intention to give the Russian language the statute of state language and to introduce it as a compulsory school discipline, the opposition suggested to organise a referendum in order to find out the opinion of the population. Stepaniuc excluded from the very beginning this possibility, justifying that “the majority fraction has the constitutional right to adopt this decision, because they got the majority in the elections”, ignoring at the same time the opinion of a great part of the society: the youth, intellectuality, press, civil society, political opposition and international public opinion. A bit later, due to the PACE Resolution, the communist authorities have been forced to announce a moratorium on the Russian language, but the necessity for the referendum on the officialisation of the Russian language will emerge as soon as the government official announce their intention to fulfil their electoral program.

Palanca. A referendum is also necessary as regard to the estrangement of a part of the Moldovan territory in the favour of Ukraine. Due to the absolute intransparency set up in the governmental institutions, the situation remained uncertain and even the Constitutional Court hesitated to pronounce on the legality of this fact. According to the Constitution, such issues of national importance need the unfolding of a referendum. The referendum from Găgăuzia. In the beginning of the year 2002 the situation in the Gagauz autonomy was very tensioned, because of the direct involvement of the communist authorities in the internal problems of the autonomy. In order to calm the spirits and being sure of the population support, the Moldovan authorities have unfolded in February a referendum. But the action has failed, because it was boycotted by the representatives of the Gagauz authorities that confirmed that the actions carried out by Moldovan authorities run counter to the democratic principles of the current legislation. The case with the early local elections. One of the priorities of the Communist Party remained the process of coming back to the former territorial units (rayons) existent until 1998-1999. Although the opposition threatened the governance with new manifestation actions and the Council of Europe became more and more insistent in the hope of succeeding to make the Moldovan authorities understand the perils of this process, the Government of the Republic of Moldova did not give in and named the day of 7 April 2002 the day of early local elections, introducing the necessary modifications to the domestic legal framework. The Social-Liberal party called the whole political class and all the citizens to boycott the anti-constitutional acts. Pursuant to the internal and foreign pressures, the governance cancelled its decision taking as a ground the Decision of the Constitutional Court on the unconstitutionality of some modifications to the legislation. The case of the Social-Democratic Alliance. Conscious of the peril of administering an absolute control from behalf of the communists on the state institutions, the Social-Democratic Alliance, fraction being in parliamentary opposition, initiated the collection of signatures in the view of unfolding a consultative referendum on the electoral system of the republic of Moldova. The process of collecting the signatures was quite difficult, because from the very beginning the Initiative Group accused the communist governance of obstructing the process. In a declaration for the press, the executive bureau of the group declared that the heads of the economic agents, budgetary institutions and local administrations received indications from behalf of the authorities “to take necessary measures in order to impede the collecting of signatures”. The representatives of the Initiative Group from the capital and from the regions have been threatened with resignation from their work places and with the administration of other sanctions. The Executive Bureau concluded that the current governance limits the citizens’ constitutional right to political initiative, hampers the normal functioning of democratic institutions and continues the actions of oppressing the opposition and persecution of citizens. On 29 July 2002 the stage of collecting the signatures in the favour of the referendum for the modification of the electoral system was over. The Central Electoral Commission confirmed the

36 Report on the ensuring of human rights and liberties in the Republic of Moldova in 2002 validity of 213.250 signatures and, according to the law, adopted a decision on the initiating of the republican legislative referendum on the modification of the Electoral Code. This decision together with the lists of the people’s signatures was presented to the Permanent Bureau of the Parliament. 2 months from the registering of the popularly initiative have passed but the Permanent Bureau of the Parliament said nothing on this matter. Under such conditions, the SDA submitted a declaration through which it required the including of the examination of the popularly initiative in the agenda of the plenary sessions of the Parliament. SDA leader, Dumitru Bragiş accused the communist parliamentary majority of „tergiversating intentionally ” the examination of these issues by the Parliament and tabled a project of legislative initiative on the modification of the electoral system, asking the Parliament to discuss the project in 2 weeks. In reply, the communist deputies mentioned that according to the legislation, the Parliament would examine the project in a period of six months from the decision on the validity of the signatures. SDA claimed for the cancelling of the current way of electing the parliamentary deputies based on party lists and suggests that the part of the deputies to be elected on the basis of uninominal constituencies system. In clear terms Braghis proposed the passing to a mixed electoral system. During a press conference held by the experts of the Council of Europe who participated in the seminar on the problems of Efficienting the Round Table with a Permanent Statute of the Moldovan Parties, the European experts mentioned that it is undemocratically and unnatural for a political party to get more than 2/3 from the Parliament seats while obtaining during elections only 50% of the votes and 1/3 of the whole electorate (because not all the people took part in elections). Something is rotten and necessary measures should be taken in order to modify the legislation, mentioned Marcus Mekkel, CE expert. He has also cast doubts on the correctness of the electoral limit of 6, 9 and 12 %. In his opinion no European State has such a barrier against the opposition. The participants also mentioned that Moldova suffers from a „democracy deficit “, and the most important issues are the limited access of the opposition to Media, presence of legislative gaps in the electoral legislation, lack of transparency in the power’s activity, lack of the dialogue between the power and the opposition. At the end of December the communists rejected the idea of unfolding a referendum and the project submitted by the SDA. The representatives of the parliamentary group of the communists made references to several cases of falsifications in the process of collecting the signatures in the favour of the referendum. Dumitru Braghiş accused the communists of hampering by all possible means the realisation of the legislative initiative and asked the Parliament to check the authenticity of the signatures. But, as soon as the Central Electoral Commission validated the signatures, the Parliament had to adopt the proposed modifications. The refusal of the communists to satisfy the legal requirements of the opposition generated new tensions between the opposition and the power. The referendum pro UE and NATO. Because of the fact that the Republic of Moldova only declares its intentions of European integration, but in fact, does nothing in this regard, in December the Christian-democratic deputies have started the legal procedure for the unfolding of a consultative referendum as regard to the Republic of Moldova adherence to EU and NATO. The initiative group included 1390 persons and planned to collect at least 500.000 signatures in the favour of unfolding the referendum. For this time, the authorities took another way of blocking this intention. The Central Electoral Commission declared that the adherence of the republic of Moldova to NATO is illegal, because, according to the Constitution, our state is neuter from the military point of view. Thus, the given intention was also impeded. We think that the repelling of the initiatives of unfolding the abovementioned referenda is part of the long chain of actions of ignoring the opposition and its opinion. The tensions from the Moldovan society was caused because of the complete lack of transparency of the communists activities, of their stubbornness and unwillingness to collaborate and hold negotiations with the opposition, press and national and international public opinion. In 2002 the early elections of the administrator of the Gagauz autonomy took place. 6 candidates stood for elections. The League for Defence of Human Rights of Moldova took part in elections as a national observer.

37 League for Defence of Human Rights of Moldova (LADOM)

OSCE declared that the elections from 6 October were organised in a calm, transparent and correct environment and were in accordance with the national and international legislation. The second stage of elections took place on 20 October. This time, LADOM participated in observing only with a mobile group, withdrawing officially all its observers, protesting in this way against the violations of the electoral legislation committed some days before elections. A great part of the Chişinău press was sure that the results of the elections would be in the favour of the communist candidate. In order to call the population to vote for Tabunşcic (the communist deputy) the parliamentary deputies and governmental officials visited the region for several times. The opposition thinks that these actions are a perfect rehearsal for the national local elections from May 2003.

2.13. The rights of foreign citizens The rights of foreign citizens and stateless persons are secured by the Republic of Moldova. At least, no cases of violations of the rights of these categories of population were registered. LADOM experts noticed the following phenomenon related to this subject. Due to general poverty, corruption, smuggling and other similar phenomena and because the state does not control the whole territory of the state, Moldova became a transit-state for illegal emigration. This fact was proved by a lot of articles and materials from the press that describe cases of cheating of the population from behalf of the foreign citizens, especially from the Middle East, who promise the citizens to take them to the Middle East for work for a small sum of money, but, in fact, carry them for some days and nights along the Moldovan forests and fields and then abandon them. Meantime, the criminal structures from the former soviet space found in Moldova a sure place for carrying out their illegal activities. The legislation and the created situation are very favourable to such structure from many points of view. The customs bodies and the police are not a problem for them because they have enough money to bribe any servant from the republic of Moldova. They have no problems in falsifying their acts, in receiving citizenship. A pertinent example – an unprofessional doctor was charged with the decease of 3 patients. For more than 6 years, a Chinese citizen worked as a doctor on the basis of a licence released by the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Moldova and of the diploma and other documents released by his country without being forced to pass some confirmation exams. He founded a firm, „Vitaron” which provided medical services to the citizens. As a result, 3 patients died because of his medical methods. The Prosecutor’s Office opened a file, but the Chinese citizen left the country. Out of these facts, the Republic of Moldova became a paradise for swindlers, criminal and Mafia structures that carry out illegal activities. The most favourable region remains the separatist region of Moldova, Transdniestria.

2.14. Discrimination There were frequent cases of discrimination during the year 2002. From the examples and cases depicted in this report we can conclude that most of situations of discrimination are based on the politics promoted by the state authorities. The first and most pertinent example is the discrimination of the political opposition. Thus, although it is a violation of the opposition’ rights these acts can be also listed in the list of discriminatory acts – that is, some leaders have access to the state Media means, the other have not. The press was also affected by discrimination. The representatives of the independent press and of opposition press were treated inadequately by the authorities. For example, during the official visits to other countries, only the press loyal to the government was part of the Moldovan delegations. The representatives of the opposition and independent press were not allowed to join the delegation. They were also discriminated by the state authorities. Usually, the public servants refuse to discuss with journalists from the opposition, do not want to release them the

38 Report on the ensuring of human rights and liberties in the Republic of Moldova in 2002 needed accreditation in order to participate in various events, do not provide them information for writing articles on various subjects and issues. The lack of an equal treatment applied to all categories of citizens determines the civil society to become more and more insistent on the ensuring of human rights and liberties in the Republic of Moldova and force the democratic political parties consolidate their efforts in order to make their resistance more efficient. The Moldovan authorities favour only the activity of Moldovan Church, ignoring the representatives and the flock of the Basarabian Church and other cults, fact that can be qualified as discriminatory act. The Republic of Moldova authorities favour the relationships with the educational institutions of certain states and disfavour the continuation of relationships development with other states. While in the south of the country, in Ciadâr-Lunga for the first time in the history of Moldova was opened a branch of one of the leaders of Russian educational institutions – the Humanitarian Modern University– (Sovremenyi Gumanitarnyi Universitet), where 100 students have been matriculated, in Cahul, Chişinău and Bălţi the procedures of students matriculation at the Romanian extensions have been boycotted. By the means of the „Jurnal de Chişinău” newspaper, where the League for Defence of Human Rights publish a headline of legal consulting, two persons informed us that they do not receive for a long period of time the nominative compensations. In 2002, the current legislation suffered no modifications in this respect, so that the people had to receive their compensations as they did before. We addressed to the minister in charge but received no reasonable answer. According to the Law no. 933-XIV from 14.04.2000 on the special social protection of some categories of population, Government Decision no. 761 from 31.07.2000 on the nominative compensations for some categories of population, Regulation on the way of establishing and paying the nominative compensations for some categories of population, approved by the same Government Decision – in the list of the beneficiaries the participants in the II World War and their wives are also included. Until September 2002, all the participants in the war have benefited from the nominal compensation, but beginning with September the payment of compensations have been stopped for the wives of the participants in the war from behalf of the Romanian army. We should remind that according to the Law no. 1358-XII from 18.03.1993 on the rehabilitation and equality of rights of the Republic of Moldova citizens who took part in the IIWW, “all the citizens of the Republic of Moldova who participated in the war with the Romanian army, with some exceptions, have been declared innocent towards the society, rehabilitated and restored in their rights and benefit from social facilities according to the current legislation “. Thus, in this case, a category of the participants in the war have been discriminated, although they were not guilty for their acts, because it did not depend on them. The given discrimination could also emerge as a result of the political confessions of the governing party.

39 League for Defence of Human Rights of Moldova (LADOM)

3. The ensuring of human rights in Transdniestria Since its declaration of independence, the Republic of Moldova does not control over 11% of its territory. After the arm conflict from the spring-summer of 1992 all the efforts taken for exerting the authority on the territory from the left bank of the river Nistru have failed. During a decade, the separatist region from Tiraspol, supported by various forces from the Russian Federation, settled there a truly state entity. Although it remained officially unrecognised, this territory has many elements characterising a state: president, parliament, government, judiciary instances, army, law enforcement agencies, citizens, valuta and others. It is obvious that their presence does not mean the existence of a state governed by the rule of law, based on democratic and free principles. Even the constituting of this „state” was realised by violating the elementary norms of the international law, by the use of the military force and committing crimes against the population of the region. No one doubts on the fact that the separatist regime is a criminal, dictatorial anti-human and antidemocratic one. The Republic of Moldova tried to shirk the responsibility for the violation of human rights by the separatist unconstitutional authorities, but the European Court of Human Rights qualified this reserve as groundless. To our mind, the fact that the Republic of Moldova tried to convince the European experts of the impossibility to exert control over the region and that it is not able to guaranty the ensuring of human rights to its citizens is not as grave as the fact that during so many years of independence the Moldovan authorities were not insistent in solving the conflict. Meantime, the separatist region has obtained Moldovan customs stamps they obtained also legal access to the international commercial market. Very soon it became the “black hole” of Europe. But most of prejudices were caused to the Republic of Moldova budget. The human, industrial and technological potential, the heritage of the former USSR left to Transdniestria and the presence of the Russian Army in this territory has favoured a lot the production of arms and armament. Although Russia has not recognised the participation of its forces in the conflict and the arming of the military structures of the separatist region from Tiraspol, its involvement in the conflict is quite obvious because of the great number of Russian Casacs and of other notorious personalities (for example, Vladimir Antiufeev, who is searched by the legal forces of Lethonia for war crimes and, at present, he is the Minister of Security of Transdniestria). In 2002 the chairman of the State Duma of the Russian Federation, Ghenadi Selezniov, being in an official visit in Chisinau made some declarations that have been appreciated by the public opinion as a recognition of the support provided to the forces from Tiraspol. This situation is quite notorious to the whole Europe. As a proof we can make reference to the „Panorama” Italian newspaper that mentioned in an article that Transdniestria is „the black hole “ of Europe and the river of all sorts of traffickers. „In Tiraspol the arms are produced and commercialised like the vodka” wrote the newspaper. „The Mafia, very influenced otherwise, enjoys the protection of the self-proclaimed president Igor Smirnov. Thousands of KGB former services came from Moscow and become the leaders of Transdniestria. They have the task to entertain relationships, to run activities with clients from all the corners of the planet, especially with the terrorist grouping Al Qaida, as well as with others from Asia and Africa. A lot of agents of Saddam Hussein are infiltrated in Transdniestria. According to these sources, the leader of Iraq entertains relationships with the separatist regime the means of a Russian citizen who was arrested on 27 August 2002 in Pforzheim, Germany. The given source makes reference to a secret report of UN. The yielding from behalf of Chişinău did only consolidate the regime of Smirnov which, according to some experts, is now more stronger and powerful from the military point of view that that of Moldova, now it refuses to hole negotiations with Moldovan authorities and tergiversate the process of cassation and evacuation of the 14th Russian army. It seems that even the Russian Federation cannot exert its absolute control over its citizens (it is supposed that all the separatist leaders have Russian citizenship, fact confirmed by the incident of retaining the leader from Tiraspol in the Airport from Vienna). This state of things is favourable to many criminal structures that profited by the chaos and instability from the region. Is a short period of time the whole region was criminalised. The traffic with arms, drugs and human beings became something normal in the region. The representative of Moldovan

40 Report on the ensuring of human rights and liberties in the Republic of Moldova in 2002 president in the negotiations on the Transdniestrian conflict presented to OSCE evidences that prove that in Transdniestria the armament is produced and „the smuggling is blooming “. The Transdniestrian conflict resembles more a well written scenario aimed at creating the present situation and maintaining permanent tension in the region, fact that is favourable for the powerful Mafia structures. The dialogues between Moldova and Transdniestia are very difficult. In the autumn of 2002 the State Duma of the Russian Federation supported the initiative of the Russian deputy Vladimir Jirinovschi to open in Tiraspol a Russian consulate.

Actually, the OSCE Mission and the guarantees Russia and Ukraine have submitted a proposal for the solving the conflict by means of federalising the Republic of Moldova. According to the political leaders and experts from the Republic of Moldova, the realisation of this project would lead to the “transdniestrisation” and criminalisation of the whole territory of the Republic of Moldova. The civil society and some political parties from the Republic of Moldova submitted several proposals and projects but all of them have been ignored. In fact, according to many political experts, the current project cannot be considered serious and its realisation would lead only to the escalation of tensions and reappearance of interethnic frictions. Such a practice can create an extremely dangerous precedent for the legalisation of similar criminal regimes. For example, during the press conference on the results of its visit to Chisinau, George Soros has mentioned that the resolving of the Transdniestrian conflict is a vital necessity for the Republic of Moldova. He expressed his disagreement towards the project of federalisation submitted by OSCE and guarantee-states. George Soros has criticised the project of federalisation, as well as the USA position towards its support.

At the end of the year, the Ukrainian party proposed another way of solving the conflict, but it was qualified by Moldovan authorities as a considerable regress in the process of negotiations in the Transdniestrian problem. The project tabled by Ukraine during a round of negotiations from Moscow presupposed the maintenance of the current state of thing in Transdniestria until the complete solving of the issue, that means that Transdniestria should preserve all its attributes and should receive the statute of republic within the Republic of Moldova. In fact, this project recognises Transdniestria as a state, fact that has been categorically rejected by Moldovan authorities during the last 12 years. The problem of human rights in the Transdniestrian region was just permanently monitored by Chisinau and international structures, without interfering and insisting on the stopping of human rights violations. The reports on the situation of human rights in the region remained just simple paper and are of no use of the local population. Thus, according to national and international reports the most fundamental freedoms are violated in the region. The population was terrorised by the “respective state bodies” and the elections and governance are exerted according to dictatorial principles. As far as we know the most important right is the right to life and further we will bring some pertinent examples of grave violations of this fundamental right: The case of the Ilașcu group. The members of the “Ilaşcu group” A. Ivanţoc, T. Petrov-Popa, A. Leşco have been condemned to different terms of imprisonment and Ilie Ilaşcu was condemned to capital punishment. During the first four years the execution of the punishment was simulated four times, and during the penal investigations the condemned persons have been subjected to torture and inhuman treatment. The efforts of the international and national officials have been useless for releasing the detainees. The case of Beșleagă and Zavtur. Another case took place in March 1992. Being arrested by the members of the Transdniestrian “republican guard”, G.Beşleagă and N.Zavtur disappeared. More lately the mutilated body of G.Beşleagă was found, but N.Zavtur was not found yet.

The Varghin case. In January 1993 B. Varghin went to visit his mother in Transdniestria and he was retained and illtreated by some unknown armed persons. A bit later he died.

41 League for Defence of Human Rights of Moldova (LADOM)

The Calașnicov case. A. Calaşnicov was killed in 1996 by the collaborators of the Section for the fight with the organised crime from Râbniţa town. Four “police” collaborators have been condemned for this act but later three of them have been amnestied.

On 27 May 2002, after the appearance of Vlad Cubreacov, Şevţov-Antiufeev, the minister of security from Tiraspol declared: „if we happened to get him – he wouldn’t be alive “, recognising that the regime from Tiraspol is a criminal one.

In the autumn of 2002, the representatives of the civil society from the left bank of the river Nistru expressed during a press conference their deep concern for the grave violations of the human rights by the separatist region. The local inhabitants have to suffer most of all. The so-called law enforcement agencies arrest illegally innocent people. Most of all are persecuted the teachers who try to teach their subjects in the Romanian language. The population is misinformed. A lot of people want to seek political asylum. As regard to the violation of other fundamental rights of the citizens by the representatives of the elf- proclaimed republic, we can mentions thousands of cases. The liberty and safety of the person, the right to a fair trial, the right to education, free elections, property, freedom of expression and information are human rights which some of local population do not know about.

The freedom of press: in Râbniţa town appears the newspaper „Dobryi deni”, which after the loss of 1 processes was forced to cover the damage for harming the dignity and honour of some local authorities in an amount of 30 thousands $. „Thus, speaking about any independent press in the Transdniestrian region is ridiculous “, point out Aleksandr Ivanko, OSCE councillor. The right to education: In Grigoriopol town the children from the school no. 1 have been forced by the Transdniestrian authorities to study beginning with 2 September 2002 „the Moldovan language” in Cyrillic graphic. The teachers and pupils who wanted to study in Romanian based on Latin graphic had to go to the next village Doroţcaia, that is situated at a distance of more than 10 km. 150 pupils and 25 teachers have been already transferred to the school from Doroţcaia. The chairman of the parents’ council opposed to the intentions of the authorities and as a result he was cited in the court and condemned to 15 days of imprisonment for „hooliganism “. The „Lumina” Association of the Transdniestrian Teachers appealed to the representatives of the Community of Independent States summit from Chişinău. They outlined that in Transdniestria the rights to education, work and life are flagrantly violated. In fact, in this respect the position of the regime from Tiraspol and of the governing party from Moldova coincide. Because of this, the current governance of Moldova does not interfere with the separatist governance in order to stop the phenomenon of discrimination of the local population. The both regimes promote an anti-Romanian and anti-national policy directed against the citizens who consider themselves Romanians and plead for the recognition of this fact by the state authorities. Due to the transparency of the borders, the security and safety of the persons from the both banks of the river Nistru are not secured at all. After 11 September 2001, the situation from Transdniestria draw the attention of the Western countries and of international bodies. The process took more substance due to some concrete actions undertaken by the Chisinau government. The change of the customs stamps and the insistence of Chisinau o control the whole portion of its borders with Ukraine has complicated the situation of the anti-constitutional regime. The officials from Tiraspol tried to take revenge blocking the process of evacuation and cassation of the Russian armament. Meantime, the separatist regime has approved the list of state enterprises, which should be privatised. In this respect, the enterprises are bankrupted in order to lessen their value. The employees of these enterprises, who should have a quota of the enterprise shares, are forced to pay enormous sums of money and they will be probably deprived of their right of becoming shareholders, that is of the right of property. The Moldovan authorities have

42 Report on the ensuring of human rights and liberties in the Republic of Moldova in 2002 condemned these intentions but did nothing in order to stop them. It is supposed that these enterprises could be easily sold to influent businessmen from the ex-soviet space. In fact, the privatisation in this region has begun in 1999, when the mill from Rabnita, one of the greatest mills from the former USSR, was sold to the Russian Company „Itera”. According to some official data in the separatist region 144 industrial enterprises, 113 from which are state enterprises, 9 rented, 11 Ltd, 6 collective enterprises are officially registered. Most of them are already sold and the privatisation is just a covering of the truth. The possibility of contesting the court decision in a court of higher instance is lacking. The Transdniestrian “Constitution” does not secure this right to the arrested persons. The citizens have the possibility to contest the courts decisions neither in the court instances of the Republic of Moldova nor in the international ones.

On 28 October 1998 the lawyer V. Ţurcanu was refused the right to defend the accused P.Ceh. the Prosecutor’ Office and the Justice Direction from Transdniestria have confirmed the right of the lawyer to defend the citizen P.Ceh, but V. Ţurcanu was not allowed to take part in the process because he had Moldovan citizenship and was not registered as a lawyer in Transdniestria.

The freedom of religion formally exists, but at official level, only the Christian–orthodox religion, subordinated to the Russian Church is recognised. The representatives of the “power” of Transdniestria have been decorated with high distinctions of the given Church. The registering of the “Iehova Witnesses” was refused because its principles do not correspond to the norms of “Transdniestrian legislation”. On 2 September 1997, 200 kg of religious books have been confiscated. The registering of the Methodists Church was also refused on the ground that the members of the given church did not have Transdniestrian citizenship.

The administration of Bender town, being under the jurisdiction of the Transdniestrian republic, required the Chisinau government to evacuate the police commissariat from the town. On 4 November 2002 Igor Smirnov signed a decree on the use of a special tax of 20% from the value of the goods imported from the Republic of Moldova. According to the decree it is forbidden to use the simple ways of confirming the certificates and accreditation for the goods imported from RM. The document forbids the access of the most important goods imported from Moldova on the commercial market of the region. According to the Olvia-press agency, these measures have been introduced in reply to the RM restriction of the export of Transdniestrian goods. 5 localities from the left bank of the Nistru (Coşniţa, Cocieri, Pârâta, Doroţcaea and Molovata Nouă) are under the jurisdiction of the Republic of Moldova. The Transdniestrian authorities do the supply with natural gas and electrical light and the price is extremely exaggerated. There are a lot of opinions that the future of the RM State depends on the way of regulating the Transdniestrian conflict. But no one can compensate the life and sufferings of the population from the region. The rights of these people cannot be secured by the authorities of the Republic of Moldova, but it is not excluded the fact that the people could appeal to the European Court of Human Rights. The reports on the violation of the fundamental human rights and liberties developed by national and international organisations are limiting just to the monitoring of the situation.

