Re - volution - pression - public of Moldova

(6.04.2009) The first protest movement gathered 10.000 people on the streets of Chisinau in order to show their disapproval with the election fraud that gave the communist party 49.5% of the votes enabling it to name the new president.

(7.04.2009) The protests turned violent gathering around 30.000 people on the streets of the moldavian capital. Ten days before the elections the moldavian-romanian border had been closed, most foreigners being denied entry in The Republic of Moldova. On the 7th of April, the border was sealed and no one was allowed to enter the country (not even the moldavian citizens) or the capital (all the main roads being blocked by police so that more people wouldn’t come from other regions).
At the time of the protests only some Romanian journalists were in Chisinau. Apparently no other foreign journalist was present in the moldavian capital, this being the main reason why the international press kept silent until recently.

(8.04.2009) At 1 am the police started to shoot the people that were still on the streets by using rubber bullets
The moldavian president (Vladimir Voronin) accused Romania and the opposition parties of being behind the riots in Chisinau, expelled the Romanian ambassador from Moldova and decided to set up the visa regime for Romanians starting the next day.
The first proofs showed that the violent turn was a set up from the communist party in power that staged a coup d’etat in order to start the reprisals that haven’t stopped since then. Only the civil society was paying attention to these proofs, asking the moldavian authorities to reply to these charges. Even though the evidence became indisputable, until this day there was no official feedback that would at least try to infirm it.

No one would have imagined what the repercussions would be, as the repression started to show its ugly face at the local population.
Over 1000 people were taken to the police station in the last 10 days. Very few of them (mostly journalists) have been released after a few hours. On the 14th of April the city hall made public a list of 800 people that were reported missing by their friends and relatives.
These people were taken by the police and secret services agents from the streets, schools, university halls, student campuses, cafes, bus, work, home, hospitals, etc. in the days that followed the 7th of april events until this day. People say that they are terrified by the thought that they might be next, even if they were or were not on the streets of Chisinau in the day of the riots. They feel in danger at home as they feel on the streets.

The ones that were released told that they were brutally approached by undercover police or secret service agents, taken to the police station, beaten up, forced to sign false declarations that confirm them taking part in the protests, threatened to be killed, kept in inhuman conditions (25 people in a 8 square meters cell) without food and water for days, all their possessions confiscated (money, mobile phones, etc.), not allowed to get in touch with their relatives or with lawyers, not receiving medical care in case of severe trauma due to the tortures inflicted by the police officers, not informed about the reasons of their confinement and not presented any proofs that would sustain the possible accusation. They have been judged in the police station in the absence of a lawyer and the possibility to defend themselves, falling under the incidence of an arbitrary verdict.
Most of them suffered multiple contusions, injuries, mental shocks and needed to be hospitalized after being released. They went out to tell more horrible stories about the human torture that takes place in the police stations, where rumors are that girls were being raped and some people have been killed or are in danger of being killed.

Meanwhile, hundreds of people are spending the days in front of the police stations asking if their missing relatives have been arrested. They did not receive any answers, except for a very short list that was handed to them a few days ago. 10 days after the first police kidnappings started there are a lot of parents that still don’t know where their children are, many of them being underage.

The fear grew even stronger in the last 7 days after 3 young men (22, 23 and 26 years old) : Valeriu Boboc, Ion Tabuleac, Eugen Tapu have been sent dead to their families. All of them showed signs of brutal violence on their face and body. Although the families asked for answers, they did not receive any. They don’t know who, where, when and why killed the young boys. According to the forensic medical expertise one of them died by intoxication with an unknown gas, another was electrocuted by an electricity pillar and a third one hanged himself with the shoe laces (he weighted over 80 kg). The sarcasm of the official expertise that’s dictated by a corrupt repressive system shows the absolute low degree of humanity that some people can reach (today the authorities from Chisinau, declared to the EU officials that the signes of violence on the faces and bodies of the people, were PAINTED!!!!). Even though the official declarations were contested by the relatives of the victims no other explanations have been received.
People still keep in mind th case of another guy shot in the head by the police in Moldova 1 month ago, in the night of March 15th - Alexei Vlas www.cmaq.net/node/32316 , no police man was charged for that till now and the only declarations that were considered by the prosecutors in order to start an inquire were the ones from police.

Until now no foreign institution investigated the cases of torture and abuse in spite of the many demands that were addressed to a large number of foreign bodies that would be responsible to conduct a thorough investigation that would try to put an end to this situation. The EU bodies were much more firm in condemning the violent riots on the 7th of april than to investigate the cases of torture and deaths that are taking place in Chisinau. It seems that, also for them, breaking the windows of the Parliament is much more important, than the lives of a few hundred people that are in danger to be killed or aggressed by the mad and wild police men that the moldavian dictatorship unleashed 10 days ago.

After many evidences of torture from people illegaly detained, after the cases of the first 2 dead people were made public and after the European Union announced the sending of a special investigation commission to Chisinau, on the 15th of April the moldavian (ex) president, Vladimir Voronin declared on the public TV that he will “amnesty” most of the ones that were arrested following the 7th of April events. This so called amnesty didn’t happen until today and it's not even possible according to moldavian law, first of all because the mandate of Voronin expired on 7th of april and secondly because the