43 League for Defence of Human Rights of Moldova (LADOM)

4. The ensuring of human rights in TAU «Gagauz-Yeri» In 2002 the relationships between the communist central powers from Chişinău and local powers from TAU Gagauz-Yeri have been temporarily tensioned and ended in the unfolding of the early local election of the administrator of the Gagauz autonomy which was wan by the representative of the communist party from Chişinău, Gh. Tabunşcic The Gagauz population faces the same problems as the population from the whole region of the Republic of Moldova, excepting the Transdniestrian region. The social-politic and economic situation, the living conditions and the ensuring of human rights in the region are alike in the whole country. But, nevertheless, there are some differences. Although the basic arguments of the separatist leaders have been the maintenance of Gagauz identity, culture and language, the region registered little progress in comparison with the soviet times. The monument of Lenin still exists and the main communication language at official and non-official level is Russian (for example, 99% of the local press is in Russian, the educational system etc.), in the detriment of the Gagauz and Romanian languages – the official language of the Republic of Moldova. As a proof of this situation we can mention the following cases: After a visit to Comrat, the PCDP vice-chairman, Vlad Cubreacov, addressed an interpellation to the Minister of Education of the republic of Moldova and asked him to examine the situation of the educational system in the Gagauz autonomy. He made reference to the study of the Romanian, Gagauz and Bulgarian languages in the region. In Comrat 64,4% of pupils of Romanian origin from the state institutions are forced to study in Russian. The Bulgarians and Gagauz people also study in Russian. The same situation is in other localities of the region. The Dobrov case. The founder of the Gagauz University from Comrat, Leonid Dobrov declared that the central power from Chişinău promotes a policy of discrimination of the Gagauz culture and language. He asked through the press the creation of Moldo-Gagauz-English and offer the University from Comrat the statute of State University. In his opinion, the governance from Chisinau does not want to recognise the licence of the given University created in 2001. The teaching is in Gagauz language and the students learn the Romanian, Turkish and English. Meantime, the right of other minorities to study and use their languages is not ensured, because there are no sufficient financial means and conditions for promoting the cults of all minority representatives of the official language, and that is why many representatives of other ethnic groups are forced to study and use the Russian language as the main communication language. A considerable support is offered to the Russian schools from Moldova by the Embassy of the Russian Federation from Chişinău, that make permanently donations of books and manuals. In Transdniestria many subjects are taught according to the manuals approved by the Ministry of Education of Russian Federation. On 14 June 2002 the Flux press agency diffused the following news: “the dean of the National Gagauz University from Comrat declared the hunger strike as a sign of protest against the actions of denationalisation of the Gagauz people “. The Dobrov case, the case of Znamea newspaper, the situation of the national minorities and the results of the monitoring of the elections of administrator from the autumn 2002 are just some pertinent examples of human rights violations in the Gagauz autonomy. In fact, the situation from the region is very mush reflected in the central Media from the Republic of Moldova.

44 Report on the ensuring of human rights and liberties in the Republic of Moldova in 2002

5. Conclusions in the end we can conclude that the year 2002 was extremely difficult for the Moldovan society as well as for the governance. Due to some regional and international factors, as well as to the positive effects of the reforms initiated and promoted during the last ten years, the state economy has registered a small economic growth. This is one of the few realisations of the current communist governance. Although the governance declared that their priority tasks are the eradication of poverty and the fight against the corruption, we can conclude that the corruption reached even more higher levels and the level of living of the population depends to a great extend on the money sent by the people who work abroad. In 2002 the Republic of Moldova was characterised by an extraordinary level of corruption, irresponsibility and traffic of influence among the public servants of the state, by mass manifestations of protests, continuous monitoring from behalf of the international and European bodies, scandals and conflicts between the Government and foreign investors, tensioning of interethnic relationships, violation of the electoral legislation in Gagauzia, deterioration of the relationships with the neighbour states, deepening of the Transdniestrian conflict, establishment of the censor on all Media means, misinforming and manipulation of the public opinion, reform of the territorial-administrative system, lack of minimal transparency in the activity of state bodies and institutions, suppressing and limitation of the judicial power, ignoring of the basic human rights and liberties, international documents and treaties, interference of state authorities in various spheres of the society, economy and politics, ignoring the principle of separation of powers and of the Constitutional Court’s decisions, unfulfilment of the ECHR requirements, discriminations, intimidations, kidnappings, threats and attempts against the life of people, etc. On the other hand, due to all these factors, the citizens became more uncertain and indifferent, they trust even less the state institutions and the law enforcement agencies. They lost their faith in a fair and correct justice. The economic agents express their fright towards the control bodies of the state and a great part of the civil society became indifferent towards all that happens around. All state institutions declare themselves true defenders of the human rights, but, in fact, most of citizens have to stand for weeks behind the doors of the bureaucrats in order to obtain what they legally owns. Taking into account the situation from the judiciary system, where sometimes the judges emit decisions contrary to legislation, citizens’ rights and interests. This fact usually determines the people to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights. All the hopes and the task to improve the current situation on put on the shoulders of the youth. They have been educated and grown up in other conditions that those of their parents, they have another mentality, another way of thinking and that is why, they are expected and should take the opportunity to make a qualitative transformation in the Republic of Moldova. Till then, the efforts of the independent press, intellectuality, civil society and opposition parties, international and European bodies are still limited and reduce their activities just to the monitoring of the situation or protesting against the most serious abuses and violations of the human rights. To a great extent, the human rights and liberties remain neglected or manipulated by the current governance. In the course of the year 2002, the Republic of Moldova has drawn the council of Europe attention due to a lot of deviations from the democratic principles and norms. So, the Chisinau authorities succeeded to mime the fulfilment of the PACE Resolutions. Even the second PACE Resolution could not make the Republic of Moldova honour its engagements assumed towards the European forum. Thus, the „Teleradio-Moldova” State Company was not transformed in a public institution, the censor from the governmental Media continues and the intentions of the governance with regard to the territorial-administrative reform will be realised in spring, the relationships between the opposition and the power remains tensioned, the case of Cubreacov and Dimitrov disappearance and appearance was not solved and elucidated yet, the persecution of inconvenient persons continues etc. These are only some stipulations insecured by the Moldovan authorities. Finally, it should be outlined that the Council of Europe has to preserve its role of a “policeman” in regard to the Republic of Moldova, a role that is extremely important for the development and edification of a state governed by the rule of law. In order to enlighten such a state the Republic of Moldova need, first of all, the normal solving of the Transdniestrian conflict, taking into account the whole spectre of opinions and the continuation of the democratic reforms. The continuation of monitoring the ensuring of the human rights by Moldovan authorities remains a necessity for the society and civil society of the Republic of Moldova, as well as for the peace and silence in the region.

45 League for Defence of Human Rights of Moldova (LADOM) PART II II. Reports on the implementation of the PACE Resolution 1280 (2002)

2.1. R E P O R T on the course of implementation of the PACE Resolution clauses from April 24, 2002 by the Republic of Moldova

The League for Defence of Human Rights of Moldova (LADOM) is a public, non-political, non- governmental and non-profit organisation registered at the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Moldova on 776 position on March 17 1997. LADOM is member-correspondent of the International Federation of Human Rights (Paris-France). The present Report is a continuation of the LADOM Reports on the monitoring the ensuring of human rights in the Republic of Moldova (www: lado.ngo.md). As a result of the unleashing of the antigovernment protests by the parliamentary opposition (Christian Democratic Popularly Party (CDPP), extraparliamentary (Social-Liberal Party etc.), as well as by a considerable segment of the civil society in the period of 9 January – 28 April, on the one hand, and the unwillingness of the governing party to carry negotiations, on the other hand, the political climate of the Republic of Moldova at the beginning of 2002 exposed the peace, stability and the democratic values to danger. In order to alleviate the tension between the both parties, the supervision of the events by the Council of Europe Raporteurs and then the monitoring of the situation during the special session of the parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe has allowed the “separation” of parties, so that leaving them the possibility of conciliation and analysing their behaviour one towards the other, as well as towards the problems having generated the state of conflicts. After the Ministry of Education’s decision to introduce the study of the Russian Language as an obligatory discipline in national schools, and then the decision on replacing the study of the Romanian history with that of Moldova History as well as the government intention to confer the Russian language the status of official language has generated a wave of protests on behalf of the youth and their teachers, intellectuals and other categories of population who have been protesting for more than three months and a half in winter – spring conditions. Pursuant to the PACE Resolution, the CDPP has ceased the protesting actions. The term allotted for the fulfilment of the Resolution’s stipulations is up to end but they have been not met yet and it would be reasonable for the Government to draft a timetable and a plan and to follow it strictly. Let’s analyse the current situation: The High European Forum stated that the sanctions applied to participants in the protest manifestations are directly disproportionate to the insinuated facts, considering that the deprivation of the organisers of parliamentary immunity is a very contestable thing in a democratic state. Meantime, the Republic of Moldova authorities has been undertaking no actions in this respect. During this period, the cases of the three CDPP deputies were not classed but only suspended. The speaker of the General Prosecutor’s Office of the Republic of Moldova has mentioned that “The resolution holds a recommendation character and the national stipulation does not provide for the cease of the cases similar to these “. The same source related that the administrative cases sued to Iurie Rosca and Stefan Secareanu are under investigation now. At his turn, Vitalie Nagacevschi, the chairman of “The Lawyers for human Rights “ Association has stated that “the current communist governance makes all the possible not to implement the PACE recommendations ”. At the beginning of this month some citizens of the Căuşeni municipality have been brought to trial for having organised and participated in illegal manifestations. The Resolution states that the political opposition has it rights that must be consolidated and respected. At the same time, PACE reminds that the national laws must be in accordance with the principles and norms of the Council of Europe. The opposition’s rights have not been established yet. And, if some

46 Report on the ensuring of human rights and liberties in the Republic of Moldova in 2002 days before the Parliamentary Assembly session, the president of the Republic of Moldova, Mr. V. Voronin referred to the possibility of conferring the opposition some emission space at the national TV, then after 24 April this theme ceased to be approached. It is no news that there are a series of the Republic of Moldova laws not corresponding to the international standards, but it is much regrettable when the newly adopted laws (the Civil Code) do not conform to them. At the same time, the government opinions towards the necessity for implementing the PACE recommendations differ from situation to situation and from day to day. The Christian-democratic deputy Vlad Cubreacov was released from forced detention but this event is not the merit if the investigators. More over, the investigation on finding and bringing to trial the authors of the kidnapping is carried out in a very mysterious way. Another important problem necessary for the alleviation of the conflict between the government and the opposition is the reorganisation of the “Teleradio Moldova” state enterprise in public institution. At the Teleradio Moldova the censorship continues so that the participation of political persons and specialists from the opposition in different synthesis and analysis shows, debates and talk-shows is not possible. Although the governance had promised to reorganise the institution, it only made some changes in the structure of the staff, so, the director of the institution being recently replaced with a person more loyal to the communist governing party. The project on the reorganisation of the institution proposed by the opposition was rejected just from the start. Thus, we have all the reasons to believe that this objective won’t be met till 31 June either. The political dialogue between the parties was not established, although by the end of the month of April this seemed to be possible. During a TV report, the president of the country who is at the same time the president of the Communist Party, addressed obvious threats to protesters, and the prime- minister emitted an order that stipulates the official use of the expression “Moldovan language”, although, according to the PACE Resolution a moratorium might be organised. The government did not announce the organisation of a moratorium on the issues related to the reforms regarding the study of history and of the Russian language as an obligatory discipline in national schools and its status either. The problem of revising the stipulations of the Law on the status of deputy in the Parliament from 1994 as regard to the deprivation of the parliamentary immunity and revoking the parliamentary mandate was not referred to although it was required by the PACE. The recommendations related to the revision of the Law on audio-visuals and to the transforming of the Teleradio-Moldova in a public independent institution were not taken into consideration. Certainly, the executing of the ECHR decision on the problem of the Basarabian Church (Mitropolia Basarabiei) represents the most decisive problem. After the Moldovan president’s visit to Moscow, where he had a meeting with the Russian president and with his Majesty Alexii II, and then in Chisinau with Metropolitan Bishop Vladimir we can often hear about the unwillingness of registering the Basarabian Church. Meantime, the Government has adopted the Decision “on the religious edifices and places”, aiming (in the view of the journalists from the “Capitala” newspaper, 8.06.2002) at regulating the ways of establishing the status of ownership over the religious edifices and places situated on the territory of the Republic of Moldova. This decision was contested from the start by the priests and believers of the Basarabian Church who consider that in such a way the authorities intend to transfer a series of laces being ander the administration of the Basarabian Church under the administration of the Moldavian Church. The communist governance did not revise the Parliament regulation related to the enlargement of the opposition rights as it was provided for in the PACE Resolution. The planned “round table” meeting with the participation of representatives of all political parties, including the extraparliamentary formations, was not organised either. The situation with the local autonomy is not better. The Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe, which has recently adopted a resolution related to the local autonomy in the Republic of Moldova, calls the Chisinau authorities to ensure the stipulations of the European Charter of local Autonomy. Meantime, the chairman of the National League of Mayors’ Associations, Vasile Balan, declared that the local authorities no- conformation to the PACE recommendations on local

47 League for Defence of Human Rights of Moldova (LADOM) administration will generate a new wave of protests. Balan also declared that although the implementation of the administrative-territorial reform was formally stopped, the central authorities continues its implementation.

As to the adoption of new Codes and Laws, required by the Council of Europe, we can mention that due to the intransparency of the processes of legislation adoption, they are adopted without taking into account the opinions of the specialists in the field, so that breaching upon the adoption proceedings and committing a lot of errors. The weekly newsletter “Timpul” referred to a similar case in its issue from 31 May, 2002. Mr. .Nicolae Rosca, lecturer at the USM Law Department, expert of the special commission for the perfecting of the Civil Code, states that the draft of the code developed by the commission was presented for legal expertise to international bodies, but the Parliament has adopted another Code. He also mentioned that the new Civil Code adopted by the Parliament and promulgated by the president is a normative act containing a lot of imperfections, which will be evident only after 5-10 years. A series of normative acts adopted by the Parliament majority group is also contested. In this respect, we can mention the opinion of the World Bank experts when evaluating the national legal and judiciary framework of the Republic of Moldova on 12 June, 2002 The opposition has ensured its obligation in a week after the Resolution, taking off all the tents from the centre of the city. Now it is the turn of the governance to justify the public opinion confidence and hopes.

LADOM recommendations: 1. The unconditioned fulfilment of the PACE Resolution on the Republic of Moldova. 2. Continuing the monitoring of the R. Moldova situation by the Council of Europe. 3. Initiating a constructive dialogue between the Communist power and the Opposition having as mediators the experts of international organisations and the civil society. 4. Adopting a Program of supporting the implementation of the obligations assumed by the Republic of Moldova.

48 Report on the ensuring of human rights and liberties in the Republic of Moldova in 2002

2.2. REPORT on the implementation of the PACE resolution from 24 April 2002 by the Republic of Moldova

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe has expressed its deep concern about the events having developed in the Republic of Moldova since 9 January 2002. Concerned about the continuous degradation and radicalisation of the political climate that put at risk the country’s stability, the Parliamentary Assembly adopted on 24 April 2002 the Resolution which called the Republic of Moldova authorities and the representatives of the opposition to initiate a constructive dialogue in order to overcome the political crisis and recommended them a series of clear and concrete stipulations. Thus, the dead line for the implementation of these stipulations was 31 July 2002.

After the adoption of the PACE Resolution from 24 April 2002, the vice-chairman of the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova, Mr. Vadim Misin, affirmed that “even the term “recommendations” does not oblige the Republic of Moldova to meet them “. Other leaders of the governing party have also affirmed that they disagree with this decision, but they should fulfil it. The Governmental press accused the Council of Europe of “interfering in the internal affairs of the Republic of Moldova “.

Once the dead line for the implementation of the PACE Resolution is over, the League for Defence of Human Rights of Moldova writes the present Report meant to emphasise the fulfilment of the recommendations stipulated in the PACE Resolution by the Republic of Moldova and their impact on the current events in the Republic of Moldova.

Art. 1. The Assembly expresses its deep concern about the events having developed since 9 January 2002 in the Republic of Moldova and about the continuous degradation and radicalisation of the political climate which puts at risk the state stability.

LADOM: Immediately after the adoption of the present recommendations of the PACE Resolution, the representatives of the governance, as well as of the opposition have initiated public debates in the country and during their visits to Strasbourg. The result of these debates was positive only for the image of tensioning the political situation in Chisinau. But during the three months of debates the parties have been also accusing each other of violating the democratic principles and prior promises and of “attempting the state’s statality”. After the OSCE proposal of federalisation of the Republic of Moldova, having quite different vision towards the realisation of this project (federalisation), the fight between the power and opposition retook its force. Such a thing can lead to the re-beginning of the manifestations of protest next autumn. Thus, the Popular Christian- Democratic Party announced on the 31 August the Great Assembly of Electors, but this manifestation was considered illegal, because the Chisinau Mayoralty did not authorised it on the ground that for this day feast actions have been planned (31 August is the National Holiday “Our Romanian Language “). The PCDP leader, Iurie Rosca declared that he had expected a „special meeting “ with the Chisinau mayor, Serafim Urecheanu, in order to „identify a solution which could make possible the cooperation between the Mayoralty and the Parliamentary Christian-democratic group”.

A bit later, on 12 August, the Chisinau mayoralty approved the repeated demand of the Christian- democratic group, accepting the manifestations for 1 September. The vice-mayor of Chisinau, Anatol Onceanu, mentioned that according to the latest modifications to the law on organisation of mass manifestations, the Mayoralty can interdict their development only in the case when “the police brings convincing proofs that the meeting can conclude in violations of the current legislation or can have grave consequences for the society “. According to Onceanu, the proofs brought by the police in the given case were not convincing.

49 League for Defence of Human Rights of Moldova (LADOM)

When solicited to comment the decision of the mayoralty, the Minister of Justice Ion Morei, declared that the parliamentary opposition or other forces of the opposition will search various pretexts in order to destabilise the social-politic situation in the country. All the decisions adopted, or which will be adopted in the future by the so-called Great National Assemblies have no legal values, because the legislation does not stipulate the modality of organising the Great National Assembly.

In this respect, it should be mentioned that the latest manifestation of this kind took place on 31 March this year, but on that day there have been registered a lot of violations of the human rights and liberties committed by the state power that impeded by different means the coming of citizens in Chisinau.

Art. 2 The manifestations organised by the Popular Christian-Democratic Party (PCDP) have been developing for more that three months and a half in the centre of the Chisinau city. After a confused period of time, these manifestations, considered illegal by the Governmental authorities and judiciary instances, lead to sanctions obviously disproportional in relation with the charged facts. The Assembly considers the privation of Parliamentary immunity of the PCDP leaders a quite contestable fact in a state ruled by democracy.

LADOM: The protesting manifestations were stopped immediately after the adoption of the PACE Resolution, thus offering the Moldovan governance and leaders of the Parliamentary and extra- Parliamentary opposition the chance to solve the emerged disputes in a peaceful way and to respect the democratic principles and the PACE recommendations.

Art. 3 The Assembly recognises and is satisfied by the fact that the authorities, which did not imply the force against the protesters, knew how to stop the process of these reforms. It considers that the organisers, thought as acting in illegality, and a lot of other participants in the manifestations have been prosecuted and sued at law, or have been subjected to pressure, as it was done with the minors

LADOM: Immediately after the anti -communist protests, the Government began a campaign against the Lyceum “Prometeu”. This is an elite educational institution, the tax for the studies is quite high. It has a very good professional staff which uses the most modern ways and methods of teaching. Because of the fact that the teachers, pupils and their parents had a very clear attitude towards the modification related to the changes in the linguistic and historical fields, and manifested protests against these modifications, they have been subjected to pressure from behalf of the communist governance. Thus, on 10 December 2001, the Government abrogated the Decision no. 685 from 9 December 1991 on the modification of the Government Decision from 29 November 1991 on the opening of the Experimental Lyceum of Creativity and Inventions “Prometeu”, on the ground that the given decision is in contradiction with the Constitution. On 10 June 2002 the Government decided the re-entering into force of the Decision no. 685 from 9 December 1991. The press declared that the Government got involved in the internal affairs of a private institution. In fact, this conflict has a civil character, and the divergences must be solved by the legal instances, but, it seems that the governance aims at destroying this lyceum. According to the opinion of the national experts and specialists in the field, the state implied psychical tortures on the participants in the anti-communists actions of protest. Thus, the doctor of the Medical Centre of Rehabilitation of the Torture’s Victims “Memoria”, Ludmila Popovici, stated that the state

50 Report on the ensuring of human rights and liberties in the Republic of Moldova in 2002 implied psychical tortures on pupils who took part in the protest manifestations. Ludmila Popovici made this declaration during a press-conference devoted to the UN International Day in the Support of the Victims of Torture (26 June). According to her, the current governance “frightened the protesters “. She also denied the opinion of the investigators of the Cubreacov case, who stated that he was not subjected to torture. She declared that Cubreacov, as well as his family have been subjected to strong and hard psychological tortures. The head of the press service of the Prosecutor’s Office, Iacob Guja, declared that the actions of prosecuting the pupils is not a psychical torture, the investigators behaving correctly and in accordance with the current legislation.

On 31 Ma 2002 Gheorghe Sima, the minister of education, had a meeting with 8 teachers and sportsmen from the Republican Lyceum of sportive profile who had signed on 23 April a declaration of solidarity with the anti- communist protests from the Great Assembly Square. The minister asked for explanations of the reasons which determined the teachers to sign the declaration. Nicolae Stepu, Ion Mereuta, Gheorghe Gamurari and Alexei Colin stated that “We think that we did not politics, but defended some national values “. Sima also invited to the meeting the director of the lyceum, Sergiu Busuioc. Later, according to some sources, the director of the lyceum was warned that he could be resigned.

The declaration from 23 April was signed by 26 sportsmen, most of them been international, European and national champions.

Meantime, the Chisinau press states that the governance is preparing for interfering in the eventual protest manifestations from this autumn. Thus, as a reply of the opposition’s declaration, according to which the manifestations will be re-begun if the governance does not honour its commitments, the President Voronin, during the TV program “The President’s Hour “, threatened the opposition with the use of force in case of another wave of protests. On 17 June 2002 the Minister of Interior developed the first step of instructing the minister’s collaborators in case of some mass revolts and delimited the actions of the policemen in such cases.

On 27 July the President of the country had a meeting with the minister of justice, General Prosecutor and General Director of the Information and Security Service of Moldova. The discussion focussed on the state and level of the force structures’ training in case of eventual protests and revolts.

Art. 4 It reminds that in a democracy each citizen and elector has, at the same time, its rights and obligations, beginning with the ensuring of the law. The political opposition has its rights which must be consolidated and respected. At the same time, the Assembly reminds that the laws must be in accordance with the principles and norms of the Council of Europe.

LADOM: On 25 July this year, the Parliament made some modifications to the Law on the statute of the deputy. According to these modifications, the deputies will have the right to organise protesting actions, meetings, demonstrations, manifestations and other peaceful meetings only in the case they will have the authorisation of the local public authorities. The Christian-democratic deputy, Vlad Cubreacov declared that he will ask the Constitutional Court to check the constitutionality of these modifications and their compatibility with the European legal framework in this domain. “These modifications run counter the European Convention of Human Rights joint by Moldova, as well as to the PACE Resolution from 24 April 2002, in which the European Forum insisted upon the enlargement and not narrowing of the opposition’s rights “, stated Vlad Cubreacov. According to him, this modification “is directly related to the PCDP intention to organise on 31 August a Great National Assembly of Electors”. “The Communists are afraid of peaceful, open and free manifestations, regardless of whom will organise them “, added Cubreacov.

51 League for Defence of Human Rights of Moldova (LADOM)

The vice-chairman of the Parliament, the communist deputy Vadim Mişin mentioned during the Legislative meeting that the affirmations about the violation of the PACE Resolution are groundless and have no legal basis. Misin stated that if the PCDP do not agree with these amendments, they could contest them at the Constitutional Court or at the European Court for Human Rights.

The Deputy from the “Alianţa Braghiş” Party, Valeriu Plesca, vice-chairman of the Parliamentary Legal Commission for names and immunities and the leader of the “Forţa Nouă” formation, being in a parliamentary visit to Brussels, stated that he would not come back to RM, until he and his family are persecuted. But the deputy came home after he received guaranties from behalf of the state governance. During a press-conference Plesca mentioned that at the back of his persecutions are “persons who, causing scandals from the shadow, solve their group problems and interests, including the political ones “.

Later on he declared that the persecutions continued after his return from Brussels. According to Plesca, on Friday, 19 July, the headquarter of the “Forţa Nouă” social –politic movement, as well as of the “Angi Company” and “Steaua Grup” firms, belonging to him, have been searched by 10 policemen. Plesca did not exclude the fact that the searches “have been ordered by persons from the other bank of the Nistru”, and he expressed his doubts that this thing can be related to the regulation of the Transdniestrian conflict. Plesca stated that he will fight with all these searches through all possible legal means.

The „Timpul” Businessmen Club submitted a declaration to the President of the Republic of Moldova which asked the President to stop the persecution campaign against his leader, Vladimir Babii, and other businessmen from Moldova, assuming the right to criticise in an objective way the unjust decisions of the governance and to defend the rights and honour of the club members through all legal means.

Babii is also the leader of the „Plai Natal” political formation, participating in the Parliamentary elections from 25 February 2001. This political formation is an independent political formation and most of its members are businessmen.

In our opinion, the most serious moment is the fact that the representatives of the governing party and their leader, the President of the country, qualified the protesting manifestations as activities organised and supported by “uneducated people “, “wild men “, and “pack”.

Art. 5 Deeply moved by the disappearance of Vlad Cubreacov, member of the Parliamentary Assembly from 1996, it requires the Moldovan authorities to begin a rapid, transparent and complete investigation of this case and to inform regularly the family of Vlad Cubreacov and the Parliament and Council of Europe about the course of investigation.

LADOM: The Christian-democratic deputy Vlad Cubreacov was released on 25 May 2002. The appearance of the deputy is considered as mysterious as his disappearance. Thus, it can be stated that the stipulation of the present article of PACE Resolution was fulfilled, but this fact is not the merit of the state bodies of the Republic of Moldova and the lack of any results of the investigation can prove this fact. The picture – robots of the kidnappers have been made, but the investigators refuse to release them to the press, so being accused of lack of operativity necessary so much in such cases.

On 29 May 2002 the head of the public relations of the Ministry of Interior, Chiril Motpan, announced his resignation on the ground that he was forced to release false information about the discovery of Vlad Cubreacov. Lt. col. Motpan stated during the press-conference from 25 May that Cubreacov was found on the route Dubasari-Cosnita by a group of policemen “involved in a prophylactic activity

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“. According to Motpan, these affirmations are not veritable. “The professional dignity and the spirit of journalist make me declare that I was forced by the high officials from the institution I am working in to desinform the national and international public opinion “, declared Motpan. He said that he doesn’t know the reasons which made those persons to solicit the offering of false information to journalists. After a short period of time after the declarations made on 25 February by Motpan, Vlad Cubreacov affirmed that he was the first who addressed the policemen and not vice-versa. Because of the lack of any official information, the press tried independently to find the truth.

The press noticed the discrepancy between the official report of the police on the discovery of Cubreacov and his own declarations. Neither the Ministry of Interior, nor the investigation team made any official declarations. The investigators did not precise the time they could be able to offer some relevant conclusions. The Prosecutor of Chisinau, Petru Bobu, declared in an interview for the radio centre “Free Europe” that the investigators cannot establish a dead line for the offering of some relevant conclusions. The investigation still continues.

On 4 July Vlad Cubreacov asked the requalification of the dossier opened on 22 March after his kidnapping and distrait. Addressing his interpellation to the Prosecutor of Chisinau, Petru Bobu, the deputy emphasised that he is forced to make it „in an official manner”, because all the previous petitions have been not answered, although a lot of time passed. The problem lies in art. 89 of the Penal Code of RM, on the commitment of a murder. „After 40 days from my release, it is quite obvious that I am alive, but from the legal point of view I continue to be considered a dead person who must give evidence about his proper death which did not take place “, mentioned Cubreacov. Vlad Cubreacov reiterated his petitions, made in written form, on the involvement of other witnesses (official persons), who „are related to this case and made some public affirmations “. “Otherwise, I am entitled to believe that the Prosecutor’s Office of Chisinau ignores my person as a deputy, as a witness, as well as the stipulations of the law on the examination of each petition “.

Immediately after his release, Vlad Cubreacov met with his family and colleagues. In some days he was hospitalised and during his stay in the hospital he was visited by a lot of friends and colleagues. Jan Marinus Wiersma, co-president of the cooperation group between Moldova and European Union, being with a delegation at that time in Chisinau, has also visited him. On this occasion, Vlad Cubreacov mentioned: “The members of EU delegation are the first officials who have visited me since I was released. The European deputies have been documenting, in particular, upon my disappearance “. From the discussions with the European officials, we can conclude that the communists leaders protected him exceedingly, affirming that he is in a serious health state and it would be better not to bother him. Nevertheless, at the insistence of European delegation the meeting took place. Meantime, no one from the state governance visited the Christian-democratic deputy, only the chairman of the Parliament, Eugenia Ostapciuc addressed him a greeting letter.

Later on, Vlad Cubreacov mentioned that he is sure that someone permanently kept an eye on him, he was monitored, and he did not exclude the fact that this was done by some special services of the state, because his permanent observance was done in a great tension for him. It is clear that the medium was very hostile and the observation was a compulsory element of it. He also added that no one else, except the representatives of the state structure could afford to do this. Cubreacov also mentioned that he is sure that all his phone calls are under permanent supervision, as well as of the others civil servants.

Art. 6 The absence of the progress in the investigation of the case which has lasted more than a month can raise doubts on the good intentions expressed for the elucidation of this case. The Government and even the President’s credibility are put at risk.

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LADOM: The unfolding of the investigation, carried out by the prosecutors who are trying to find out the author of kidnapping Vlad Cubreacov in March, lasts more than 4 months but without any results. But Cubreacov complaints on the fact that the secret services are listening all his phone calls and the Chisinau prosecutor refuses to interrogate the persons who, according to Cubreacov opinion, can owe information about his kidnapping. These persons are the leader of the Democratic Party, Dumitru Diacov and the present President of the „Teleradio-Moldova” State Company, ex-editor- in- chief of the Governmental newspaper „Moldova Suverană”, Ion Gonta.

Previously, Vlad Cubreacov solicited the Prosecutor’s Office to interrogate of the leaders of the governing party as witnesses. Cubreacov did this fact after the Prosecutor’s press-conference during which he stated that he is not enabled to initiate interrogations of the first state officials without the Cubreacov demand in this respect. But, till now, neither the leaders of the governing party have been interrogated, nor Dumitru Diacov and Ion Gonta.

Although 4 months have passed since the disappearance of Cubreacov and 2 since his enigmatic appearance, the investigation developed by the most professional staff in this domain (as it was mentioned at the beginning of the investigation by the authorities) made no public conclusions or results that could elucidate the truth about the whereabouts of Cubreacov and about the authors of the crime. So, the offenders remained unpunished.

Because of the lack of official information regarding the disappearance and appearance of the Moldovan deputy, the local and international press initiated independent journalistic investigations of the case. Thus, an original version was presented by the RomNET press agency from Bucharest a short time before the deputy’s release: „Although the official bodies who are investigating this case refuse to recognise that the secret services know about the whereabouts of Vlad Cubreacov, the new data confirm their involvement in the process of kidnapping the Christian-democratic deputy. According to some sources of the Security and Information Service, before the disappearance of Cubreacov, the head of the Federal Security Service, Nicolai Patrusev, coordinator of all secret services from the Russian Federation paid a short and secret visit to Chisinau. This fact was not reported in the local press. The aim and the agreements between N. Patrusev and Moldovan authorities are unknown. According to the same sources, a short time after Patrusev left the country, in the period 19 - 22 March this year, exactly in the period of Cubreacov disappearance, the Republic of Moldova was visited in great secrecy by a team of the “Alfa” group from the Russian FSB. The Security and Information Service from Chisinau refuses to reveal the aims of the Russian commander’s visit to Moldova. He is entitled to develop special actions in the ex-soviet space.

Representatives of the investigation team state that the video-cassette with recordings taken in the night when Cubreacov was kidnapped disappeared. The video camera was installed on the headquarter of the Turkish-Romanian Bank in Chisinau near the house in which Cubreacov lives” (21.03).

On 5 August, after a long period of pause, the prosecutor Bobu reappeared in the press (on the occasion of the Dimitrov disappearance) and accused Cubreacov of non-cooperation with the investigation team and that he went to Romania for a medical treatment without announcing them just at the moment the investigation was near its end. The lawyer of Cubreacov, Vitalie Nagacevschi mentioned that the investigation organs are guilty of the fact that they did not fulfil some agreements stipulated in the contract between the both parties, and, namely they did not announce them in written form about their intentions related to the further development of the investigation and did not invite him to take part in certain special action. Nagacevschi also stated that they didn’t receive any official act from behalf of the investigation organs.

Meantime, on 2 August 2002, the vice-director of the Informational Technologies Department from Chisinau, Mr. Petru Dimitrov disappeared. The Prosecutor of Chisinau, Petru Bobu mentioned that he cannot release information related to the process of investigation of the given case and about the

54 Report on the ensuring of human rights and liberties in the Republic of Moldova in 2002 environs of Dimitrov kidnaping, but he added that Dimitrov was kidnapped with the aim of getting a reward or it was related to the professional activity of the victim.

Another case from this chain occurred in the evening of 1 August, at 1.00 when it is supposed that someone tried to attempt the President’s life. The case was discovered in the morning by a scavenger who found near the President’s house some used cartridges. The investigators went to the given place only at 8 o’clock in the morning, and the representatives of the General Prosecutor’s House at 10.00. On this occasion, the President affirmed that probably this thing was made as protest from behalf of the persons who are opposing the federalisation of the Republic of Moldova or it was caused by his attitude as a President towards the fight with corruption.

The opposition (as well as, informally, sources from the general Prosecutor’s Office) states that this case, with all its arguments, is nothing else that a simulation aimed at increasing the Presidents reputation and at hiding the vague results of the communists in comparison with the great promises before the electoral campaign. According to the opposition and independent press, another explanation could be the beginning of the fight between different currents within the governing party.

Art. 7 “The Assembly thinks that the extension of the protesting movement of the journalists and workers from the “Teleradio-Moldova” expresses the stringent necessity to proceed urgently to reforms, in order to guarantee the freedom of speech and to promote a public service of radiobroadcasting. It calls the authorities to stop (to put an end) the practice of censure in TV programs and to organise debates between all political parties, parliamentary and extra- parliamentary opposition. It invites the Government and the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova to initiate immediately the process of transforming “Teleradio-Moldova” in a public independent organ;

LADOM: Till now the censure continues to persist at all TV and radio centres. The opposition has no access to the programs of these state centres. Public debates of analytical programs are not aired at all.

Art. 8 It is declared concerned about the aggravation of the internal situation in Gagauzia and deterioration of the institutional relations between Comrat and Chisinau. It warns the authorities of both sides about the risks of a new instability hotbed in Moldova. It makes a call to the cease of its tensioning.

LADOM: After a series of events occurred within the administration organs in Comrat, generated by the “involvement” of the central power from Chisinau at the beginning of this year, on 6 October the “Gagauz Yeri” Territorial Administrative Unity decided upon the organisation of the elections of the administrator of this region. It should be reminded that, at the beginning the former administrator Dumitru Croitor resigned after being accused by the central power of the autonomy of running some financial illegal affairs. Some time ago he was named by the Chisinau Government as the Moldovan representative to the International Organisation of Commerce, but he was not accepted as Ambassador of the Republic of Moldova to Switzerland. On this occasion, during a meeting held in Gagauzia the President declared that Croitor was not accepted because he is under penal investigation in his own country. Regardless of all circumstances, at the beginning of July the prime minister Tarlev commanded the preparation of all necessary acts for naming Croitor the Ambassador of Moldova to Switzerland and Moldova representative to the International Organisation of Commerce.

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The administrator Dumitru Croitor states that the reason of his resignation is the aggravation of the social-political situation in the Gagauz autonomy and the worsening of relations between the executive and legislative local power in the region. “The deputies of the Popularly Assembly have created an unbearable situation which risks to transform into an open confrontation between the people from the autonomy’s localities”, stated Croitor in his declaration. In his opinion, the real cause of the created situation is the intentions of the communist governance of the Republic of Moldova to place their persons in all representative organs of the autonomy.

As a consequence, stated Croitor, the main cause that determined his resignation was the accusation from behalf of the majority group of deputies from the Popularly Assembly of funds embezzlement, but these accusations have not been confirmed by the group of European experts and General Prosecutor’s Office.

In the middle of July, the interim administrator of Gagauzia, Valeri Ianioglo, sent an appeal to the Republic of Moldova governance, which is a guarantee of ensuring the legislation on the special legal status of the autonomy and solicited the “appreciation and prevention of the illegal actions from behalf of some deputies from the Popularly Assembly, in order to bring its activity on a legal field”. During the last session of the legislative body diffused on 10 July the decision on the naming of the interim chairman of the executive, on the resignation of the administrator and formation of the executive was adopted. These decisions run counter the current legislation. In Ianioglo’s opinion, the Popularly Assembly from Comrat has outrun its empowerment. According to the current legislation, it is not empowered to name the interim chairman of the executive, because the administrator must be elected by the whole population from the region. The legislation does not stipulate the function of the President. The appeal states that it is not within the competence of the PA to adopt or reject the benevolent resignation of the administrator. In such cases, PA can establish a central electoral commission and the date of new elections for the election of the administrator. PA has the right only to approve of the make-up of the executive which is presented by the administrator. During a meeting with the mayors of the autonomy’s localities Ivan Kristioglo, the chairman of the legislative body, named by the deputies the chairman of the executive, stated that “conferring the function of the head of Gagauzia to the PA chairman is a non-standard but legal action “.

The Moldovan press supposed that at the beginning of this year the Chisinau authorities began a campaign against the Gagauz administrator, because he was suspected of collaboration with the separatist regime from Tiraspol. Although, the authorities from Comrat dare sometimes to behave inadequately in relation with some decisions of the central organs. thus, the Popularly Assembly from Comrat adopted a decision which declared a decision of the Constitutional Court of Moldova as being without legal value on the Gagauzia territory . The Gagauz regional legislative contested the CC decision on the unconstitutionality of some stipulations of the Law on national minorities. These stipulates provided that the names of localities inhabited by minorities, as well as the names of the streets and public institutions should be in Romanian or Russian languages, as well as some modifications to the legislation on the acts regarding the civil state made by Moldovan communists. The Court decided that the name of localities, streets, as well as the acts regarding the civil state should be written only in Romanian. The Gagauz deputies qualified this decision as faulty, which “violates the human rights and the collective right of the Gagauz people”. In their opinion, the execution of the CC decision “can have negative consequences for the unity of the Republic of Moldova people, territorial integrity and politic perspectives of the state “. Ion Sofronie, the speaker of the CC, declared that the decision adopted on Tuesday by the Gagauz regional legislative reveals the legal nihilism of the Comrat deputies and proves their attitude lacking any legal principles. He precised that in the legal framework of the Republic of Moldova, the CC decisions are obligatory for all state institutions, without any exception. The Gagauz deputies announced that they will send their decision to the Chisinau authorities, OSCE mission and to all diplomatic representances accredited in Moldlova.

On 28 May 2002 the Constitutional Court decided the postponing of the Draft Law of the 71 communist deputies on the constitutional legalisation of the UTA „Gagauz-Yeri”. The session was postponed

56 Report on the ensuring of human rights and liberties in the Republic of Moldova in 2002 after the given project had been already examined. The CC session was interrupted by the guardian who was trying to call the vice-chairman of the Parliament, Vadim Misin, for a telephone conversation with the President of the country, Vladimir Voronin. At that moment Misin was not present at the conference and it was Victor Stepaniuc, another representative of the communist party who spoke to Voronin. After the discussion with the President, Stepaniuc solicited the postponing of the project’s examination, justifying that the CC must acquaint itself with the note of the Venice Commission for Democracy through Right. CC postponed the examination without notifying the time it will be re- examined, but asked Stepaniuc to present similar notes from behalf of the Council of Europe and other international organisms. Stepaniuc stated that, by legalising through the Constitution the Gagauz autonomy “nothing special will happen, but only a legal basis for creating an autonomy within the Republic of Moldova “. In this way “the Constitution will grant greater guarantees to the autonomy “.

At the journalists’ solicitation to comment the situation, Stepaniuc said that he was “frustrated” that CC was not acquainted with the note of the Venice Commission. He mentioned that the communist deputies are interested in the “quality of this project “ and he solicited the postponing of the project examination on the ground that he needs a complete note from behalf of the Constitutional Court. He also said that the position of the Venice Commission is “to a great extent positive”. After 8 years since the adoption of a special statute for the Gagauz autonomy, it is worth and has the right to be sanction in the Constitution, more over that the Republic of Moldova has some elements of federalism. He qualified the problem of territorial reintegration as “concrete steps of compromise”, but does not keep to the idea that this action could offer the chance and possibility for other ethnic groups to create autonomies within the Republic of Moldova. As regard to the right of the Popularly Assembly of the Gaguz autonomy to legislative initiative, Stepaniuc said that this is a “very serious right “. He declared that the project tabled to the CC was sufficiently negotiated with the officials from Comrat and that the current governance of the PA “agrees with the variant proposed by the communists”. In this respect, it should be mentioned that after the launch of the project of federalisation of the Republic of Moldova by OSCE, Russia şi Ukraine, the Gagauz authorities wanted the UTA “Gagauz Yeri” to become equal part in the process of negotiations.

A serious problem in this region remains the use of the Russian language as the main language of communication and study, ignoring in this way the language of the majority of the population – the Gagauz language, and especially, the official language of the state - the Romanian language. It is worth mentioning that at the beginning of the 90’s, the Gagauz leaders pleaded for a greater independence from the Chisinau authorities, invoking several reasons for the maintenance and development of the Gagauz culture and identity as an ethnic minority. Now , the resistance from behalf of some officials from Comrat is much more obvious. On 24 June this year, Leonid Dobrov, the leader of the “Gagauz Halky” social-politic movement, founder of the Gagauz National University, began the hunger strike for an unlimited period. He protested in front of the Popularly Assembly headquarters. The reason of the protest lies in the Ministry of Education’ s refusal to release a license for the Gagauz National University. Leonid Dobrov protested also against the “denationalisation and russification of the Gagauz population by means of education and administration”, actions promoted by the central power from Chisinau, as well as by the regional power from Comrat. The activists from the “Gagauz Halky” organisation qualified the position of the Ministry of Education of Moldova as “a complete discrimination of the Gagauz language and culture “. Dobrov mentioned that “the governing authorities must not impose the study of the Russian language, because most of people from Moldova knows it. It is regretful that in kindergartens, schools, lyceums and higher institutions from Gagauzia the Russian language is studied. We would like to pass during the next years to the study in the Gagauz and Romanian languages, the later as official language needs more attention from behalf of the ethnic minorities. I’m speaking not of the total expelling of the Russian language from the educational system, but of its studying as a facultative subject, as a foreign language. I can state that we know quite well the Russian language and at the moment the Gagauz people need more the Gagauz and Romanian languages “.

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A week before, Leonid Dobrov together with other activists from the given movement have picketed the building of the Moldovan Government. They asked for the licence for the Gagauz National University, organisation of anticipated elections for all structures from the Gagauz autonomy and for meetings with the President Vladimir Voronin and prime-minister Vasile Tarlev.

In three days after the beginning of the strike, Mr. Dobrov gave up this idea, because the law enforcement agencies exerted pressure on his family on the ground that he must return a certain sum of money. According to Dobrov, even in the first day of the strike, his wife was visited at home by 3 judiciary officials, who, at the command of the Department for the execution of the courts’ decisions of the Ministry of Justice, intended to sequester all the goods belonging to Mr. Dobrov. Dobrov states that those 3 men are from the local bureau of the Information and Security Service from Comrat. The Ministry of Justice from Comrat did not comment the given incident.

On 13 August 2002 the press wrote that the Gagauz National University ceased its activity after less than a year from its opening. According to Dobrov, the suspending of the activity is due to the refusal of the Room of Licenses of the RM Government to legalise the activity of the University. Dobrov stated that he notified the Council of Europe that he was impeded to develop his didactic activities. He has also published in a local newspaper a declaration addressed to the Gagauz people in which he stated that the communist governance from Chisinau intended to liquidate the Gagauz autonomy, language and culture.

Art. 9 The Assembly, which has ascertained the absence of a real dialogue between the governing party and the political opposition, noticed the strong appeal from behalf of the civil society

LADOM: During the summer-spring session, the Christian-democratic deputies have made a series of “inconvenient interpellations” for the current governance. On this reason, the communists want to restrain the meaning of the term “interpellation”. Thus, the communist deputies intend to modify the current Parliament Regulation in order to restrain the meaning of the term “interpellation”. This proposal was put forth buy the communist deputy Andrei Neguta.

The PCDP leader, Iurie Rosca, solicited the General Prosecutor to check if the “Metal-Market” firm, which realised the restoration of the museum from the Dolna village, is governed by the businessman Oleg Voronin, the sun of the RM President. Rosca asked the prosecutor Vasile Rusu to find out if the sum of 5 million lei, transferred by the Russian company “Lukoil” to “Metal-Market” as a “sponsorship”, has been spent in accordance with the declared aim or there is an action of money laundering and corruption of the head of the state, which could favour the monopolising of the petrol market by the “Lukoil” company.

Rosca also insisted on the elucidation of the real reason of the modification made last year by the Parliament to the law on the import of the petrol products in the Republic of Moldova, because, according to the secret information, “these modifications were made after a secret agreement between Vladimir Voronin and the director of the “Lukoil” company, Vaghit Alikperov, in order to monopolise the petrol market from Moldova”. Rosca solicited this information which could prove the “possible bribery of the President Voronin with the help of his son, Oleg Voronin”.

Stefan Secareanu, PCDP deputy, also asked the relevant organs to check the information appeared in press concerning the “invasion of the Republic of Moldova territory by a network of petrol traffickers “, which prejudiced the state budget and on the money received bought armament from Transdniestria which was later transported to Chechnya.

Another interpellation to the General Prosecutor was made by the Christian-democratic deputy, Efim Zubcu. It was related to the process of investigating the case of the murder dated from 26 May 2001,

58 Report on the ensuring of human rights and liberties in the Republic of Moldova in 2002 of the director of the Markets Association from Balti municipality, Gheorghe Grumatchi. Zubcu stated that he owed some information, according to which some state officials made pressure on the case investigators in order to dispel all the suspicions of complicity of the current minister of justice, Ion Morei and of the deputy Victor Morev.

While commenting the communists’ intention to restrain the meaning of the term “interpellation” the Christian-democratic deputies stated that this was an abusive attempt of the governance to impede the opposition right to speaking. More over, “in this way the communists try to assure themselves that the illegalities committed be them could not be made public “. The communist power holds in its hands a very dangerous mafiotic octopus –a criminal network which buys illegally petrol products and on the won money to buy armament from Transdniestria and to export it in Chechnya, writes the opposition newspaper “Ţara”. It adds that, although they have been informed about these illegal actions, “the authorities from Chişinău did nothing in order to hamper it and the file is, practically, buried”. “All these prove that the traffickers are protected by the communist governance “, concludes the newspaper “Ţara”.

Later on, on 19 July 2002, the same publication informed the public opinion about the fact that after these interpellations and press articles some firms have been sued at law and was found guilty of the violation of the penal law.

The hostilities between the representatives of the governing party and opposition continued not only during the Parliament sessions but also in the mass-media. For example, during a radio program devoted to the drought from the Republic of Moldova, a representative of the communist party mentioned that “the reason of the drought was Iurie Rosca, who gathered the people during the spring in order to bring them to the protest manifestations “. When being asked “what is censure”, another representative of the governance said that he doesn’t know, but he is very sorry that Iurie Rosca forbade the broadcasting of the informative program “Mesenger” (at the national TV channel).

On 8 August 2002, the President of the Republic of Moldova had a meeting with representatives of 14 political parties and NGO’s and asked for a first evaluation of the concept of federalisation of the Republic of Moldova. The opposition (which does not agree with the federalisation of the RM) was not invited to the meeting which took place with the closed doors.

Art. 10 The Assembly is waiting for the political forces of Moldova to continue the veritable and constructive dialogue and to reach a compromise which should include the following principles:

I. a moratorium including simultaneously the ceasing from behalf of PCDP manifestations in order to initiate a politic dialogue, and the ceasing of prosecution of Iurie Rosca and Stefan Secareanu, which means that the Moldovan authorities must refrain from proceeding to another privation of the Parliamentary immunity of the Christian-democratic deputies.

LADOM: In order to intimidate and punish from the legal point of view the participants (mostly students) to the protecting manifestations, the communist majority from the Parliament completed the Code on the administrative offences with a new article – 170 (5) – entitled “involving the children in political activities “, establishing a punishment – the fine for the violation of this article – from 25 to 50 minimal salaries. In its first variant, the given article included also the phrase “involvement of children in political activities and their association in political organisation”, but after being reminded that this concerns also the association of children in organisations of pioneers or consomolists, the Government excluded the last part of the phrase. In this respect, the Chisinau press puts the following question:

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“If the children are allowed to associate in political organisation, why are they interdicted to carry out adequate activities when their rights are violated? “

On the other hand, the participants in the protesting activities from January-April 2002 continue to be cited by the prosecutor in order to pay different fines. Stepaniuc affirmed that the recommendation from Strasbourg does not concern the protesters who have been opened penal dossiers and the established fines will remain valid.

The editor-in chief of the „Flux” publication, Igor Burciu, on 13 August this year received the decision of the Court of the Buiucani sector (Chisinau) which informed him that he was amended with a fine of 90 leis „for his discourse and active participation “ in the anti- communist protests at the beginning of the year. Burciu declared that he was cited at court only for one time and during the given session he solicited the postponing of the session on the ground that he does not have a lawyer.

II. The prolongation of the current moratorium on the reforms related to the study of the Russian language and its statute and the modification of the learning programs for history;

LADOM: The communist deputies issued a declaration through which they express their concern about the Decision no. 28 from 30.05.2002 of the Constitutional Court (CC) on the proof of constitutionality of some stipulations of the Law no. 100-XV from 26 April 2001 “On the acts of civil state “ and Law no. 382-XV from 19 July 2000 “On the rights of persons belonging to national minorities and the legal statute of their organisations “. They state in the declaration that through the CC qualification of the above-mentioned stipulations related to the use of the Russian language in line with the state one at pointing and naming the localities, streets, in the acts of civil state as unconstitutional, the Court has taken a political decision and has derogated from a simple legal analysis. Although it was entitled “Declaration of the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova” and was introduced in the timetable for the last days of the summer session, it was not read in the Parliament and was not subjected to votes.

The Minister of Education, Gheorghe Sima, on 27 July 2002 suggested to Voronin a project of modification of the legislation which stipulates the introduction (beginning with 1 September) of the new discipline „The History of Mioldova “ in the national schools. The press mentions that Sima submitted this project of law contrary to the PACE Resolution from 24 April 2002 which stipulates the institution of the morratorium as regard to the language and history-related issues. At the Central Printing Office 10000 of books entitled “The History of Moldova” are edited in great secrecy. Although it has not been made public, the press managed to learn about this work of V.Stati. The news was proved on Friday, 26 July when this book appeared in the bookshops.

During the bachelor exams, the prime-minister Vasile Tarlev made a declaration on the naming of the Romanian language, in which he forbids the use of the term “Romanian language and literature” in the official acts, stressing that, according to the Constitution, the state language is “the Moldavian language”. The intellectuality’s reaction did not delay too much. Thus, the Dean of the National University, Gheorghe Rusnac, expressed his regret that during the year 2000 the article 13 of the Constitution on the correct naming of the state language was not modified, for “living finally in a civilised and human way”. Now, we turn back to this article and make a fool of ourselves before the Europe and the whole world “. Rusnac mentioned that the Academy of Science made its declaration towards this problem, stating that the right naming of our language is “the Romanian Language”. The Ex-dean of the State University from Tiraspol, Mihai Coscodan, mentioned that those who tend to the returning to the Moldavian language and history do nothing else than political speculations, aiming at causing new waves of protests in order to justify themselves for their failures. Coscodan mentioned that during his pedagogical activity he will never allow the replacing of the term “Romanian language, literature and history “ with “the Moldovan language, literature and history”. In this respect, another teacher, Elvira Grâu, the director of the Romanian-English lyceum „Mircea Eliade”, stressed

60 Report on the ensuring of human rights and liberties in the Republic of Moldova in 2002 that the prime-minister declaration in illogical and incendiary aiming at rising protests. She is sure that the teachers will not accept to teach lessons of Moldavian language and history. She did not exclude tha fact that if the Minister of Education imposes the „Moldavian language “ formula, the learning process will be interrupted.

It should be mentioned that this year, the signing of the Moldo-Romanian Agreement in the educational domain was blocked. Romania reserved 2000 scholarships for the students from the Republic of Moldova who wanted to study in Romania, but the Minister of Education from Chisinau has tergiversated the signing of this agreement on the ground that they defended some interests of the state. Although the whole civil society had a negative reaction to this discrimination of the Republic of Moldova citizens by their own Government (such agreements have been signed with Turkey, Russia, Ukraine, China etc.), the Agreement between the given ministries of Romania and Moldova was not signed. In the Governmental press various unjustified attacks at the address of the neighbour state continue to persist.

III. The revision of the stipulations of the Law from 1994 on the statute of deputy of Parliament as regard to the deprivation of Parliamentary immunity and revoking of the Parliamentary mandate

LADOM: The Government proposed the modification of the Law on the statute of the deputy. The new modifications are made for the avoiding of abuses from behalf of the deputies in organising and developing meetings with their electors and, in this respect, art. 22 is completed with art. 22 (1). Thus, some restrictions are stipulated as regard to the right of the deputy in organising and developing meetings, demonstrations etc. This project also stipulates that the deputy must receive the mayor’s agreement for organising meetings with the adepts of his party. The Parliamentary opposition has criticised this project, affirming that the deputy is deprived of the right to meet with his electors.

IV. The revision of the law on the audiovisuals and the transforming of the “Teleradio-Moldova” State Company in an independent public organism: the immediate beginning of the works by the competent Parliamentary commission; the eventual re-examination of the draft laws examined by the previous legislative; the contest of the Council of Europe experts at defining the statute of the public service of the “Teleradio-Moldova” company. The works must be done till the end of the present Parliamentary session, so, till 31 July 2002;

LADOM: The stipulations of the present article obliged the communist governance to transform till 31 July 2002 the statute of the “Teleradio-Moldova” company from a state institution in a public one. This problem was one of the most disputed problem in the process of PACE Resolution implementation, because the governance tried only to mime this transformation, but the public opinion, in line with the opposition, have permanently insisted upon the ensuring of the democratic principles in the process of reforming the Moldovan Radio-Television.

Initially, it was intended only to improve the activity of the given institution and not to transform it into a public one. In this respect, there has been created a Parliamentary commission which elaborated the Concept on the improving of the company’s activity. On 8 May, the Strike Committee of the National Radio-Television declared about their disagreement with the given project, on the ground that it runs counter to the PACE Resolution and ignores the demands of hundreds of people from the national Radio-Television. The abovementioned concept was elaborated by the people enthralled to the communist governance. “Through the given project the current governance continues to insist upon the consolidation of power and control over the most important mass-media institution”, was mentioned in the declaration of the strike committee.

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Later on, the President of the Republic of Moldova submitted a draft law on the public institution of the Audiovisuals, but the representatives of the opposition stated from the very beginning that this project presents an attempt of the governance to maintain the censure at the TVM. The leader of the “Alianta Braghis” Parliamentary fraction, Dumitru Braghis mentioned that the project proposed by the President is nothing else than a tentative to legalise the current state of things at the national Radio and TV, aiming at the further manipulation of the public opinion, thus being in contradiction with the PACE Resolution. According to the same source, the project does not stipulate the changing of the mechanisms of financing and naming of the company’s leadership. Dumitru Braghis noticed that at the chapter on the “right to retort” for the representatives of the opposition, the President initiative contains stipulations more restrictive than those of the present law.

In his turn, another representative of the opposition, the vice-president of the Popularly Christian- Democratic Party, Sergiu Burca, considers that the draft law submitted by the President does not correspond to the European norms in the field. According to him, the document aims at shackling more the National TV. Sergiu Burca proposed to ask for the expertising of the present project by the experts of the Council of Europe. The civil society and the opposition from the Republic of Moldova opposed to this project, because it goes from the same principles of administration. Thus, according to it, all 15 members of the Administrating Council must be representatives of the governance (5 persons from the Presidency, 5- Parliament and 5-Government), and a direct control of the given institution could be maintained and, respectively, the censure will continue its process of “brain washing”. The members of the Strike Committee from the “Teleradio-Moldova” have also mentioned that the President’s project ensures only at the first sight the general stipulations of the PACE Resolution and has just a declarative character. The Committee considers correctly the publication of the other projects of laws on the public Audiovisuals, submitted to the Parliament. Such initiatives have been presented by the Christian-democratic Parliamentary group and by the Association of the Electronic Press of Moldova (APEL). On 16 July 2002, during a press-conference, APEL made public its own project of law. The project would really guaranty the editorial and creating independence of the public audio-visual institution. The document stipulates the total interdiction of the control over the process of producing before the broadcast of the programs. According to the project, “the program can be analysed, criticised, disputed, including within some administrative mecanisms, anly after its airing “. The given institution must be administered by a Administring Council 15 persons, 5 of which must be power representatives, the other 10 being representatives of the civil society. The other two links of the governance will be the Directive Committee and the General Director of the institution. The members of the Council are confirmed in their function for a period of 5 years. The activity of the Council’s members is remunerated. According to the APEL project, the national public institution of the audiovisuals must be financed directly from special taxes approved of by the Parliament, from advertisements and sponsorships, and other incomes obtained from its economic-financial activities, as well as indirectly – from the state budget. The state must guarantee a sure and adequate financing to the necessities of the institution’s activity. The APEL’s project was submitted to the Parliament by the “Alianta Braghis” fraction as a legislative initiative. The opposition also developed a project of law on the audiovisuals, proposed by the Christian- democratic deputy, Stefan Secareanu, but it was received negatively by the legislative forum of the Republic of Moldova. The details concerning this project have not been made public and it is submitted to the Council of Europe for examination. On 24 July, the Council of Europe approved positively the project submitted by the representatives of the opposition (the APEL project), stated the deputy of the “Alianţei Braghis”, Valeriu Cosarciuc. On 25 July, after a series of negotiation with the President Voronin, the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova chose as a basis for the second reading the project elaborated by APEL. Voronin, as the author of another variant of transforming the “Teleradio-Moldova” State Company in a public institution agreed with the fact that his project will serve as “amendments” to the basic project.

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But, till the end, the communist majority from the RM Parliament voted on 26 July 2002 (5 days before the deadline for the Resolution implementation and the last day of the Parliamentary session) the project proposed by the President Voronin, although, only one day before, the Council of Europe (the Committee for the Trans-frontier Television of the CE) rejected the project of the given law, bringing all necessary arguments. On this occasion, Vladimir Dragomir, chairman of the Parliamentary Commission for Science, Culture, Youth and Mass-media declared the following: “The law adopted has passed the expertise of the Council of Europe and is going to be implemented “, so he was cheating the press and the public opinion from the Republic of Moldova. Previously, the counsellor of this commission, Gheorghe Madan, member of the Coordinating Council of APEL, qualified the project, developed by APEL as a “serious and well-prepared “ project developed by “competent persons”. As regard to the ensuring of the stipulations of the present article, we can conclude that the communist governance has only mimed its ensuring. During the period recommended by the PACE Resolution, the communist leaders stated that the National Television is a public institution and who disagrees with this fact can create his own television. That is why, it is hard to believe that the real intention of the power representatives were the reformation of the Audiovisuals of the Republic of Moldova in accordance with the European standards and needs. The Communist Party will block the real reforms and will tergiversate each attempt to make such a transformation in order to have the possibility to manipulate with the masses during the future elections from the next spring. Some representatives of the civil society from Moldova have launched the idea of creating an alternative television with a national coverage and leaded by a Council of NGO’s. The chairman of the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights of Moldova, Stefan Uritu, the initiator of this idea stated that he had spoken already with some sponsors who would be eager to invest in a NGO’s Television. The civil society’s reaction was prompt and negative, stating that the state television is not the property of the Communist Party, but of the whole society because it was and it is financed from the state budget. At the beginning of the month of July, the President Voronin declared during the TV program “The President’s Hour “ the following: “why to transform it in a public institution if it is already belonging to the whole country?”. Meantime, the censure at the radio and TV centres continues, although the state authorities changed the director of the company, replacing Mr. Magaleas with Ion Gonţa, ex-editor-in-chief of the Governmental newspaper “The Sovereign Moldova ” and considered by the opposition and independent press one of the power’s person. The Radiotelevision workers had a negative reaction to the naming of Gonta as the director of the institution. In a press declaration of the Strike Committee, which included more than 400 persons, they expressed their “deep concern and indignation as regard to the Parliament Decision to name in this function Mr. Ion Gonţa, journalist working for the last decade only for the power “. The protesting journalists treated the given decision “as an attempt to harden even more the censure and to subordinate totally the national Radio and TV channels to the communist Party “. Gonta declared that he will not promote the censure, but on the contrary, he will abolish it. “I want to give the talented people the chance to do what they can do the best in the interest of the Republic of Moldova. I will collaborate with all talented people, and in this Strike Committee there is a good potential “, said the new director of the company. The opposition parliamentary groups (Christian-democrat and “Alianta Braghis”) refused to take part in voting the director of the company, contesting the way the modification was made, as well as the person of the new director.

According to Gonta, the company will adjust its statute to the new law of the Audiovisuals, first of all, through the excluding of the qualificative “state” and creation of a new administrative structure. At the same time, he stated that every gossip must be excluded as regard to the company’s administration, because it will act in accordance with the new law adopted by the Parliament and will be guided by the European legislation in the field. As a reply, the leader of the Social-Liberal Party, Oleg Serebrian, said that he is afraid of formal modifications, that is, only the exclusion from the legislation of the phrases related to the state control, without initiating a real reform which must exclude the interfering in the editorial policy of the national radio and TV centres.

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Although the project proposed by the President has been already adopted, the Strike Committee declared that they rebegin their activity only after the problem of the public audiovisuals will be solved. Recently an accident took place which, in the civil society’s opinion, was not an accidental one. During a very controversial and aggressive TV show, „Rezonans” at the National Television, realised in the Russian language by Constantin Staris, on 13 July 2002, the answers of Mr. Rudolf Perina, USA special negotiator for the conflicts in Eurassia have been translated incorrectly, the true meaning of the Ambassador’s words being completely changed. For example, the translation of the question „what is the opinion of the Ambassador towards the reactions of some political formations’ leaders as regard to the project of regulating the Transdniestrian conflict proposed by the mediators “ sounded like this: „I am indifferent to the thinking of other politicians. We are interested only in the official position of the Moldovan governance...” In reality, the Ambassador said „I don’t know the reaction of other persons...”. After the press service of the USA Embassy informed Mr Staris about this discrepancy, he included in his next show the true answer of the Ambassador. But the press cited the words of the ambassador in their incorrect translation, so that Her Excellency, the USA Ambassador to Moldova, Pamela Hyde Smith was forced to make some specification in the newspapers which gave the wrong translation of the interview.

The real reasons of this incident are not found out, but the press thinks that this was done intentionally in order to put into the light the current governance of the republic. Moreover, this interpretation was printed in the Governmental newspaper „Moldova Suverană” and „Nezavisimaia Moldova”.

The journalists who are on strike accuse their leadership of the use of censure and, for the last time, the press is full of examples that prove the censure at the national television.

It is well known the fact that at the beginning of May, the European Court for Human Rights decided on the acceptance to examine in an urgent term the petition of the Strike Committee of the employees from the “Teleradio-Moldova”. In the given petition, the Committee acuses the state authorities of violating their right to speech stipulated in art. 10 of the European Convention of Human Rights.

In an interview with Mr. Dumitru Postovan, member of the administrating Council of the Union of Lawyers of Moldova (UJM) the „Dreptul” newspaper, it can be noticed the fact that just from the moment of the foundation of this organisation, they try to obtain 30-40 emission minutes for a TV program in order to inform the population about the aims of the organisation, to call them to collaboration and to offer legal advise to citizens. But, they are neither refused, nor given this chance.

V. The execution of the decision of the European Court for Human Rights as regard to the problem of the Basarabian Church: the principle of immediate registering of the Church through the adoption of an official decision buy the Government beginning with 24 April 2002; defining the ways of implementation under the supervision of the Council of Europe. The deadline for the implementation is 31 July 2002;

LADOM: On 30 July 2002 in Chisinau, the State Service for Cults registered officially the Autonomous Basarabian Church. The director of the State Service for Cults, Sergiu Iatco, handed the registration certificate no. 1651 to His Holiness Petru Paduraru, Archbishop of Chisinau , Bishop of Basarabia, in the presence of the Basarabian Church councillor, Vlad Cubreacov, and the priest Andrei Caramalau. Iatco declared that this fact was possible due to the modifications to the Law on cults from 12 July and to the PACE Resolution from 24 April. The Bishop of Basarabia, Petru Păduraru, mentioned on this occasion that the Basarabian Church will worship the God and will work only for the people and will never allow actions of violence as it was stated by the representatives of the Moldovan Church. “It was a long period till we received our recognition by the state. We hope that the bad things belong to the past “, has stressed the Bishop of Moldova.

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The Christian-democrat deputy, Vlad Cubreacov declared that that day was for the Basarabian Church a day when the human rights and freedoms triumphed in the Republic of Moldova. On this occasion, the adepts of the newly-registered Basarabian Church stressed that it is very important for believers and priests to take efforts in order to conciliate with the other religious communities from the Republic of Moldova. Vlad Cubreacov mentioned that the representatives of the Basarabian Church will do all the possible for the conciliation and collaboration with the other jurisdiction. It should be mentioned that this was possible due to the decision of the European Court for Human Rights from December 2001 and to the PACE Resolution from 24 April 2002.

11 days before the deadline for the implementation of the Resolution, the communist governance modified the Law on Cults, which states that the religious communities should be registered not by the Government, but only by one of its department. The given modifications allowed the registering of the Basarabian Church. Thus, according to the new stipulations, the right to register the religious cults, previously enjoyed by the Governments, was delegated to the “State Organ for Cults”, known as the State Service for Cults. According to art. 14, in order to activate on the territory of the Republic of Moldova, the cults will present to the newly created organisation a declaration on the organisation and functioning of the cult, the statute and the basic principles of the belief. The State Organ for Cults must examine the given declaration in a period of 30 days from the date the petition was submitted. It is stipulated that the cults being recognised by the state till the date when the new law entered into force, will be listed in the cults’ register, and the petitions submitted till this date will be considered declarations in the meaning of art. 14 and will be examined in accordance with the stipulations of the given article. The State Organ for Cults has the right to refuse the registering of the cults which develop political activities or attempt to the independence, sovereignty, integrity and security of the state or which include in their statutary documents such aims. It can also ask the law enforcement agencies to cease the activity of these cults for a period of a year. The legalisation of the Basarabian Church was possible only two days before the deadline for the Resolution implementation, but during the period of three months, a big fight between the pro and contra parties could be noticed. Further, we would like to present you the hottest moment of this period:

The press of the opposition had affirmed that he owed a confidential document named „The plans and measures taken by the RM Presidency for blocking the registering and functioning of the Basarabian Church”, which aimed at the descreditation and hampering of the Basarabian Church activity. This document named the persons responsible for the implementation of the plan’s stipulations and indicated 2 of these “measures”: 1 - „The real exposure of the Basarabian Church activity in the Republic of Moldova “ and 2 - „Promoting of the Russian orthodoxy in the Republic of Moldova”.

Meantime, the representatives of the Moldovan Church continued permanently to proclaim themselves against the registering of the Basarabian Church and organised a series of protests in Balti, Soroca and Orhei in order to show their disagreement with the registering of the Basarabian Church and, consequently with the fulfilment of the ECHR Decision and PACE Resolution. They declared their disagreement with „ the involvement of the Council of Europe and ECHR in the internal affairs of the Republic of Moldova “.

On the occasion of the modifications made to the Law on cults, the Synod of the Orthodox Church of Moldova addressed a Declaration to the state governance in which it recommends the state authorities „to take the most responsibility in relation to the taken decision and to evaluate correctly the importance of the values involved in this game. Contrary, our country risks to be subjected to an inhuman experiment, when an old, famous and strong tradition risks to disappear under the pressure of certain structures having little in common with our country.” The Declaration also includes that “at the time when the west countries lead a policy that impedes the uncontrolled spread of different cults and religious practices, the Republic of Moldova makes their registration easier”, fact that will lead to the increase of the danger of the destructive religious practices. The Moldovan church proclaimed itself against the registering of the Basarabian Church, because they think that this thing will have a negative influence on the principle of unity and indivisibility of the church.

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During that period the attacks and aggressions to the address of the Basarabian Church continued. Thus, Valeriu Cernei, a priest of this Church was aggressed by two individuals who took him to the headquarters of the Moldovan Church. His Holiness, Petru Paduraru, declared that two individuals took the priest Valeriu Cernei in order to serve a religious ceremony. “In reality, they followed another aim. They carried the priest to the end of the town and told him that if he loves his life and his family he must adhere to the Moldovan Church, the local structure of the Moscow Patriarchy. Later he was brought to the headquarters of the Moldovan Church, found on the street Tighina, Chisinau, where he spoke with the Archbishop Vladimir. He was also proposed to adhere to the Moldovan Church and was informed that the other priests are going to be treated like this. In this respect, the secretary of the Moldovan Church, the priest Vadim Cheibas, declared that he knows nothing about this incident. A similar case took place in March, when an old woman from Durlesti, Chisinau municipality, was aggressed at her house ( a priest of the Basarabian Church was leaving in her house too) by four individuals who were searching the priest.

Meantime, a priest of the Basarabian Church submitted a petition to the ECHR in which he mentioned that the authorities of the RM violate his right, including the right to defence. According to the lawyer from the “Jurists for the Human Rights “ organisation, Victor Constantinov, it is for the first time when a priest address a petition to ECHR, excepting the petition concerning the registering of the Basarabian Church. The given petition invokes the violation of the right to defence before the court. The Court of the Buiucani sector, Chisinau, sanctioned the priest of the church “Sfinţii apostoli Petru şi Pavel” , Petru Buburuz, on the basis of art. 174(1) of the Code on the administrative offences for the reciting of the worship “Our Father” during a manifestation of protest against russification.

Later, the priest Buburuz attacked the decision in the Tribunal of Chisinau, after which a long period of time the file was forgotten. The Tribunal, without citing him at court, examined the recourse and on 13 February 2002 emitted the final decision on refusing the fulfilment of the recourse. The lawyer mentioned that according to the current legislation, Buburuz should be cited in the process in order to have the possibility to defend himself, that is, the instance is guilty for the violation of art. 6 of the European Convention of Human Rights. Moreover, the reciting of a worship in front of a crowd is not considered an offence.

Meantime, the Basarabian Church submitted a complaint to the Court of Appeal against the RM Government, on the ground that on 26 September 2001 the local structure of the Russian Patriarchy was recognised as a canonical and legal successor of the historical Basarabian Church. According to Cubreacov, this thing runs counter to the ECHR Decision and to the Law of the Republic of Moldova on the propriety, Civil Code, as well as to all the stipulations regarding the holy goods. Cubreacov also expressed his regret towards the manifestations organised by the Moldovan Church and stressed that they contravene to the evangelical will of taking a peaceful dialogue between the both parties.

The communist majority from the Parliament intended to modify the Penal Code, by completing it with a new article 1431, entitled „The benevolent occupation of the cult locals “. According to the Legal Commission for names and immunities „the operation of the given modifications is justified by the necessity to ensure the public order and the right of each person to the liberty of conscious ...”. Before voting these modifications, Vlad Cubreacov, mentioned in front of the deputies the following: „The doubts which lead to the elaboration of the projects have no legal or practical value. Since 1991, the year of the proclamation of the RM independence, the justice didn’t open any file on the abusive occupation of the cult locals. I don’t understand why it is not specified, if you are speaking about the segment of thefts and abusive occupation of objectives and of the eparchy. The Government Decision no. 740 from 11.06.2002, on the transfer of more than 600 churches from Moldova, belonging to local collectivities, transferred to the property of the state, which did not create the given goods and has not the legal right to this property. Without realising this fact, the believers from Moldova have been disowned by Tarlev and Morei (n. n. – Prime-minister and minister of Justice). Thus, the presence of believers and priests in these locals is considered an offence.

It should be mentioned that the current Penal Code dates from 1961, and in autumn a new Penal Code will enter into force.

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On 1 August, immediately after the legalisation of the Basarabian Church, the Moldovan Church signed an agreement on cooperation with the Ministry of the Interior of RM. The director of the Public Relations Direction of the MI, E.Vitu stated that the agreement foresees a general framework of collaboration in order to „form a concordance between the activity of the police and the morality of the society, including that of minors and youth “. On the same occasion, 2 persons have been delegated as responsible for the religious education of the youth from the Police Academy of RM and of the Department of rifle battalion.

It seems that certain incidents between the two churches are going to appear. Thus, on 15 August, the press published a news regarding the solicitation of a group of believers from the church „Sf.Împăraţi Constantin şi Elena” from Balti addressed to the Archbishop Paduraru in order to support them at transferring this church under the jurisdiction of the Basarabian Church. The reasons of this petition are the following: the former priest have been resigned and replaced with relatives of the current vicar of the church and, from his coming to the church, the religious ceremonies are in the Russian language and a great part of believers do not attend the church any more. The vicar of the church put guardians at the entrance in the church. The believers state that before the priests of the church really believed in God and did not attend the Party’s meetings.

On the same day another news appeared. The secretary of the Balti Eparchy, the priest Markel, solicited the law enforcement agencies to install at the eparchy a guardian post and to consolidate the patrol (guarding) services on the territory near the Orthodox churches in order to avoid the possible conflicts resulting from the registering of the Basarabian Church. The local newspaper which issued this news, „Golos Bălţi” thinks that „The Basarabian Church is an extremist-unionist organisation and aims at the romanisation of the Moldovan state”. It also publishes the interview with the priest Markel, who declares that „the registering of the Basarabian Church represent danger for the Moldovan Church. The Basarabian Church includes a series of churches built during the period when Moldova was a part of Romania, but the Eparchy has the necessary acts for proving that they have been built on the money gathered by the believers...”. Markel stated that he was disappointed by the Parliament decision, because the communists promised that they will not allow the scission of the church in the Republic of Moldova, but voted for the registering of the Basarabian Church.

VI. The Council of Europe assistance in the problem of Vlad Cubreacov disappearance and legal cooperation of its member states and of specialised investigation services.

LADOM: Although, at the beginning, the local authorities solicited help from the foreign specialists in the elucidation of the given case, the collaboration of the local specialists with the foreign ones did not take place. On 16 May the Christian-democrat deputy, Stefan Secareanu affirmed that he has information attesting that after the disappearance of Cubreacov, on 21 March, a series of international organisms and specialised structures offered their help to the Moldovan authorities in the elucidation of the given case. “We know that in March, the President of the German Federal Service of investigations, August Haning, proposed to the President Voronin to accept the involvement of an investigation team from Germany in the examination of the case “, said Secareanu. He said that he will insist on this thing, because “the ignoring of the European Community support in the elucidation of the circumstances of Cubreacov disappearance would explain, to a certain extent, the situation when the local investigators are not allowed to question the first state officials – the President Voronin, the chairman of the Parliament, Eugenia Ostapciuc, prime-minister Tarlev, the heads of the Information and Security Service of the Ministry of the Interior “. Practically, the same accusations were brought by Cubreacov during a speech taken on 25 June before the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. As a reply, the leader of the Parliamentary delegation from Chisinau, the communist deputy Andrei Neguta, denied the conclusion of the deputy.

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VII. The revision of the Parliament regulation as regard to the enlargement of the opposition’s rights.

LADOM: The rights of the opposition remained the same, although before the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Voronin and other communist leaders spoke about the necessity to ensure the rights of the opposition in the republic of Moldova and suggested to offer some emission space to the parliamentary and extra-parliamentary parties at the national Radio and TV channels, as well as in the governmental press, financed from the state budget. But, after the adoption of the resolution, the discussions on this subject have been abandoned.

The Social-liberal Party sued at law the “Teleradio-Moldova” State Company for its non-ensuring of the right to the emission space allotted to all parties and social-politic organisations registered in Moldova, as it is provided in the Parliament decision from 18 November 1991. According to this decision, the leadership of „Teleradio-Moldova” might allot monthly to the Social-liberal Party 30 minutes at the radio and 20 at the television. The first two judicial sessions have been postponed on the ground that the representative from the “Teleradio-Moldova” company was not present.

Another scandal related to the activity of the state television as regard to the representatives of the extra-parliamentary opposition was published on 15 May, when Oazu Nantoi, the author of the “Mostî” program and the leader of the Social-Democrat Party send a letter to the Minister of Justice, Ion Morei and solicit his involvement in the solving of the conflict with the „Teleradio-Moldova” State Company. The “Mosti” program began to be broadcast by the national television since 1999 on the basis of a contract signed between the authors of the program and the company. It is destined to the people from the left bank of the river Nistru and elucidated exclusively the Transdniestrian theme. The letter included that “the necessity and efficiency of the program was proved by the subsequent reactions: it provoked a state of aggressive hysteria from behalf of the ideologists of the anticonstitutional separatism, but was received with enthusiasm by all those who support with difficulties the atrocities of the criminal regime and wait for the Moldovan Government to unite the country “.

The authors of the program expressed their regret for the fact that in October 200, without bringing any serious argument, the company suspended the contract on the broadcast of the given program.

Although, the court decision was in the favour of the authors of the program, the company refuses to reconclude the contract. Oazu Nantoi solicited the intervention of the minister of justice on the ground that he “should monitor the implementation of justice “. He did not exclude the fact that, in case of necessity he can appeal to the ECHR, but the reactions of the minister to this letter is not let known yet.

The Social Pact, initiated by the President of the country before the Session of the Parliamentary Assembly from 24 April, had no logic sustainability and it was even abandoned after the adoption of the Resolution.

In the Parliament the hostilities between the governing party and opposition still persist. During the visit of the new Ambassador of the Republic of China in Moldova, Hu Zhonkai some protocol meetings with the representatives of all parliamentary groups took place. The China Ambassador invited the leaders of the three parliamentary groups in an official visit to China at the end of this year. Some time later, the Parliament presented the list of persons who are going to visit China, but it did not include any representative of the opposition and this fact scandalised the China diplomats to Chisinau. Iurie Rosca declared that “unfortunately, such an abusive practice characterises the head of the Legislative, which fulfils such aberrant practices at the command of her party superiors, Stepaniuc and Voronin”. “It is well-known that the current chairman of the Parliament has not at least the elementary good sense, protocol and behaviour adequate to the high position she has “, concluded Rosca.

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VIII. The organisation, with the support of the Council of Europe, of a round table with all political parties, including the extra-parliamentary formations.

LADOM: After the adoption of the PACE Resolution in the Republic of Moldova it was organised a Round Table with a Permanent Statute in order to discuss all the problems and divergences facing the Moldovan society. The activity was approved positively by the specialists and experts of the Council of Europe. On 31 July another session took place (which for the second time was not attended by the representatives of the governing party). The participants in the conference reached the conclusion that the governance did not fulfil the PACE recommendations. They think that the governance did not fulfil a series of stipulation from the PACE Resolution either. From the two basic tasks of the Resolution, only that related to the registering of the Basarabian Church was fulfilled. As regard to the new Law on the Audiovisuals, voted recently by the Parliament, the participants said that this “does not change the state of things from the national radio-television”, although it constituted a step to reform. According to the representatives of the political formations presented at the session, the non-ensuring of a series of stipulations of the PACE Resolution (for example: the establishment of the local autonomy, the judiciary reform etc.) could lead to negative reactions from behalf of the society and could generate new manifestations of protest.

During the session the most acute problem in the RM- the problem of the Republic of Moldova federalisation proposed by OSCE- was also discussed. On this occasion, the leader of the Social Democrat Party, Oazu Nantoi suggested to address a letter to the director of the “Teleradio-Moldova” State Company through which to solicit the realisation of a cycle of Radio and TV programs at the national Radio and Television on the subject of federalisation with the participation of all political forces from the country and of the local and foreign experts in the field. Nantoi stressed that this appeal will constitute a real test for the authorities to prove how public the national Radio and Television has become.

The Chisinau press accused the President Voronin of not coming to the last session of the Round Table and it invoke the reason that the President was afraid of the arguments of the political leaders from the opposition. Some leaders of the democratic opposition suggest and offer a great deal of original solutions, but the power doesn’t pay any attention to them. The press affirms that this was the main reason for the President not to invite the political leaders from the opposition to the meeting with the representatives of the political formations for discussing the project of federalisation, meeting were only 14 parties and political movement have been invited.

On 14 August 2002, the representatives of the Round Table met for another time for a working session, during which they concluded to solicit the governance the presenting of a plan on the implementation of the PACE Resolution from 24 April 2002. At the proposal of the leader of the Parliamentary fraction of the Social-Democrat Alliance, Dumitru Braghis, this solicitation must be addressed to the governance on the eve of the coming of the CE representatives in Chisinau,. The visit will begin on 12 September. “We and the representatives of the Council of Europe must know on which point from the Resolution the governance is working on and what things especially are done in this respect “, mentioned Braghis. According to him, after the governance presents the plan, the participants at the Round Table could take its attitudes towards the carried work and inform the European officials being on the visit to Chisinau. The participants also wanted to issue and adopt a Common Declaration vis a vis the ensuring by the current governance of the stipulations provided for in the PACE Resolution, but they agreed on its adoption after the governance will present the plan of the PACE Resolution implementation.

During the same session, the participants decided to talk about the operation of some modifications to the activity of this forum in order to increase its efficiency. The vice-chairman of the Independents’ Alliance Vasile Balan, presented a series of suggestions for improvement of the Round Table. According to Balan, the current structure is a “factory of resolutions and decisions with no direct

69 League for Defence of Human Rights of Moldova (LADOM) impact on the society “. In order to change the state of things within the functioning of the Round Table with a Permanent Statute (RTPS), Balan suggested to create an action plan of the forum, which could give clarity to the participants’ activities as well as precise the functional structure of the RTPS. According to another suggestion, within the RTPS must be adopted an Ethic Code of the formations participants at the forum. In order to increase the role of the opposition in the public life of the state, the Independents’ Alliance suggested the organisation of some Round Tables in territories, as well as the organisation of some meetings with the leaders of the civil society and representatives of the diplomatic mission to Chisinau. For the permanent informing of the public opinion about the work of the RTPS, it was suggested that the forum should be represented by a Press Assistant and a monthly newsletter (bulletin) should be issued. The newsletter will include the “chronicle of the planned and developed events by the RTPS”. The aims and objectives of the RTPS should also be delimited and classified. The representative of the governing party has also missed the session.

Art. 11. It invites the Government and Parliament of the republic of Moldova to undertake immediately the measures mentioned above.

LADOM: For a period of three months, the governance of the Republic of Moldova tried by different means to avoid the realisation of the stipulations provided for in the PACE Resolution and, especially, of those related to the registering of the Basarabian Church and transforming the „Teleradio-Moldova” State Company in a public institution. In this „activity” have been involved even some NGO’s, whose leaders are loyal to the current Government.

Thus, on 21 May 2002 the representatives of the Moldovan Section of the International Social Foundation for the Unity of Orthodox People, of the Movement for the Unity of the Orthodox Church in Moldova and of the Patriotic Movement “Pro Moldova” solicited the initiation by PACE of a new monitoring in the Republic of Moldova, justifying the solicitation that the formulated recommendations have been based on unilateral information. In the message addressed to the General Secretary of the Council of Europe, Walter Schwimmer, published in the officious Governmental newspaper “Moldova Suverana”, the leaders of the abovementioned organisations Vasile Stati, Alexandru Snegur and Ion Popusoi state that the PACE recommendations “worsened the ethnic confrontation, deepened the divergences within the church, impelled Moldova on the edge of the definitive territorial division and loss of the national sovereignty “.

Speaking in the name of 95 % of the RM population (approximately 4 million), the abovementioned leaders state that in the process of monitoring developed during 2001-2002 the Ce representatives gathered information from foreign sources and not directly about the real state of things of the Orthodox Church. According to them, the results of the PACE monitoring from 1995 were quite different from that of the recent monitoring. They mentioned that in the PACE Report from 1995, the lord Finsberg, named the Basarabian Church “a small group of clergymen “ and he said the members of this group are “adepts of the subversive church structures” and “not some protestants from Ulster”. “They are against the sovereign, independent and integral state of the Republic of Moldova, opponents of the unique and indivisible Orthodox Moldovan Church “. according to Stati, Snegur and Popusoi, the registering of the Basarabian Chuch will lead to the split of the Moldovan society, of the Orthodox Church at least in three parts, and to the division of RM in some small self-proclaimed autonomies.

They state that the Popular Christian-Democrat Party actions in tight relations with Romania, promoting anti-Moldovan principles and policies and offering “political support to a foreign church, romano- irredentist on the RM territory “. The authors of the message affirm that, by asking the Government to register the Basarabian Church, the Council of Europe asks the Government to throw away the historic and political-legal independence of the Republic of Moldova and to “recognise the territorial

70 Report on the ensuring of human rights and liberties in the Republic of Moldova in 2002 pretensions of Romania and pro-Romanian PCDP not only on the Moldovan territory, but also on the Ukrainian territory “.

They state that in order to conform themselves to the PCDP ultimatum approved without examination by the Council of Europe, the Government should capitulate definitively, to abolish the Constitution, to dissolve and liquidate the Moldovan state. But in this case, there will be no one who could register this church. “Isn’t it a too high price: to destroy the sovereignty of a state, member of the CE, in the name of the identity of the irredentist policy of a neighbour state and of its political agent – PCDP?” – with this question ended the message addressed to the General Secretary of the Council of Europe.

Art. 12. The Assembly invites the Moldovan political forces to discuss about the solving of the current crisis and, if necessary, to subject them to a referendum, using all constitutional empowering of the citizens (art. 141 of the RM Constitution - “popular initiative “) or of the President (art. 88 of the RM Constitution - “plebiscite”).

LADOM: The Social Democrat Alliance (SDA), the Parliamentary group leaded by Dumitru Braghis, initiated a proposal of modifying the Electoral Code of the state. SDA pleads for the abolishment of the current way of electing the deputies, based on party lists, and insists on the fact that 50% of deputies should be elected on the basis of the uninominal circumscriptions’ system. The thinks, that in this way the deputies will be more responsible before their electors.

During a TV program the vice-chairman of the Parliament, Vadim Misin, qualified the initiative of the Braghis Parliamentary group as a provocation. As a reply, Dumitru Braghis declared on 3 May during the Parliamentary session that he will sue at law the vice-chairmman of the legislative, the communist Vadim Misin, for “harming in a public and official way the dignity and honour “ of the Braghis Alliance deputies. He stated that “The communist Party and, especially, some of its leaders defy with impertinence the engagements assumed by the Republic of Moldova before the Council of Europe “. Braghis denied the declarations made by Misin regarding the money paid by the Braghis Alliance in order to gather signatures for the organisation of a referendum on the modification of the Electoral Code.

Braghis asked the resignation of the director of the “Teleradio-Moldova” State Company, Iulian Magaleas, on the ground that he allowed the rebroadcast of the program with the participation of Misin. Braghis asked also for two emission minutes during the Russian informative program “Messenger” and 17 minutes after the program. In reply, Misin reaffirmed that the intention of the Braghis Alliance is a provocation. “I will go with pleasure before the court in order to prove my point of view that when masses of people are manipulated for political reasons, this means a provocation”, said Misin. The leader of the communist parliamentary group, Victor Stepaniuc, stressed that the referendum is the last instance in the decision-taking process and accused the Braghis Alliance of not initiating a dialogue with the governing party in this respect in order to identify a solution for the compromise

At the end of July, the Central Electoral Commission (CEC) validated the lists of signatures in the favour of a legislative referendum initiated by the SDA. The leader of this alliance, Dumitru Braghis, declared that “the decision of the commission is objective and proves that in the Republic of Moldova the work still has its power, despite all pressures exerted by the communist governance “. CEC presented the validated lists to Parliament, which must examine them in a period of 6 months, after which the referendum will be organised or the Electoral Code will be modified as it was proposed by the SDA.

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Art. 13. The Assembly recognises that recently encouraging efforts have been made in order to initiate the dialogue and it is satisfied by the adoption from the first reading of the project of law on various measures meant to increase the guaranties of the parliamentary opposition.

LADOM: The dialogue begun by the Chisinau authorities with the opposition and civil society has been abandoned. The Social Pact initiated by the President, as well as the continuos detachment of the governing party from the democratic opposition lead to the conclusion that the rights related to the guaranties of opposition continue to be degrading.

Art. 14. The Assembly asks the Moldovan authorities to cooperate plenary with the Council of Europe and with its organs (structures) and, especially:

I. to take into consideration and to implement the recommendations of the European Congress of Local and Regional Powers for the improvement of the local autonomy in Moldova;

LADOM: The Chisinau press mentioned that the Independents’ Alliance till present is waiting for a meeting with the President of the state in order to define the stipulations of the Social Pact, announced by Voronin during the last spring. The same source mentioned: “although a meeting took place, formally, with a part of the local officials, its effect came to nothing...”. “... as a consequence, we can conclude that the President Voronin tries to marginalise a considerable segment of the centre-right movement, and for this reason he has all necessary means: the “Teleradio-Moldova” State Company, governmental press, party press and a perfect electoral machine “.

A communist parliamentary group submitted an initiative to the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Moldova in order to check the constitutionality of some legislative proposals for the modification of art. 112 of the Constitution. As regard to this problem, the mayors had a prompt reaction and accused the communist authorities of an attempt to set up the dictatorship. The chairman of the National League of the Mayors’ Association (NLMA), Vasile Balan stated that only in this way (as an attempt) should be appreciated the legislative initiative of a group of 51 communist deputies which pleads for the modification of art. 112 of the Constitution. The initiative is related to the abrogation of the right of mayors and local councillor to be elected and to act autonomously. During a press-conference, Vasile Balan declared that the governing party intends to restore the former community (village) soviets – the same thing, in the mayor’s opinion, as the returning to the Soviet Union. He stated that the central power promoted a double-faced policy as regard to the local authorities. He mentioned that, at the time when some officials express their attachment towards the ensuring of the principles of discentralisation and autonomy of the local power, the Government develops the process of establishing the soviet-like administrative unities. Vasile Balan stated that the actions of the governance do not correspond to the national and international laws and norms. In this respect, NLMA noticed that after the Constitutional Court declared illegal some stipulations of the new law on the local public administration, adopted at the end of the last year by the communist majority, the European Congress of Local and Regional Powers, during the session from 4-5 July 200, adopted a Resolution on further monitoring of the way the principles of local democracy are ensured in the Republic of Moldova and called the Chisinau authorities to ensure the European Charter on the local autonomy.

Vasile Balan said that the mayors asked the central authorities “ to stop the implementation of the laws declared illegal by the Constitutional Court “ and to abrogate all the laws and modifications made to them, which cause prejudice to local autonomy. He said that, according to the Resolution adopted during the General Assembly of mayors from the Republic of Moldova, developed in Chisinau, the local officials intend to attack the decisions and laws which contravene to the norms stipulated in

72 Report on the ensuring of human rights and liberties in the Republic of Moldova in 2002 the European Charter in the European Court for Human Rights and other international judiciary instances.

The document was approved of by the representatives of the NLMA and of the two associated organisations – The Federation of Local and Regional Powers of Moldova (chairman- Serafim Urecheanu) and the Association of Mayors from Gagauz-Yeri (chairman- Mihail Formuzal), who, all together, form more than 70 % of local officials from the Republic of Moldova.

The leaders of the NLMA state that the governance ignores the mayors’ suggestions in the view of improving the situation in the domain of local public administration.

Vasile Balan, NLMA chairman, declared during the session of the Press Club that “the governance does not accept an open dialogue with the mayors “. He mentioned that, although the mayors made an arrangement with the President Vladimir Voronin on the establishment of a National Council for the problems related to the local public administration, the representatives of the presidency tergiversate its creation.

The NLMA’s leaders accused the governing party of non- ensuring the Parliament Decision on the legal value of the current laws on the administrative-territorial organisation and local public administration till the next ordinary local elections from spring. The Government ignores this decision and undertakes concrete actions in the view of passing from the districts’ system to the system of soviet-like rayons. For example, they showed a circular signed by the vice-minister Vasile Iovv, which attest the introduction of two new functions: representative of the President of the District Council in the territory and representative of the prefect. These persons have the right to create their own directions in the territory.

On this occasion, the mayor of Chisinau, Mr. Serafim Urecheanu, mentioned that the initiative of those 50 communist deputies to exclude from art. 112 of the Constitution the words local “elected person and persons” means not to allow the population to elect directly the organs of the local public administration. If this thing happens, we can end in a constitutional dictatorship. The final goal of this political game is the establishment of a strong vertical of the power. And this thing happens when the whole world, even Russia, goes to discentralisation and, what is most important, that all these acts contravene to the engagement assumed by our country at its adherence to the Council of Europe. In order to avoid the implementation of these modifications, Serafim Urecheanu is sure of the necessity to have a constant and permanent monitoring from behalf of the Council of Europe, mentioning that an important role in this process plays the Constitutional Court, which must not allow any changes which contravene to the democratic principles and value.

Nevertheless, there have been cases of pressure implying from behalf of the governing party representatives on the members of the initiative group (Braghis Alliance). On 14 July 2002, SDA tabled to the Central Electoral Commission the lists with the signatures. The leader of the alliance stated that the communists asked some mayors from the districts to certify the lists. The Independents’ Alliance has also serious objections towards the constant aggressions against the rights of local officials. In this respect, the Assembly of the initiative group for the organisation of a referendum in order to modify the Electoral Code decided to ask the Ministry of Justice to deprive the communist deputies, who “have intimidated the initiators of the referendum, as well as the population that supported it”, of their parliamentary immunity. These decisions have been justified with the fact that the representatives of the governing party, including deputies, “committed a series of illegalities “ by intimidating the collectors of signatures, “violating the Constitution of the Republic of Moldova, the principles of democracy and of the state governed by the rule of law stipulated in the international documents “.

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Meantime, the Congress of Local and Regional Powers of the Council of Europe is concerned about the “reverse steps “ made by the Republic of Moldova as regard to the local democracy and states the the territorial local authorities are going to become “simple executors on the vertical” of the decisions taken by the central power. “We were very optimists about the progress of this state during the last years, now we are deeply concerned “ mentioned Yavuz Mildon (Turkey) and Claude Casagrande (France) while presenting their monitoring report on the local and regional autonomy in Moldova. Although, the Republic of Moldova faces serious economic difficulties, it won’t solve them by returning radically to the past, state the reporters. The Congress calls Moldova to dialogue, by respecting, at the same time, the principles of local and regional democracy. The Congress is also concerned about the situation from the Gagauz autonomy, marked by serious tensions with the Chisinau Government. According to the representative of this region to the Congress, the statute of autonomy of Gagauzia risks to be defied by the attitude of the central authorities, which develop “the exerting of a real democracy “ in the region.

In this period, a delegation of the Congress paid a visit to Chisinau in order to inform themselves about the administrative-territorial reform initiated by the communists. According to a report of the press service of the Legislative, the European officials had a meeting with the vice-chairman of the Parliament, Mihail Camerzan. During the meeting Camerzan declared that “the territorial reform from 1998 on the passing to districts was a good intention, but the later experience proved that the former rayons remained without control and began to degrade from the economic and social point of view”. Camerzan stressed that because of this reason, the Parliament was forced to optimise the administrative-territorial organisation of the Republic of Moldova through a new law. Another problem stressed the discrepancies between the communist power and local officials: most of mayors disagree with the new Law on the centralisation of the wages for teachers, doctors and cultural workers at a district level, which entered into force on 1 July 2002. They pleaded for the centralisation of wages at the level of villages. Contrary, it would be better to let the things as they were before, because they state that 80% from the mayoralties pay the salaries without delay. Dumitru Ivanov, chairman of the Education and Science Trade Union, mentioned that the centralisation of wages, at least at the level of districts is not an ambition of the trade union, but a real problem, because during the last years 35 thousand of teachers from the total number of 48 thousand left their places of work. According to Ivanov, the arrears for teachers consist 15 million lei.

Nevertheless, at the end of July, the Constitutional Court rejected the initiative to revise the Constitution submitted by the Parliamentary majority. The Constitutional Court gave a negative note to the project of revising art. 112 of the Constitution. The leader of the Parliamentary majority, Victor Stepaniuc, declared during the CC session that they solicited the modification of the article for the reason that the mayors to be named by the local councils, adding that the “Direct election of the mayor conditioned a series of contradictions between the mayors and the local councils “. he also stated that, often the mayors are in opposition with the local councils, which majority has another political orientation. The Constitutional Court gave its argument for rejecting the amendment stating that the option of the 50 deputies “contravene completely to the constitutional principle of the RM Constitution, which is a democratic principle “. In the domain of local public administration, it was the Constitutional Court which gave negative results to the communists intentions to realise this reform. These are: the modifications operated to the Law on the local public administration, especially, those referred to the election of the mayor by the local council; the intention to organise anticipated elections and the modification of the Constitution. In all these cases, the governance did not take into account the stipulations of art. 38 (right to elect), art. 39 (right to administration), art. 109 (basic principles of local public administration) and 142 (the limits of revising) of the Constitution.

At the insistence of the Congress, the Chisinau authorities were forced to accept the dialogue with the representatives of local public administration and professional organisations of mayors de initiated by the mayors, although at the beginning the governance neglected any attempt of dialogue. But, as

74 Report on the ensuring of human rights and liberties in the Republic of Moldova in 2002 the specialists state, this is only another game of the communists, because the dialogue is not constructive and is only simulated. On 15 June the Resolution of the General Assembly of Mayors mentioned that “The central administration plays an unloyal game as regard to the local powers, trying to split the mayors’ movement through various actions of constraint and manipulation “.

The press accuses the President of the fact that he forgot his promise to constitute a National Council for adjusting the legislation in the domain of local public administration. The Council should include representatives of the local organs. The academic medium did not receive any answer to the solicitations to cease the destroying of the current system of local public administration, formulated during a scientific-practical conference organised at the end of June by the organisation IDIS “Viitorul”.

Contrary, the representatives of the state organs show a total defy in this respect. Recently, on 18 July, the Official Monitor published 3 Government Decisions which try to avoid the constitutional provisions and, practically, set up the basis of a new rayonal administration. According to them, the number of servants seems to be greatly reduced, but after a more attentive examination, it proved to be that it would increase. It was stated that these decisions have been adopted in order to approach the population with the public services, as well as the occasional costs of implementing these decisions will be framed in the local budgets adopted by the districts for the year 2002. Thus, it is very probable that the people who will oppose the “reforms” will be resigned on the ground of reorganisation.

The press continues to speak about the negative impact of the administrative-territorial reform on the democratic process and it should be mentioned that the realisation of these “anti-reforms” needs enormous costs.

II. to expertise its future projects of laws (which will be adopted) as regard to the reform of the Audiovisuals and the transformation of the statute of the “Teleradio-Moldova” State Company in a public independent institution

III. to revise the Law from 1994 on the statute of Deputy of Parliament, taking into account the recommendations of the Council of Europe experts

IV. to give an effective priority to the action plan for the legal and judiciary reform

LADOM: The director of the Centre for Human Rights of Moldova(CpDOM), Alexei Potinga, expressed his revolt towards the recent refusal of the Constitutional Court to subject to constitutional control some provisions of the Law on the statute of the judge, contested by a Parliamentary lawyer. Potinga was disappointed about the fact that in the informative note of the CC addressed to the CpDOM, the judges from the Court supported the representatives of the Parliament on the ground that the parliamentary lawyer has no right to address the Court in the given problem. Although the Court did not examine for the first time such cases, Potinga expressed his disappointment about the fact that firstly the Court accepted unanimously the petition and then rejected it. To his mind, this means the limitation of the attributions and the diminution of the independence of the parliamentary lawyers’ institution.

The local specialists think that beginning with the coming of communists (25 February 2001), the judiciary and legal systems in the Republic of Moldova suffered great negative changes. This system was established on modern principles, having at its basis the legislation expertised by the European structures in the field (Council of Europe, Venice Commission etc). The later changes in the legislation are accompanied by communist slogans of improving the judiciary reform, of combating the corruption, but, in essence, they run counter the Constitution of Moldova and are subordinated to the aim of placing the justice to the service of the governing party. Following the establishment of the soviet judiciary system,

75 League for Defence of Human Rights of Moldova (LADOM) the judges with democratic and reformatory visions are resigned from their functions. The judges who have been instructed in the Western countries are prosecuted and they are replaced with persons loyal to the current governance. In their opinion, there are three big obstacles influencing the independence of justice in the Republic of Moldova: political, economic and institutional obstacles. We will present only one argument given by the Association of Lawyer from Moldova: „The modifications operated to the art. 16 of the Law on the judiciary organisation cannot remain unnoticed. According to these modifications, during the last months, all chairmen and vice-chairmen of the judiciary instances have been re-elected. The public opinion was not informed about the reasons of these changes, the criteria of electing the new chairmen of the judiciary instances are unclear either. In this respect, it should be stressed that it was flagrantly violated the procedure of naming the heads of the instances. The Legislation stipulates another procedure of naming the heads: the Superior Council of the Magistrate chooses a candidateship for each vacant place and send it to the President for confirmation “. The organisers of the protest manifestations from winter-spring (PCDP) have been accused by the leaders of the Communist Party and by the President of the fact that the manifestations are financed from abroad. But the accusations had no proofs. Initially Romania was accused, later the accusations were directed towards the secessionist system from Transdniestria. For this accusations, the Christian- democratic representatives sued them at law, but the petition was rejected on the ground that the President of the state has no legal responsibility for the opinions expressed during the exerting of his mandate.

V. to develop no reform as regard to the judiciary organisation, to the statute of magistrates, Superior Council of Magistrate or Constitutional Court, without receiving and considering in advance the recommendations of the experts of the Council of Europe.

LADOM: The RM Parliament has a project of law on the Prosecutor’s Office which has not been published yet. The ex-prosecutor, Dumitru Postovan, at present member of the Administrating Council of the Unity of Jurists of Moldova (UJM) had the possibility to get acquainted with the given project and it holds the opinion that if the project is adopted by the Parliament, it will be much worse that the present one. He brought his arguments: „from the legislation of the Prosecutor’s Office disappeared some fundamental principles. The present law stipulates, for example, that the prosecutor, during his mandate, must be subordinated only to the rule of law. Maybe, someone needed the exclusion of this principle. Another article entitled „The audience of the prosecutor by the President in the matters of combating the criminality “. This principle was highly estimated by the foreign colleagues..., the new law contains a series of unclear and confused moments. In fact, I’ve offered my services at the development of the given work, by the specialists with a rich experience in the field are not taken into consideration and are not consulted...”.

On 20 June 2002 the communist parliamentary majority rejected the proposal of the General Secretary of the Council of Europe, Walter Schwimmer, to send to the Council of Europe some laws which are going to be adopted by the Parliament in order to be examined and expertised. The proposals of Walter Schwimmer was communicated to the deputies by the leader of the “Alianţa Braghis” fraction, Dumitru Braghis. He precised that the General Secretary of the CE sent a letter to the leaders of the three parliamentary fractions and solicited the expertising of the laws related to the university autonomy and the modification of the Parliament Regulation. The communist deputies qualifies as abnormal the situation “when, practically, all the projects of law must be sent for expertise to the Council of Europe “. “CE is an organism, which offers its recommendations and we, if, consider them reasonable, take them into account. But neither Walter Schwimmer, nor someone else can dictate what shall we do. We are the Parliament of a sovereign state, elected in the Republic of Moldova and not in Strasbourg”, declared the vice-chairman of the Parliament Vadim Misin. In this respect, Maria Postoico, chairman of the Legal Commission for names and immunities of the Parliament, said that RM has neither money for the translation of all the projects required by CE, nor time to wait until the Council of Europe examines the given documents. “The expertise of a document lasts for two months. If a lot

76 Report on the ensuring of human rights and liberties in the Republic of Moldova in 2002 of documents shall be subjected to this expertise, we will have to close the Parliament for a certain period of time and to wait till the CE will finish its work on a project of law “, stated Maria Postoico.

The opposition qualified as groundless the arguments brought by the communists. Dumitru Braghis reminded that the Council of Europe is willing to allot the sum of 635 thousand Euro each year for the translation of official documents of the Republic of Moldova, and the PCDP leader, Iurie Rosca, said that if it is necessary, his formation is ready to translate all the laws required by the Council of Europe for free.

Two of the three laws required by Walter Schwimmer have been voted on the same day, 20 June. The both foresee the empowering of the Ministry of Education with additional functions in the view of a better administering of the given sector.

The Parliament adopted a series of modifications to the Law on the local public administration, which stipulate the introduction of the function of sub-prefect in each rayon. The document was supported only by the communist fraction. Victor Cretu, vice-minister of justice, said that the document aims “at developing the principle of discentralisation of the public services and their approach to the citizens “.

“The present law stipulates that the prefect can have only one sub-prefect with the residence in one of the former rayon’s centres, but the districts have been formed from 3-4 rayons. Thus, there are cases when the people from a given rayon simply don’t have no one whom to address as regard to a given problem and the suggested document aims at removing this shortcoming “ – mentioned Cretu.

Art. 15. The Assembly makes an appeal to the Member States of the Council of Europe to pay an increased attention to the Republic of Moldova, and namely:

I. by contributing to the economic relaunch of the state and to the fight declared by the President of the country against corruption and arm traffic from Transdniestria, as well as against all other types of traffic, which start or transit on Moldovan territory – trafficking in women, children, human organs and tissues. These types of traffic constitute the object of the numerous Mafia networks that must be destroyed;

LADOM: The press of the opposition published some information about the tacit involvement of the Moldovan Bishop, Vladimir and of other priests of this church in forcing Moldovan girls to beg money in the name of the church. Some pertinent examples are brought. An imposing number of girls (20) were forced to beg for money in Ukraine. After some days, they have been aggressed and forced to tell who made them beg in the name of the church, and they told the truth, although they have been warned by a priest from Chisinau not to tell anything. After the payment of a fine by the “responsible “ person, the girls were let to continue their “work”. Later they were arrested for the second time. This time, the “supervisor” of the girls called the priest from Chisinau. In some days the girls have been released and were moved to another town. They lead a miser life and some of them even lost their consciousness because of hunger and have been hospitalised. One of the girls stated that she saw the act signed by the Bishop Vladimir, which allowed the enrolment of the girls for practising begging in the name of the church. She has also the picture of the girls enrolled and of the priest from Chisinau.

The priest was identified – the priest Emilian Navin, former boxer, without theological studies, now priest at the „Acoperământul Maicii Domnului” church in Chisinau. The lieutenant -colonel Nicolae Melnic, commissar of the Criuleni police, mentioned that the information owed by the journalist does not constitute a legal ground for opening a file. He said that in order to bring the girls home, it is

77 League for Defence of Human Rights of Moldova (LADOM) necessary to have a petition, written by them, in which they solicit their release. Meantime, another information about the enrolment of girls for this reason appeared in the press. Some girls evaded and now are hiding from the “supervisors”. Two Roma persons (they supervise the girls in Ukraine) have been already noticed in the native village of the girls. The girls state that this network covers Ukraine, Russia and Byelorussia and is enrolled by a large family of Gypsies who have very good relations with the persons from the Moldovan Church. One of the girls said that their activity gave a profit of 2000 $ monthly.

On 13 August the press brought new arguments and stressed that after 20 days of hesitation, the law enforcement agencies took some actions in the view of discovering this case. The priest Navim addressed a petition to the Department for the Combating of the Organised Crime and Corruption in which he accused a Roma family of refusing to give him a sum of money for the construction of the church. It is known that a file is opened on the basis of art. 113 (2) of the Penal Code - „trafficking in human beings “.

In two days, on 15 August, the same source relates that the girls give false evidences, but the case will be treated as a violation of art. 113. The representatives of the law enforcement agencies said that they do not exclude the fact that the girls have been subjected to pressure.

The USA State Department made a report which relate that RM is one of the states which Government recognises that on its territory exists the phenomenon of „trafficking in human beings and undertake measures for fighting with it “. It states that the Republic of Moldova „is the origin state for the trafficking in women and children for being sexually exploited in Turkey, Greece and Yugoslavia “. „The Chisinau Government does not conform fully to the elimination of the traffic. On 18 April, the Parliament adopted the new Penal Code and the necessary amendments, but they have not been promulgated yet. The RM decisions are not monitored in the adequate way...”

Another case was the involvement of the prime-minister Vasile Tarlev in a scandal related to his former activity as the director of the sweets factory S.A. „Bucuria”. Tarlev signed a guaranty letter in the name of another firm, which solicited a credit of 1.850.000 $ from a local bank. In the letter was specified that „In the case the society „Feodosia” does not pay the money, we, „Bucuria” S.A., are irrevocably engaged to pay to „MoldIndcombanc” S.A. each sum, as it is written in the contract of the credit no. 7211 from 14 September 2000... “. In this case the S.A. „Bucuria” risks its bankruptcy. The employees have already organised protest marches because they are afraid of remaining unemployed. It should be stated that the factory was a prosperous and with good perspective enterprise. The employees addressed a series of open letters to the governance in which accuse the prime-minister of traffic of influence, but they receive no answer. On 14 August, at the request of the Prosecutor’s Office, the National Commission for Current Assets emitted an ordinance which blocked the actions pack (27,77%) of the „Bucuria” society on the account of the bank „MoldIndcombanc” transferred to it by Ltd.„Feodosia”. The transaction was made on 28 June, after „Feodosia” could not pay the credit.

In fact, during the last time the independent and opposition’s press accuses very often the state officials of committing economic frauds, traffic of influence and flagrant violations of the current legislation.

II. by asking the states directly interested in the Moldovan problems to contribute to the stabilisation of the democratic process in the country, ensuring the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the state.

LADOM: It is well-known the fact that the Republic of Moldova has no direct control over the Transdniestrian region. For a period of 10 years, the separatist authorities from Tiraspol, being supported by the official and non-official forces of Russia, had an aggressive, harsh and non- cooperative behaviour in report with the legal authorities from Chisinau. Thus, after the end of the

78 Report on the ensuring of human rights and liberties in the Republic of Moldova in 2002 military conflict, the Unified Control Commission has been created including peaceful troops of the Republic of Moldova, separatist region and Russia. On this territory the 14 Army of the former Soviet Union still exist. The regime from Tiraspol became a criminal regime which was constantly violating the human rights, was favouring the drugs, armament, cigarettes and human being traffic and caused enormous prejudices to the Republic of Moldova, as well as to other states from the region. This territory became a „criminal” zone and a „black hole” for the economies of the neighbour states and, especially, for RM, state which became the most poor state from Europe. The governance was not able to solve this „hotbed of instability “, yielding to the leaders of the self-proclaimed republic, in the hope of reaching some peaceful negotiations. Even the communist governance, which leads also an anti-democratic, anti-occidental and anti-Romanian but a pro-Russian policy did not manage to solve the conflict. This situation lasted till 1 July, when OSCE, in line with Russia and Ukraine submitted a project of solving the conflict. In fact, the suggested project represents the new constitution of a new federal state.( some people think the project is a copy of the Russian Constitution)

The communist governance has no concrete solutions for the initiating of the dialogue and accepts the projects, resulting from the positions of the Russian Federation, which wants to transform the Republic of Moldova in its enclave. The opposition proclaimed itself against the given project. Another solution could be the proposal of the Social-liberal party, which had some reservations in regarding the given project, according to which the project can serve as a starting point for equilibrate solutions for the conflict with the separatist regime. On 16 August, this political formation, considered a perspective pro-European and pro-democratic party, including more young people and having as a leader a young person who received already recognition at international level, picketed the Government as a sign of protest against the lack of responsibility in regard to the solving of the Transdniestrian conflict. They called the representatives of the governance to collaboration for more than an hour, but received no results. The slogans of the participants were the following: “Reunification, No transdniestrisation “; “The Smirnov place is in the prison of Cricova and not at the negotiations table from Vienna “; “Discuss with the opposition!”; “We are the people too “; “We want to be heard “; “We have no Government!” etc.

Nevertheless, the society thinks that the Republic of Moldova must remain an unitary state and the international mediators must be preoccupied by the statute of the Transdniestrian region within the Republic of Moldova, and not the way of organisation of the state. The social-liberals stated that in the case of not finding another solution for the conflict, they would agree with the idea of federalisation, having as a basis the Austrian model. The leader of this formation, Oleg Serebrian, suggested some concrete variants of solving the conflict, bringing arguments and examples worth of being taken into account.

Another opposition party, the Liberal Party picketed the Embassies of Ukraine, Russia and OSCE office as a sign of protest against the project proposed by the mediators. The officials from the Ukrainian Embassy asked the participants to put the Resolution in the postal pox, but the officials from the Russian Embassy refused to take the Resolution, stating that they have no postal box at the Embassy. Only the OSCE representatives had a respectful attitude towards the participants, stating that the protest is a normal and democratic phenomenon and if the Resolution contains some concrete proposals, they will take them into account.

In the opposition’s opinion the worst thing that could happen is the allowing to the criminal regime from Tiraspol to obtain that, what they never dared to dream to – the legacy. In fact, the project suggested the creation of a new state on the basis of an “agreement” between two subjects. And this is an inadmissible thing, because Transdniestria is a component part of the Republic of Moldova and, if this thing is allowed, the rebel region will have equal rights with RM (it was proposed a bicameral Parliament, in which the parties will have equal rights and possibilities). Thus, the policy of RM will be realised by the minorities and this fact will generate negative reactions from behalf of the majority of the population and it can lead to a greater conflict. One of the reason is that the persons, who have fought for the state integrity and independence, will feel like betrayed by the state authorities

79 League for Defence of Human Rights of Moldova (LADOM) and, in this case, all the ideals and values for which a lot of people died are betrayed too. This means a total humiliation and harming of the dignity of the people.

A possible signature of the given project by the communist governance could mean a grave violation of the RM Constitution, because it states that our state is a sovereign, unitary, indivisible state and the modifications imposed by federalisation need the developing of a consultative referendum. At the same time, many experts from the country and from abroad state that such a thing should never be allowed, because it means the taking of the state power by a separatist, criminal and mafiotic regime, which can be charged with war crimes, genocide and violation of the human rights, and the federalisation would mean the recognition of this regime, previously declared as a corrupt, criminal and terrorist regime.

Most of political parties, civil society and the specialists in the field proclaimed themselves against federalisation, stating that we can not gain the idea of RM unification by losing the real sovereignty of the state. During a meeting of mourning in the memory of those died on the battlefields in Transdniestria, Oleg Serebrian mentioned the following „it is the case for the Chisinau to begin a professionist, firm and dignified dialogue with the administration from Tiralspol. But not with each person from Tiraspol! I think that the first step which will prove the Transdniestria’s will to begin negotiations, will be the organisation of open and democratic local elections of local public administration on its territory. They should elect persons who could really represent the people’s voice and interests in this region. Negotiating with a criminal regime means spitting in the memory of those, who 10 years ago died for the independence and territorial integrity of this country, means giving away the values won by the National Liberation Movement from 1988-1991".

The Moldovan society thinks that the separatist regime cannot keep its words, because for the last decade it did not fulfil any engagement or promise. A pertinent example of this case is the affirmations of the group of experts from Tiraspol regarding the attempt of the President, Vladimir Voronin to modify the mechanism of the relations established in the process of negotiations in the Transdniestrian problem, when it addressed the mediator the initiative of developing the next round of negotiation on 15 August. The transdniestraian experts qualified this thing as “one which does not contribute to the consolidation of confidence between parties”. The negotiators from Tiraspol declared that “remaining opened for a constructive dialogue, they think that the success of the meeting is directly related to the integral ensuring of the forms and mechanisms of collaboration already formed and are waiting for a corresponding initiative from behalf of the mediators “. The Chisinau press qualified these declarations as brutal blow to the President Voronin by the impudent separatist regime, which, having at his back the support of the Russian Federation, behaves inadequately to its illegal statute and position.

Meantime, the inhabitants from the left bank of the river Nistru had suffered a lot during the governance of the separatist regime. “After 10 years, we have, practically, no rights, we are forced to live in a concentration camp, guarded by guardians, customers, various military formations and we eve don’t know what to do”, stated the mayor of the village Dorotcaia, Tudor Palcinschi. He also mentioned that the Transdniestrian authorities do not allow the peasant from the villages situated on the left bank of the river, but being under the jurisdiction of the Republic of Moldova - Cosnita, Pirita, Molovata, Cocieri, Dorotcaia – to transport the harvest from the fields. “This situation lasts since the last October, when the local authorities adopted the decision of forbidding the transportation of the harvest from the fields “, stated Palcinschi. He said that the peasants manage to bring the harvest home only in secrecy, by means of different tricks, as the robbers, although the land belongs to them. He also said that the problem would not be so grave if the guaranty states interfered in time. “Frequently the people and myself, as a mayor, are thinking that we must ask the international instances – where is the role of the guaranty states? What kinds of guaranties were spoken about in 1992, when Snegur, Eltin, Kucima and Smirnov reached some agreements on the free circulation of goods?”, asked the mayor of Dorotcaia.

80 Report on the ensuring of human rights and liberties in the Republic of Moldova in 2002

In his turn, the co-president of the Unified Control Commission from Chisinau, Gheorghe Roman, declared that this conflict appeared in 1999, after the liquidation of the common Russian- Transdniestrian post, on the basis of the agreement from Odessa, from 20 March 1998. According to Roman, instead of this post a guardian post and a customs’ post have been installed. “We made a lot of appeals in the address of OSCE and of embassies, including the Embassy of the Russian Federation, because these posts impeded the transportation of the agricultural products from the field”, mentioned Roman. The officials from Tiraspol invoke as a reason the implementation of the program “Land”, this land being privatised by the inhabitants of the 5 villages. According to Roman, the cause of this conflict is the non-ensuring of the agreement between the Russian Federation and the Republic of Moldova stipulating that on the left bank of the river Nistru the peace and order is insured by the forces for the maintaining of peace of the Russian Federation and Tiraspol. “We asked them to honour their commitments, it is up to them to keep the order and peace in the region “, declared Roman.

The civil society, citizens and the democratic parties ask a more active and constructive involvement of the international structures and of the European states in the solving of this conflict without allowing its destruction, hoping for a correct attitude and position of the international and European organisms towards the given problem.

Art. 16. The Assembly makes an appeal to the Member States of the Council of Europe to support the economic and social development of Moldova and to help it to regain the credibility of the international financial institutions (International Monetary Fund and World Bank). It invites the latest to revise their position and to consent the help needed by Moldova in order to consolidate the economic relaunch and to improve the social situation of the majority of the population.

LADOM: The opposition’s press informed that Iurii Sestak, superior councillor of the Embassy of Russian Federation to Chisinau made a public appeal to the Chisinau authorities to reject the recommendations of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.

II. RECOMMENDATION 1. The Assembly refers to its Resolution on the functioning of the democratic institutions in Moldova, in which it expresses its concern about the continuous degradation and radicalisation of the political climate that puts at risk the democratic stability in Moldova.

2. It recommends to the Committee of Ministers:

I. to invite the Moldovan authorities to inform the Council of Europe about the process of investigating the case of Vlad Cubreacov disappearance;

II. to invite the Governments of the Member States of the Council of Europe to offer their legal cooperation by sending in the territory, at the Moldovan solicitation, the specialised investigation services;

3. It requires the Committee of Ministers to supervise attentively the execution by the Republic of Moldova of the ECHR Decision on the problem of the Basarabian Church.

4. The Assembly recommends the Committee of Ministers to continue the cooperation with the Moldovan authorities as regard to the following points:

81 League for Defence of Human Rights of Moldova (LADOM)

I. legal expertise of the Penal Code, of the Code of Penal Procedure, of the Civil Code and of the Code of Civil Procedure;

II. development of precise and detailed recommendations on all the reforms related to the judiciary instances; the reform of the Prosecutor’s Office, modification of the statute of the judge, the reform of the Superior Council of the Magistrate, and namely within the framework of the action plan signed with the Minister of Justice of Republic of Moldova or within any other framework considered adequate.

5. The Assembly invites the Committee of Ministers to consolidate its cooperation with the Moldovan authorities in the view of:

I. a rapid expertise of the future projects of laws on the reform of the Audiovisuals and the transformation of the statute of the “Teleradio-Moldova” State Company in an organism of public independent service;

II. the implementation of the recommendations which will be made by the Congress of Local and Regional Powers of the Council of Europe in the view of the improvement of the local autonomy in Moldova, in the light of the reforms which are under way;

III. the assistance provided for the preparing of the local elections which will be developed in 2003, especially, in the view of revising the electoral law and the realisation of the recommendations made in 2001 by the ad-hoc commission of the Parliamentary Assembly as regard to the monitoring of the elections by the OSCE Bureau for democratic institutions and human rights; this expertise could be delegated to the Venice Commission;

VII. the organisation of a round table with the participation of all political parties.

6. The Assembly asks the Committee of Ministers to inform permanently about the problems related to the freedom of speech in Moldova and, for this reason, asks it to present the report on the expertise developed during this period;

IV. the providing of an assistance in preparing an eventual referendum;

V. the expertise made by the Venice Commission of each project of law referred to the statute of the Constitutional Court;

VI. the clarifying of the legal statute of Gagauzia through a deepened expertise of various applicable legislations and the defining of the proposals aimed at suppressing the contradictions of the first quarter 2002 on the freedom of speech and information in the country.

7. The Assembly asks also the Committee of Ministers to invite firmly the Member States to engage themselves in an active fight, in line with Moldova, against corruption, multiple and revolting traffics which start or transit through the Moldovan territory – armament traffic, women and children traffic, human organs traffic. These traffics are the object of strong Mafia networks which became more frequent and which must be destroyed. The Assembly reminds, in this respect, of its Recommendation no. 1526 (2001) and Recommendation no. 1545 (2002).

82 Report on the ensuring of human rights and liberties in the Republic of Moldova in 2002

LADOM CONCLUSIONS The acceptance of the PACE recommendations and the promise of conforming to the democratic principles by the communist governance was a hope for the normalisation of the tensioned situation in the Moldovan society during this spring. The 31 July this year was the dead line for the implementation of the PACE Resolution from 24 April 2002 and this moment was waited for (expected) with great interest by the society and the democratic opposition, as well as by the international experts who expected the Moldovan authorities to honour their commitments, assumed at the state level. The main engagements which should be fulfilled was those related to the registering of the Basarabian Church in accordance with the Decision of the European Court for Human Rights and the transforming of the “Teleradio-Moldova” State Company in a public institution. The other points of the Resolution are also extremely important for the good development of the relations between the power and the opposition, as well as for the normal relations in the society.

The governance of the Republic of Moldova hurried only during the last days of the fixed period to fulfil the main tasks of the Resolution. Probably, the tergiversation till the last moments of the recommendations’ implementation was marked by the governing party’s attempt to calm the spirits and to create a state of uncertainty in order to produce at the end a surprise for its adepts and for the opposition. Nevertheless, as regard to many questions of the Resolution, the communist governance had a formal attitude, continuing to defy the democratic norms and proving a political flair. For example, while deciding the registering of the Basarabian Church, they hurried to vote severe sanctions against the believers who will quit the Moldovan Church. Thus, conforming itself to the civilised norms, the Communist Party violated in an ostentative way the others, and namely the right of the Church servants to the freedom of confession. In the same abusive way, the Moldovan Church was given by the Government the properties of the churches, built on the money gathered by the believers.

The same thing happened in the case of transforming the State Company “Teleradio-Moldova” in a public institution. This time, they voted in an urgent regime a project of law which was initially rejected by the strikers from the national Radio and Television, as well as by the local specialists and experts, civil society and opposition, and by the representatives of the Council of Europe. In this case, we can state that the Parliament proved political ignorance.

As regard to the ensuring of other stipulations of the Resolution, according to the arguments included in the present report, we can conclude that to a great deal, they remained unsolved, because the situation did not turn to good accounts in none of the mentioned questions. The Cubreacov case was not elucidated, but, on the contrary, a similar case appeared; the situation in the Gagauz autonomous region is uncertain; the dialogue between the opposition and the power was abandoned by the latest from its very beginning; the moratorium announced on the linguistic and historical problems is not respected, and the governmental press continues the attacks on these questions; the corruption, the traffic and other scourges did not decrease, but, on the contrary: more frequently the state officials or the members of their families of being involved in such kinds of affairs; the censure persists; the opposition did not obtain its legal rights; the situation in the domain of local autonomy degrades; the judiciary and legal reform was not developed in accordance with the PACE Resolution; the migration of the Moldovan citizens abroad increased.

Other two great and important problems appeared in the Republic of Moldova. First of all, it should be mentioned the project of federalisation proposed by OSCE, by realising this projects we expose the country to the danger of being totally criminalised. This will be the main reason for the rebeginning in autumn of the new waves of protests and hostilities between the opposition and authorities (without excluding the violent conflicts between the protesters and the law enforcement agencies). The second question is the intention of the President Voronin and of his party to repay the bank accounts of the citizens from the Savings Bank of the former USSR. The opposition considers that this intention is just a pre-electoral trick, aimed at drawing the people attention from the serious problems faced by the society and the state. This initiative appeared just at the moment when the Republic of Moldova has

83 League for Defence of Human Rights of Moldova (LADOM) enormous debts and its internal situation is catastrophic, because the wage arrears are increasing (especially in the budgetary institutions), and the medium salary on the economy covers only 50-60% from the “minimal consumption basket”. In fact, the specialists who analysed this situation stated that if the project is realised, a new plunder of the population will take place, people being manipulated by the power will receive only over 5% of their money. At the same time, the representatives of the opposition are opposing to this swindle, another extra-parliamentary party suggesting another way of repaying the money to the population, suggestion which, in the experts’ opinion, is much more realistic not only for the budget, but for the citizens too. For example, the teacher of international relations from the Denver University, Colorado, specialist in human rights problem, Jack Donnely, mentioned that “the development” is the standard excuse of the repressive regimes from the third world for the most brutal systematic violations of the human rights. Since 25 February 2001, the RM Government, by the means of its mass- media means, tries to convince the people of the economic success and “increase” of the level of living of the population, although the real situation is completely the contrary.

We would like to believe that the communist governance has passed the democracy test. Now, it is the turn of the PACE to decide if the human rights in Moldova are or not ensured, if the legal authorities violate or not the principles of democracy, if Moldova is able to guaranty to its citizens, according to the state Constitution, at least the basic human rights and liberties.

We will conclude the present report with the declarations of the leader of the Parliamentary opposition, Iurie Rosca who mentioned that „the communists mimed the implementation of the PACE recommendations. The communist power from Chisinau was forced to register the Basarabian Church only for avoiding a total international isolation and an eventual loss of the presidency of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, in the next spring. He mentioned that the registering of the Basarabian Church was preceded by some legislative modifications „which will allow the communist governance to take some punitive measures against it “. As regard to the issue of the public service of radio- and tele-broadcasting, Rosca declared that the legislative simply defied the public opinion of the Republic of Moldova, as well as the Council of Europe, adopting the project of law proposed by the President, „which conserves the current state of things, maintaining the censure and the iron rule of manipulating and misinforming of the population.” While speaking about other recommendations, which have bot been fulfilled either by the communist governance, Rosca mentioned the problem of local autonomy, because there are „some aspects of constraint, of limitation in order not to say total liquidation of the local financial autonomy “; the continuation of the moratorium on the linguistic and historic problems, in the case when the communists are preparing the replacing of the discipline „The History of Romanians “ with „The History of Moldova “, beginning with 1 September; the continuation of the penal and administrative prosecution of the organisers and participants at the manifestations of protest; the necessity of judiciary independence etc.” Finally, Rosca said that the communist regime prepares a new campaign of denationalisation and suppressing of all democratic institutions in the Republic of Moldova.

LADOM RECOMMENDATIONS 1. Continuation of the monitoring of the situation in the Republic of Moldova by the Council of Europe; 2. Initiating a new constructing dialogue between the governance and the opposition, having as mediators the experts of the European organisms and the civil society; 3. Adoption of a Program of supporting the implementation of the engagements assumed by the Republic of Moldova; 4. Adoption of a Program of European states and organisms involvement in the correct solving of the Transdniestrian conflict; 5. The immediate and correct fulfillment by the Republic of Moldova of the PACE Resolution, especially, of the stipulations related to the “Teleradio-Moldova” State Company.

84 Report on the ensuring of human rights and liberties in the Republic of Moldova in 2002 III. Alternative Report on the Ensuring of Civil and Political Rights

The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights

Article 6 Through the prism of Art. 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the right to life is inherent to the human being and it must be ensured by law. Although the Republic of Moldova has ratified this Covenant it fails to ensure to every citizen this elementary and essential right. This problem takes much more importance for the legal authorities of the Republic of Moldova as regard to the uncontrolled territory of the country during 10 years of independence – Transdniestrian region. The capital punishment was abolished and excluded from the Penal Code of the Republic of Moldova through the Law no. 667-XII from December 8, 1995, and in Transdniestria a moratorium was developed with regard to the use of capital punishment, including the punishment over the court sentences pronounced till January 1, 1999 and that were not executed yet. Further some pertinent examples of violation of this rights in the Transdniestrian region will be presented: the members of the “ Ilascu group” A. Ivantoc, T. Petrov-Popa, A. Lesco have been condemned to different periods of imprisonment and Ilie Ilashcu was condemned to capital punishment. During the first years of detention the execution of the sentence was simulated four times and during the investigations the abovementioned persons had been subjected to inhuman and degrading treatment.

Another case occurred in March 1992, when G. Besleaga and N. Zavtur disappeared after being arrested by the members of the Transdniestrian “republican guard”. Later the mutilated body of Mr. G. Besleaga was found but Mr. N. Zavtur is considered disappeared till now. *CHDOM the Human rights and Freedoms in Transdniestria.

In January 1993 Mr. B.Varghin went to see his mother who lived in the region controlled by the separatists where he was retained and ill-treated by unidentified persons possessing guns. Because of the serious injuries Mr. Varghin died.

In 1996 Mr. A. Calasnicov was killed by the collaborators of the Section for the fight against the organised crime (SFOC) from the Ribnita town. Four collaborators of the SFOC were declared guilty but later three of them have been amnestied.

Article 7 The economic and social-political crisis holding the Republic of Moldova had a very negative impact on the social processes, favouring the dangerous decrease of the state authorities and disrespect for the legal norms of the society. The alarming increase of unemployment, in line with the incertitude of earning one’s leaving, the deformations between human moral and spiritual relationships lead people to despair and determined them to emigrate, in most of cases illegally, abroad in order to find a job.

The trafficking in human beings phenomenon appeared firstly in Moldova and became well-known in the whole Europe. This phenomenon includes the whole spectre of illegal actions stipulated in Art. 7 and 8 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, slavery and servitude). The phenomenon took catastrophic proportions, generating real tragedies within the Moldovan society. The drama of many families consists in the families’ separations or losing of relatives and near persons: parents, children, spouses or closed relatives who became victims of the traffic.

85 League for Defence of Human Rights of Moldova (LADOM)

Actually, the development of the traffic phenomenon in the Republic of Moldova is based on three main directions: for the practice of prostitution and slavery; for taking over and transplanting the organs and tissues of the human body; for the practice in the pornography industry as well as for being used in the arms conflicts.

The main reason of this phenomenon is the poverty that determines a great part of the population to leave the country for other states where they could find a job and keep their families. Being despaired, most of those who accept leaving are young girls or women who become very easy the victims of the traffic. Because of their ignorance, credibility and child faith they are easily cheated and are sold for 100-150 USD by the traffickers in order to be later sold for a sum of 5000 USD in Europe for practising prostitution. Their number reaches 10.000, from which 30% are minors. The Moldovan women and, especially, the young girls whose number is very big abroad (according to the last data of the International organisation for Migration over 64% of women from the ex-soviet space identified and repatriated form the occidental states are from Moldova) continue to be abused, traumatised, ill- treated regardless to the job they have: practising the prostitution or working “on black”. They are forced to hide themselves from the police, to accept a misery wage for every kind of job, to suffer total separation from their families, to suffer professional disqualification, and as a result to acquire a permanent stress.

Another aspect of the problem is the lack of financial resources from behalf of the state bodies for contributing to the elimination or at least to the diminution of the given process. In this respect, a series of international organisations, NGO’s and Interpol brought their real support to the education, training and informing of the population. Although the civil society tries to find solutions for the existing problems their efforts remain insufficient because of the government indifference. They neglect in a valid way the existence of the traffic and don’t react to the SOS’s from outside.

This tragic phenomenon took amplitude due to the lack of a sound legislation in the field. In this respect, the Penal Code includes only two provisions (Art. 105-2 “Pandering” and Art. 113 -1 “Sale and Trafficking in Children “), that to a certain extend combat the traffic phenomenon. The persons involved in the traffic cannot be punished even according to the UN Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), ratified by the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova, because there has been not established the legal mechanism that could afford the implementation of Art. 6 of CEDAW, related to the trafficking in human beings. The Ministry of the Interior has developed a draft of law regarding the modification of the current legislation and its adjustment to the international standards. The draft law has circulated among all ministries from previous Governments in order to obtain their approval. The approval was given, but, meantime, the Government changed and the former approval lost its validity. Thus, the state continues to ignore this major problem. On 14 July 1999 the “Infotag” press agency mentioned that 5 thousands of women from the Republic of Moldova leave annually the country for practising prostitution abroad.

Article 9 The guaranty for the liberty and security of citizens by the law enforcement agencies and police bodies is an actual problem of the post-totalitarian states as well as of those who have a rich democratic experience. The difference is only in the extension of the problem. A state may affirm that it is a state governed by the rule of law only if it respects the rights, freedom and security of its citizens. Unfortunately, the Republic of Moldova cannot state this fact because there are lots of breaches and trespasses against the law from behalf of those who should stand at its ensuring and good implementation. In this respect, we could mention three cases having occurred in the Republic of Moldova.

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1. The writer Emilian Galaicu-Păun was walking along the city with his brother when the policemen stopped them. They had been ill-treated in the cruellest way and forced to get into the police car and were brought to the police office. There the policemen found that there was a misunderstanding with regard to their detention. 2. The discipline forces of Ukraine arrested some citizens of the Republic of Moldova on the territory of the republic without coordinating the undertaken actions with the Chisinau authorities. Later the persons have been transported in Ukraine and met no difficulties and obstacles on the way to Ukraine and when passing the customs. 3. On 10 December, 2001 the mayor of the Suruceni, Chişinău district addressed an appeal to the state governance, Media and embassies accredited in the Republic of Moldova that contained information about an attack from behalf of a specialised detachment on a group of young people who were spending their free time at the disco. The abovementioned detachment has been ill-treating the young people for more than an hour without giving any explanations. The investigation proved that the policemen did not follow a previously established plan because no one was arrested. All people from the disco have been supposed to bodily searches, pushed and beaten. The blows were professional, because even the cruellest beaten boy, Igor Grădinaru, 18 years old, could not demonstrate signs of physical injuries. The policemen have been perfectly armed and they resembled more a group of adventurers seeking distraction. More than 50 persons have been ill-treated. No one of the policemen gave any explanations or excused for what happened. The detachment actions had not been coordinated with the local public administration. The mayor added that even till now no one from the Ministry of the Interior presented any explanations on this subject, and if this action held a confidential character, he, as a mayor of the given locality, should know about it. He expressed his total disagreement with the undertaken actions and condemned all law enforcement agencies of the country for their indifference towards the given case. Another pertinent case related to the non-ensuring of the people freedom and security is the case of the Ilascu group. Although the leader of the group, Ilie Ilascu, has been recently released, the other members of the group are still kept in the separatist prisons. For more than a decade the efforts of the Moldovan officials and of the international bodies could not register any notorious results on this subject. There are no official cases in the Republic of Moldova when a person who had been illegally arrested or detained was awarded damages.

Article 10 The detainees and penitentiaries situation in the Republic of Moldova is very deplorable. The living conditions of the detainees are much lower than the accepted minimal standards. A major problem of the penitentiary institutions is their overcrowding. Thus, many detainees must live in the same cell lacking the minimal hygienic conditions and privacy. On 15 July, 1999 the “Flux” press agency published the following information: “The Penitentiary Institutions – a permanent crisis of food. The penitentiary institutions of the Republic of Moldova suffer a serious crisis of alimentary products. The chairman of the department of Penitentiary institutions, Mr. V. Troenco, declared that after two weeks of the total exhaustion of food in the penitentiaries, the state allotted from its reserves a quantity of food products sufficient for at most two weeks. According to his statement these products include 200 tons of wheat, 10 tons of vegetal oil, 10 tons of cereals and 30 tons of salt. The government promised “to find” 90 tons of rice. Mr. Valeriu Troenco has also mentioned that the alimentary crisis of the penitentiaries is due to the fact that the alimentary ration of the detainees was foreseen at the old prices, which during the last times have considerably increased. The daily food ration of each detainee is estimated at 42 bani. Nowadays 1760 detainees are ill with tuberculosis. “These people need a more nutritive food that cannot be

87 League for Defence of Human Rights of Moldova (LADOM) provided by the penitentiary institutions “, related Mr. Troenco. According to the last data, 11 thousand of detainees are held in those 20 penitentiaries of the Republic of Moldova. For their keeping at a “minimum of existence” the Government must allocate at least 48 million lei annually”. The financial crisis generates great difficulties not only for the supply of institutions with food products but also the pay of the communal services. The debts of the Department of Penitentiary Institutions constitutes more than 19 millions lei. Valeriu Troenco has stressed the fact that the state has considerable debts for the payment of salaries to the penitentiary staff. They received their last salary on February 1999, and the arrears for the compulsory food ration are not paid since 1994". According to the Amnesty International Report 2001, the illegal detention of people as well as their ill-treatment in the places of detention or that of preventive detention and police sections continues in the Republic of Moldova. The police officers applied the administrative detention in order to detain illegally the suspects. The risk of illegal detention and inhuman treatment increased even more beginning with July, when the Constitutional Court established a period of 72 hours for the collection and verification of the proofs. The authorities failed to insure the minimal conditions for detainees, they remaining cruel, inhuman and degrading. For example, 1700 persons have been held in the prison no. 3 from Chisinau waiting for the trial.

Article 12 The most serious problem in the Republic of Moldova is the ensuring of the right to free movement within the country guaranteed by Art. 27 of the Republic of Moldova Constitution. It should be mentioned that between the Republic of Moldova and the Transdniestian region there are a lot of customs offices and guardian posts. After the cease of the military actions, the Art. 5 of the “Agreement on peaceful principles regulating the armed conflict in the Transdniestrian region of the Republic of Moldova”, signed on 21 July, 1992 stipulates: “all the obstacles that could impede the free movement of goods, services and people will be removed without delay …”. But this stipulation still continues to be flagrantly trespassed and ignored.

The persons wanting to cross the river Nistru must present the identification cards, to fill in the customs documents and pay the customs fees and tariffs.

On 31 March, this year, the Republic of Moldova authorities violated the Moldovan citizens’ right to free movement when through different ways the authorities created all kinds of obstacles in order to impede the people to come to Chisinau to the Great National Assembly. The police officers took over the register numbers of the buses and microbuses which should transport people to Chisinau, they also took the driving licences of drivers, suspended the usual routs of the auto and railway transport.

The Republic of Moldova faces serious problems related to the entrance and stay of foreigners on the territory of the republic. The most frequent reasons are: the Moldovan eastern borders remained uncontrolled by legal authorities, simple means of getting a visa, the acceptance for perfecting the old documents for the persons coming from the CSI states.

On December 2, 1998, the Republic of Moldova signed an Agreement on Cooperation with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

The concluded agreement stipulates the basic conditions of UNHCR collaboration with the Republic of Moldova government with regard to providing international protection and humanitarian help to refugees and other stateless persons. In this respect, the UNHCR will institute an office on the territory of the Republic of Moldova which will work in this field. Further we would like to present you some UNHCR conclusions on this subject.

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The Art. 19 of the Republic of Moldova Constitution recognises the right to political asylum but there are no other laws or mechanisms regulating the procedure of offering political asylum. Thus, the Commission systematically rejects the solicitors’ demands for political asylum for Citizenship and Political asylum. Later there has been noticed another way of refusing the political asylum demands. The solicitors were asked to wait till the adoption of the law regulating this process. On December 3, 1999 the Parliament modified art. 29 of the Law on the legal status of foreigners and stateless persons on the territory of the Republic of Moldova. Many experts expressed their points of view towards this modification and most of them considered that this modification is the first step in the development of the law on refugees and political asylum seekers. The ratification of the European Convention on Nationalities is the next step to progress.

The following analysis relates to 14 positive court’s decisions from 19 cases related to political asylum. The court emitted 12 positive decisions in the first instance (The Court of the Centre and Riscani sectors) and other 2 in the second instance (The Chisinau Tribunal) when the solicitors were refused in the first instance (the Court from Grigoriopol). This report aims at analysing the legal grounds of the courts’ decisions.

The analysis proves the following facts:

The first two cases related to the political asylum seekers who have been accused of committing administrative contravention provided for in Art. 192 of the Code of Administrative Contravention had been sued to Mr. Zigo and Mr. Bashna, both citizens of Irak. These persons have been under the UNHCR protection and possessed valid protection letters.

On February 12, 1999 the Court of Grigoriopol examined these cases and the solicitors were amended on the basis of Art. 192 with a sum of 90 lei. Both of them have applied to UNHCR for help and support.

In the second instance the Chisinau Tribunal cancelled the decision of the first instance on the following grounds:

• The police official did not explain to the accused persons his obligations and rights according to Art. 254 of the Code of Administrative Contravention;

• The accused persons were not offered an interpreter, although Art. 254 par. 1 and 260 of the Code stipulates his obligatory participation in the case investigation;

• The right to legal assistance stipulated in Art. 254 par. 1 and 257 of the Code was nor ensured;

• The given persons had protection letters released by the UNHCR Moldova that means that the given persons were under the protection of UNHCR. Nevertheless, the decision did not refer to Art. 19(2) of the Republic of Moldova Constitution, Art. 14(1) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights or other international treaties ratified by Moldova, which meaning should stand at the basis of these decisions.

Although Moldova adopted no laws on refugees and didn’t ratify the Convention from 1951, the court stated that the political asylum seekers enjoy the protections of constitutional provisions and international treaties.

The UNHCR notifications in the amicus curiae addressed to the tribunal included the specification that although the political asylum seekers entered illegally on the territory of the Republic of Moldova they should not be considered as staying illegally on the territory because the political asylum seekers must enjoy a special statute. The correct interpretation of Art. 3 of the Convention against Torture,

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Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment affirms the political asylum seekers’ right to stay on the territory of a given state while waiting for the court’s decision.

The tribunal, as well as the courts, has confirmed the fact that the solicitors cannot be punished because the state does not possess a sound mechanism of offering the asylum. The state must ensure the human rights stipulated in the Constitution.

Art. 20(1) and Art. 53(1) of the Constitution confirms the right to political asylum guaranteed by the European Convention of Human Rights. The state cannot admit the non-fulfilment of its obligations on the ground of its lacunae in the legislation.

The jurisprudence must be based on the principle of giving priority to the international legislation in the cases when the national legislation does not correspond to the international one. This principle is stipulated in Art. 4 of the Constitution of the Republic of Moldova. This principle can be applied to the protection of refugees too. This practice is also shared by the general Prosecutor ‘s Office of the Republic of Moldova in its letter addressed to UNHCR on 23 February, 2000 which answers the UNHCR demand to exonerate the abovementioned persons from penalty for the period they are waiting for the court’s decision.

The foreign citizens must present to the collaborators of the Transdniestrian guardian posts their passports and to get registered at the local authorities offices in no more than three hours. Contrary, they can be subjected to administrative punishments. Thus, the Russia and CSI representative of the International Committee for the fight with the organised crime and corruption, I.Godunov, was retained on 16 April, 2000 near the Dubasari town. Later he was escorted to Tiraspol, being subjected to administrative arrest for a period of 30 days till the verification of his identity.

Article 13 Recently, the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova delegated to the RM President the right to withdraw the RM citizenship without having the court’s verdict. Modifying the Law on Citizenship the procedure of withdrawing the citizenship was much simplified. (Through the Law 551-XV from 18.10.2001 the Art. 23 par. 1 of the law on the Citizenship was modified). In this respect, the opposition accused the governing party of monopolisation of the state power, abuse and trespass of the principle of innocence presumption.

Articles 14 – 17 Although the state legislation was to a certain extend adjusted to the European standards and norms, the reality proves that the justice meets serious difficulties in realising the principle of people’s equality before the courts instances. In this respect, a great part of population, having been wronged by the domestic courts, have to appeal to the High European Court for Human Rights from Strasbourg. The extreme number of petitions from behalf of Moldovan citizens to ECHR can prove the complexity and the extension of this phenomenon. When in April 1999, 30 petitions were registered at ECHR, then now there are thousands of such petitions addressed to ECHR. The parliamentary attorney, Constantin Lazari, member of the Moldovan Centre for Human Rights states that the Republic of Moldova is one of the few states that does not comply its obligation of writing and presenting to international organisations annual reports on the internal situation of the country. Thus, the international bodies, including the United Nations could not develop a study of the social, economic and legal situation of the Republic of Moldova.

During the last time, the tendency to subdue the justice to the state power became very obvious. Thus, the World Bank experts stated that in the process of naming the judges and prosecutors the

90 Report on the ensuring of human rights and liberties in the Republic of Moldova in 2002 transparency is not ensured, the access to legal information is limited, the number of legislative acts is not sufficient and the number of prosecutor’s offices is exaggerated and their administration is inefficient. As regard to the legal services market, the experts pleaded for the demonopolisation of the notaries and the price optimisation. In this respect, the experts mentioned that the lawyers have limited access to legal services and the demands for lawyers’ services are few. They stated that the intentions of the Ministry of the Interior to control the legal services market run counter to the international rules in this field.

In Transdniestria the possibility of contesting the legacy of the arrest in superior legal instances is not allowed. The Transdniestrian “Constitution” stipulates this right, but because on its territory the CPP of the former URSS still has legal value, this right is not guaranteed.

On 28 October, 1998 the lawyer V. Turcanu was refused the right to defend the offender P.Ceh. The prosecutor’s Office and the Justice Direction of Transdniestria confirmed the lawyer’s right but he was not admitted at the trial, because he was a citizen of the Republic of Moldova and was not registered as a lawyer in Transdniestria.

Article 18 During the last 10 years the Republic of Moldova continues to violate the citizens right to freedom of conscious and religious belief. The Moldovan authorities refused on different grounds to legalise the Basarabian Church. This case became one of the most well-known issues examined by ECHR. Despite the fact that in winter 2001 the High European Court obliged the Moldovan officials to register the Basarabian Church, it was necessary for the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe to make a resolution on 24 April, 2002 in order to solicit the Chisinau Government to conform to the ECHR Decision. In this case, the authorities from Strasbourg stated that the Republic of Moldova committed a serious abuse of power and violated the freedom of conscious and of religious belief and that to make an appeal. Although all ECHR decisions are obligatory for the member states, and the PACE resolution already constitutes in itself an exception, the Moldovan authorities continue to tergiversate the legalisation of the Basarabian Church.

In Transdniestria the freedom of religious belief formally exist, but at the official level only the Christian- orthodox church, which is subordinated to the Russian Christian-orthodox Church is recognised. The registration of the “Iehova Witnesses” church was refused on the ground of non-compliance of the basic principles of the church with the Transdniestrian “legislative norms”. On September 2, 1997, 200 kg of religious literature was confiscated. The registration of the Methodist’s Church was also refused, although at the beginning the Transdniestrian authorities agreed on its registration. According to official versions, the reason was that 5 persons, members of the church, were not citizens of Transdniestria, although they lived on its territory. In July 2000 somebody had attempted to a priest’s life, but he was only easily wounded.

Article 19 Article 19 of the Covenant, in line with the distribution of veridical, correct and impartial information also stipulates some other special responsibilities (Art. 19 (3)). These responsibilities enable the “opinion creators “ not make abuse of their power on someone’ else account. But, on the other hand, they oblige the member states to act against the excessive concentration of the press and to ensure the diversity of opinions.

The problem of the limitation of the right to free access to information has been contested in the Republic of Moldova for more than a decade of independence. Several international organisations and civil society’s representatives tried to explain to the state authorities that the National Television, which has a statute of a state institution, is always in the hands of the government. This Television

91 League for Defence of Human Rights of Moldova (LADOM) post remained the only central TV post of the country, and that’s why the governance has the tendency to take the control over it in its hands. Thus, on 23 November, 1998 Mircea Rusu, the leader of the National Liberal Party, mentioned that: “the state Media situation became ridiculous and unsupportable, compromising ourselves before the whole world “. On 24 December, 1998 a draft of law related to the transforming of the National Radiotelevion from the state institution into a public one was presented to Parliament. The proposal was submitted by one of its authors – the deputy Stefan Secareanu, deputy of the Christian Democratic Popular Party, and was rejected by the communist and “For a Prosperous and Democratic Moldova” fractions. Thus, the State Radiotelevision has remained till nowadays a sure instrument in the governance hands.

After the parliamentary elections from 25 February, 2001 and the total victory of the Communist Party, access to the state Media have only the representatives of the governing party. The opposition found itself totally removed from any democratic process. In line with the anti-governmental protests from this winter-spring a group of journalists from the National Radiotelevision declared general strike on the ground that the Government had introduced in the institution a clear censorship. The journalists have been supported by a great part of the civil society as well as by a series of international organisations working in this field. Nevertheless, the censorship continues at the national TV and Radio, the representatives of the parliamentary and extra-parliamentary opposition are not allowed to take part in debates, TV and Radio shows etc.

This problem was also one of the main demands of the protestors and was also discussed during the monitoring of the Republic of Moldova by the Council of Europe, through the PACE Resolution from 24 April, the Government of the Republic of Moldova must transform till July 31, 2002 the National Radio-Television into a public institution.

It should be mentioned that most of the decisions, rules or laws taken by the current governance neglect totally the society, the citizens’ right to information is flagrantly violated.

In Transdniestria the situation is much worse. The Media functions under the conditions of a very strict censorship. For example, on 28 January, 1999 the DSS collaborators confiscated the whole circulation of the “Новая Газета” newspaper, issued in Bender, only on the ground that it contained some opinions regarding the perspectives of solving the Transdniestrian conflict. Although, these actions have been considered illegal by the Prosecutor’s Office of Transdniestria, such actions have been systematically repeated. The access to the occidental information means is limited too. The private TV posts were not allowed to air the news till the month of September 2000.

Article 20 On this subject we can mention two cases of violation of law occurring in Transdniestria.

Counter to Art. 20, which forbids any call to national, racial or religious hate that means a hint for discrimination, hostility and violence, the “Трудовой Тирасполь” newspaper from 28 November, 1991 published a list of the names and home addresses of some police collaborators from Tiraspol who had refused to join the separatists. But in January 1993 in Bender people were handed leaflets, which called them to settle accounts with Mr. V.Gusleacov, the commissar of the police section from Bender because he was subordinated to the Ministry of Interior of the Republic of Moldova.

Article 21 The right to peaceful meeting is violated mostly in the Transdniestrian region. Thus, in Tiraspol Mr. Ilie Ilashcu has created a branch of the Moldova Popularly Front. From the very beginning, the members of this group were forced to act in semi-legal conditions and with a hostile attitude towards

92 Report on the ensuring of human rights and liberties in the Republic of Moldova in 2002 them from behalf of the local authorities. They were often subjected to preventive arrests, bodily searches, ill-treatments. Some persons were even killed. Thus, the police representatives from the Slobozia district arrested the vice-mayor of the Caragas village, Mr. A.Conovalov, on 19 May, 1992, and on 15 September, 1992 his body was found in a well. In Transdniestria there have been created several public associations which members tried to oppose the separatist manifestations (for example, the “Integrity” Organisation, in 1990 comprising more than 600 deputies from the left bank of the River Nistru). In 1996 DSS blocked the activity of the “For Confidence Building” Foundation activating in Transdniestria. During 1995 –1996 this NGO has been organising several meetings with the participation of youth from the both sides of the river Nistru. But, later the persons participating in the manifestations were supposed to pressure from behalf of local authorities. *43 Oazu Nantoi (leader of a political party) Report on the situation of persons internally removed in the Republic of Moldova. Chişinău 1999 p.18 There are a lot of NGO’s registered in Transdniestria but only those supporting the Transdniestrian authorities can act normally. Meantime, the activity of political parties and NGO’s from the right bank of the Nistru (the Republic of Moldova) is forbidden, being considered by the Transdniestrian “legislation” as belonging to another state. But, at the same time, there are two Russian political parties activating on the territory of Transdniestria. There is only one human rights NGO activating in Transdniestria – “The Amnesty”. The local authorities have been hampering for years its registration. Although, according to the Transdniestrian “legislation” the NGO’s must be registered in two months, the registration of “The Amnesty” has lasted for nine months. DSS expressed its point of view on “the inopportunity of a human rights organisation in Transdniestria “. Recently another case of violation of the right to free and peaceful meeting was registered in the Republic of Moldova. Thus, during the manifestations of antigovernment protests it had been obvious the imperfections of the current legislation in this field. Practically, in order to exert their right to free and peaceful meetings, people must get the approval of those against which they intend to protest.

Article 24 The poverty also seriously affects the health of children, and the state cannot offer a minimum support to institutions and families tat need this support, leading to the increase in the number of those infected with various diseases. Thus, from 736 persons infected with tuberculosis registered especially in Chisinau Municipality, 46 of them are children, information diffused by the Info-Prim Press-Agency on the eve of the International Day against Tuberculosis, celebrated on 24 March. The Head of the Pneumo-physiological in Chisinau, Ms. Maria Cetuleanu says that tuberculosis diseases in the case of children are frequently registered in socially vulnerably families, in which the parents are unemployed. She considers that in the case of most of these children the tuberculosis disease would have been avoided if the other infections had been treated in time. It is worth pointing out that for the prevention of this disease or in the treatment process it is necessary to ensure a feeding rich in nutritive substances that the parents of the children cannot afford. During the last year the cases of tuberculosis increased among children with 39% comparing with the previous year and with 79% comparing with 1990. Daily in the pleumo-physiological Dispensary in Chisinau over 100 children infected with tuberculosis are treated. On February 10 1999 the Flux Agency diffused the following news: „The tuberculosis situation is getting worse among the children in the Republic of Moldova. The acute crisis of vaccines against tuberculosis leads to the worsening of the health state not only of adults but also of children, declared for FLUX Press Agency the head of the epidemiological Department of the Republican Centre for Preventive Medicine (CRMP), Anatol Melnic.

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Recently issued statistical data show that in 1998, the number of children infected with tuberculosis (TBC) constituted 259. In 1997 - 235 minors. Also, if in 1997 there were registered 85 cases of TBC diseases, last year this figure represented 98 cases. According to the Health International Organisation and National Immunisation Programme of the Republic of Moldova, children should be administrated vaccines against tuberculosis at the age of 3 months, 7 years and 14 years. The Head of the General Epidemiological Department of the Republican Centre for Preventive Medicine declared for FLUX Press Agency that currently, because of the economic crisis, the revaccination campaigns for children of 7 and respectively 14 years are not organised. The only immunisations against tuberculosis that are performed to pupils, are to eliminate the debts of the previous year. “Currently we urgently need 66 thousand doses of vaccines against tuberculosis for 7-year children and 84 thousand for 14-year children”, said Anatol Melnic. The cited source also mentioned that the consequences of non-vaccination to children can be very serious. FLUX PA reminds that UNICEF has recently assured the GED that it will buy for the Republic of Moldova 150 thousand doses, worth over 9 thousand dollars. But it is worth pointing out that this part is foreseen exclusively for babies”. UNICEF specialists consider that the most important impediments on the path to the respect for the rights of children in the Republic of Moldova consists in the lack of social protection of the vulnerable families, lack of specialised institutions, imperfect legislation and the lack of a control from behalf of the state on the application of the Convention on the Rights of Children. The minors in the Republic of Moldova are sometimes illegally detained and maltreated by the police. Thus, on April 16 2001 on the street, the minor Alexandru Pastiusoc was illegally stopped and maltreated; applying him blows with legs and fists in his abdomen. The minor was banned to call his parents, the latter succeeding in telling to the witnesses the address and telephone of his parents and thus his parents became aware about this case. At the police station the policemen “built” a minutes on the basis of article 147 CCA – opposing resistance to police. During the investigation the policemen could not motivate the ground of his arrest and they way he opposed resistance. The other day, the court examined the case superficially and subjectively, and proclaimed the minor was guilty. Following a series of requests from lawyers the respective decision was cancelled, but was brought to the hospital. Currently a criminal file against the respective police representatives is in force.

Article 25 This compartment of rights is seriously violated by the self-proclaimed authorities in Tiraspol. The aforementioned, during 10 years of Moldova independence of the country, have been impeding the participation of citizens from the left bank of Nistru river to the elections that were held in the Republic of Moldova (Parliamentary polls from 1994 and 1998, early parliamentary elections from 2001, presidential elections from 1996), by banning the opening of the polling stations in this region. There have been registered cases of sewing the persons who participated in the organisation of the electoral campaign from Transdniestria. Thus, the inhabitants of Delacau village (Grigoriopol district), A. Mocreac, the leader of the movement who was supporting the territorial integrity of the Republic of Moldova, was supposed to administrative arrest in March 1994 for a 3-day period. In august he was arrested again for a 30-day period (maximum term stipulated by the legislation on the exceptional situations in the region). During the first day of the arrest Mr. A.Mocreac was ill-treated by a policeman who menaced him with death. On 15 November 1996 the employees of the “State security Department” (SSD) from Transdniestria arrested the inhabitant of Tiraspol town, M. Corabelnicov, the leader of the “Union of the liberal youth” NGO registered at the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Moldova for participation in the electoral campaign from. The vice-director of SSD, Mr. O.Gudîmo, declared to the representative of

94 Report on the ensuring of human rights and liberties in the Republic of Moldova in 2002 the MHC (Moldovan Helsinki Committee) that M.Corabelnicov was arrested on the basis of the Article 104 of the Criminal Code of the former Moldovan Soviet Socialist Republic for spreading leaflets, containing claims to disorder. But in fact, for the 15th of November was established the session of the organisation led by him, within which it was planned to adopt the decision on participating in the polls. M. Corabelnicov was released only on 30 December 1996, but in some days he disappeared. The inhabitant of Tiraspol city, N.Podreadov, member of the Social Democratic Party of the Republic of Moldova and candidate to the Parliamentary elections from 22 March 1998, participated in the organisation of the electoral campaign. But both he and other persons became the victims of menaces. In order to avoid the arrest N.Podreadov had to move to Chisinau. The “elections” in Transdniestria (“of the president”, “Supreme soviet”, local polls) are organised on the basis of contradictory laws that do not comply to the international standards. The hostile attitude of the Transdniestrian authorities against the opposition during the electoral campaigns impedes the unfolding of free and fair elections. The involvement of local and regional authorities, of security bodies in the process of submitting and registering of the contestants and in the procedures of voting and counting of the polls is characteristic for the elections in Transdniestria. The “Central Election Commission” did not consider most of breaches of the electoral legislation.

Article 26 In contradiction to the stipulations of this article in Transdniestria the rights to work is violated though the discrimination of citizens on political grounds or national origin. Those persons who are in opposition are dismissed from their job in Transdniestria. For example, in 1992 at the College of alimentary industry from Tiraspol a situation of conflict appeared as the United Soviet of labour associations asked the Transdniestrian authorities to switch under the subordination of the Transdniestrian authorities. Five teachers, who showed their disagreement - V.Jardan, I.Aramă, D.Panta, V.Cijov and M.Pascaru, were dismissed.

Article 27 Being a Balkan state, the Republic of Moldova is not an exception from the rule that characterises this region, also named as the „powder cask of the Europe”. Representatives of different ethnic minorities, cultures live together on the territory of the republic. With the collapse of the Soviet Union the original inhabitant people manifested their will for self-determination, claiming the sovereignty, independence of the new state and Romanian got the statute of official language. These changes led to divergences between the representatives of some minority ethnic minorities (especially the Russian ethnic minority) and the autochthon population, issues that generated the separation of Transdniestria and the military conflict from 1992. The case of the Republic of Moldova is unique because of the following reasons: „Despite the ethnic problems that appeared on the post-communist territory, the inter-ethnic problems of the Republic of Moldova have their specific aspect. The moldovan specific aspect is based on the fact that the ethnic minorities perceive the community life not only through the explicit ensuring of the legal framework that guarantee their rights, but also through the way the original population identifies the ethnical origin and the name of the language”. Indeed, the Republic of Moldova adopted the most democratic principles and the legislation that guarantees the rights of minorities offer and guarantee to all ethnical minorities impartially the whole legal framework existent in the occidental democracies. The Republic of Moldova perfected all the international documents, signed bilateral agreements with the respective states (Russian Federation, Ukraine, Poland, etc.) and there were not registered any violations in this respect. The issue in this field is opposite, probably a case rarely met in the international practice. Despite the fact that Romanian has been the official language for a 12-year period, many citizens of the Republic do not know it and refuse categorically to speak Romanian, considering Russian as the language of

95 League for Defence of Human Rights of Moldova (LADOM) communication. In this respect during the period 1992-2001 there were registered a series of violations of the linguistic legislation. For example, the Basa Pres Agency on 9 December 1998 reported the following: “Specialists of the mayoralty said that the linguistic legislation is not respected in the capital. Statement declared during a session the members of the municipal commission for the problems of promoting the state language. The representatives of the mayoralty stated that there haven’t been registered any essential changes in this sense since the proclamation of Republic of Moldova independence, and the situation got worse. The session approached the state of things in the urban transportation. On the basis of the discussion stood the control performed repeatedly in November in 200 trolleybuses, 40 auto buses, and 100 microbuses. According to the results of the investigation, the breaches persist both on behalf of the drivers and the persons in charge of verifying the tickets. The drivers do not announce the station in the official language, the persons who verify tickets cannot speak Romanian. The heads of the trolleybus garages from the capital, who attended the session as well, mentioned that they organised training for the aforementioned persons, but they face social, economic and political problems. They also mentioned that because of the lack of personnel persons are employed without any conditions”. These problems, without solution during 10 years led to the reappearance of inter-ethnic conflicts during the last 2 years due to the policy promoted by the current governance. Today, in the Republic of Moldova Russian is met more often than the official language. Thus, there is a dominant press in Russian, and the cinemas diffuse films mostly in Russian. In 1999 it was attempted to impose some radio stations to respect the linguistic legislation broadcast in the official language, but – without success, as the Russian press opposed a clear resistance, accusing the Government of applying nazist methods (Komsomolskaia Pravda in August 1999). The issue got considerably worse in line with the decision of the current governance to re-introduce forcedly the compulsory study of Russian in the primary educational system of the state, that led to protests among parents, pupils, teachers as well as many representatives of the civil society on the one hand and the revolt of the ethnic minorities against those who oppose to the compulsory introduction of Russian on the other hand. It is worth mentioning that during the last decade in the high educational system the right to education of ethnic minorities to study in their national language was respected; faculties with the study in the language of minorities especially in Russian were introduced. Meantime, the right of national minorities to study and speak their language is not respected as there are not respective conditions and sufficient financial resources for promoting the cultures of all minorities and of the official language, and thus the representatives of other ethnic minorities (except the Russian one) have to study and speak the Russian language as main language of communication, having serious difficulties with the knowledge of national languages. A considerable support in this respect is offered to these schools by the Embassy of the Russian Federation to the Republic of Moldova, that offers systematically books, especially in Chisinau and UTA Gagauz Yeri, and in Transdniestria many subjects are taught according to the manuals edited and approved by the Russian Federation Ministry of Education. The latest news confirm the existence of this major issue characteristic for the Republic of Moldova. Thus on 14 June 2002 the Flux News agency reported the following: “The Head of the Nationa Gagauzia University declared a hunger strike as a sign of protest against the actions of denationalisation of the gagauzian people. The head of the Gagauz University (hereinafter GUN) from Comrat, Leonid Dobrov, has recently addressed a declaration to Mr. Vladimir Voronin, in which he mentions that he will be in hunger strike as a sign of protest against the discriminatory actions, denationalisation and compulsory Russification of the gagauz people, of the Chisinau authorities.

96 Report on the ensuring of human rights and liberties in the Republic of Moldova in 2002

According to Mr. Dobrov, the Communist governance from Chisinau tends to undermine the language and the culture of this people, by “denationalising them through the forced russification of the Gagauz autonomy”.

In his declaration he mentioned that the national Gagauz University has been acting for one year but the current governance of the Republic of Moldova refused to recognise the licence issued by a decision of the Educational Department within the executive of the gagauz autonomy, with the title of state university.

In Mr. Dobrov’s opinion, through these actions the current governance from Chisinau manifest “organic intolerance” against the language and the culture of this people, as during a 8-year period since the adoption of the special statute of Gagauzia, there were not opened any educational institution in UTA Gagauz-Yeri.

Dobrov stated that “both within the local structures of the autonomy strange things occur”, as, rather than stimulating the creation of educational institutions in their mother tongue, there is a trend to eliminate the GUN, which represent the only institution in Gagauzian with the developed study of Romanian, English and Turkish.

Dobrov says that on 24 July 202 will declare hunger strike, for an unlimited term, and asks for the immediate recognition of GUN. Among his requests are the dismissal of the governance of the gagauz autonomy and Comrat municipality, “that promotes an antinational policy”, and the carrying out of early elections of all administrative and leading bodies of the autonomy.

In the same declaration he asks Mr. Voronin for the creation of many lyceums with teaching in Gagauzian, Romanian and English that would be financed from the state budget.

Sources within the Presidency declared that this declaration was given to the Vice-Prime-Minister, Mr. Valerian Cristea” Another relevant example: the news of INFO-PRIM news agency, dated 10 June 2002: „SESSION BAC 2002 – A RESPONSIBLE TASK FOR THE CONTESTANTS: MOTHER TONGUE – during 3 ours the 17 thousand candidates will prove their knowledge of the mother tongue, knowledge gathered in the years of lyceum studies. According to the decision on the organisation of exams within the BAC 2002 session and the schedule developed in this respect, the graduates from national lyceums /humanist and real profile / pass the exams on Romanian language and literature, and those from lyceums for national minorities– also humanist and real profile– on the Russian language and literature”. In order to understand correctly this matter, that is still very important for the Moldovan society the fragment from the Article of Mr. Igor Botan “Inter-ethnic relationships in the Republic of Moldova”, published on 22 April 2002. “Although ethnic problems occurred throughout the post-communist area, interethnic problems in RM have their peculiarities. The Moldovan flavour stems out of the fact that ethnic minorities in Moldova perceive their communities’ lives not just in terms of the provision of a legal framework guaranteeing their rights, but also of the way the native population identifies itself ethnically and how it calls its language.

Make no mistake, ethnic problems in RM are in fact the problems of the respective communities’ leaders. The recent letters addressed to various European forums containing allegations against certain political groups concerning statements made 10 years ago will do little to clarify matters. That is for the simple reason that the immediate reaction would be to disclose the partnership between the plaintiffs and the very forces that half a century ago displaced entire peoples from their homelands. It is true that things have been said and done, but further substitution of valid arguments with passionate emotions and elevated spirits is dangerous because subsequent return to normality takes time. This

97 League for Defence of Human Rights of Moldova (LADOM) must be avoided at a time when European integration processes are under way, if Moldova is to eventually jump on the European integration bandwagon. Everybody made mistakes, then they were encouraged to seat at the negotiations table…

Now for minority rights themselves, it is hard to find an international declaration, pact or convention RM is not a party to. The legal framework relating in one way or another to human and ethic minority rights in the Republic of Moldova comprises now over 30 papers.

Experience shows that adoption of an appropriate legal framework won’t in itself suffice to harmonise interethnic relations. To achieve this, one also needs a consensus to tone down the effects of different perceptions by citizens belonging to different ethnic groups of the domestic and foreign political climate. In this respect, president Voronin’s initiative to dialogue with representatives of minorities under the social Pact does have a point. One could say that over the past 10 years, both leaders of the majority community, and minority organisations’ leaders saw their mission as being the exclusive pursuit of their respective communities’ interests. This ethnic selfishness cannot be removed through laws, for now. Leaders of the majority community have typically justified their behaviour through the need to address historic injustices (the policy of assimilation and russification). Little did they care about the frustrations Russian-speakers had to go through during the USSR break-up period. On the other hand, minority leaders peddled the minority rights issue to get additional rights, which they duly obtained.

The Transdniestrean separatism example is extremely helpful in understanding ethnic selfishness. Separatist leaders gave the need to protect minority rights as the reason for seceding from Moldova. They proclaimed three official languages in the region, but to understand the propagandistic aim of this measure all you need is to try and get something done using the services of Transdniestrian public administration by speaking any official language (Moldovan, Ukrainian) other than Russian. The linguistic situation and that of the Moldovan population in Transdnietria is an ideal example of the situation in the former MSSR. It was ludicrous reading articles in the Russian press on how Smirnov kindly opened several Ukrainian schools in Transdniestria as a thank you to the population of Ukrainian descent for the massive support in the 2001 presidential elections.

Thus, the leaders of ethnic communities in RM have an excellent opportunity to see for themselves the starting point of the native population’s struggle for its linguistic rights 15 years ago. The solution arrived at 13 years ago was an extremely liberal one. RM’s entire linguistic legislation can be expressed in one sentence - Romanian and Russian languages are practically equal, all documents of public bodies and individuals are mandatory to be printed in both languages, civil servants have to speak both, leaving the choice of language for communication to the taxpayer. Obviously, as long as 30% of the country’s population doesn’t speak both languages this cannot be called equality de jure, otherwise the asymmetry will perpetuate on equal basis. Certainly Russian-speakers who do not intend to become civil servants can continue to rely on the right not to learn Romanian, however they should also recognise the native population’s right to “forget” Russian. It’s just that such an approach is unlikely to bring harmony to relations between people.

In this respect, there seems to be an increasing need to dialogue, be it as part of the social pact, or outside it”.

Meantime, the Transdniestrian authorities through away any attempt for instruction in Romanian. According to the Order dated din 17 March 1999, of the Educational Department, the teacher of the pedagogical college from Bender, Lidia Pocitarenco, was dismissed “for the serious violation of the linguistic legislation”, because she was applying the Latin characters in the educational process. Another attempt in the field from behalf of the Constitutional authorities of the Republic of Moldova was demonstrated by the European Court for Human Rights in the regard of a religious minority. Despite the fact that they do not belong to a different religion, the adepts of the Basarabia Church are still in minority and the state refuse to legalise this institution, violating their elementary rights.

98 Report on the ensuring of human rights and liberties in the Republic of Moldova in 2002

As it is shown in the previous materials, nevertheless, the most serious cases of civil and political rights can be observed in the Transdniestrian region that remains uncontrolled by the legal; authorities of the Republic of Moldova. The separatist regime set up a strong dictatorship, that controls everything, including the traffic in arms and drugs or networks of „money washing”. Here many abuses can be observed, deviations and breaches to each article of the Covenant. The most frequently observed cases by the international bodies and by other structures of the civil society from Chisinau are those related to the rights of some ethnic groups, especially the Romanian ethnics, who are banned the education and writing in Romanian, right to opinion and freedom of expression, information, etc. The economic situation of citizens from the left side of Nistru is as bad as that of citizens from the right side, that is why this drama is felt with the same intensity on both sides. When the Council of Europe monitors the Republic of Moldova, the Transdniestrian problems play the most important role. But during the last 10 years this major problem for the future and stability of the country was not solved yet. The Helsinki International Federation announced on 24 September 1999 that is interested in the respect for human rights in the Republic of Moldova, and the executive director Aaron Rhodes, being for the first time in Moldova said: “the Transdniestrian problem consists in the fact that nobody sees the way for solving it. On the left side of Nistru human rights are violated abusively, and the population has not the possibility to enjoy the fundamental rights including the political ones. During the last years, according to the reports of the Helsinki International Federation, a positive trend of development has been registered, but there are still tendencies that show that the power might be concentrated in only one sector of the state authority. It should be taken into account the fact that the principles of separation of powers is very important within a democratic system”. In conclusion we can state that the political and social-economic instability in the Republic of Moldova influences negatively the processes relating to the respect for and protection of human rights. This refers first of all to the social assistance, stipulated in Art. 47 of the Constitution, right to work and protection of labour (art.43), to the protection of health (art.36), to information (art.34), etc. Developed in May, 2002

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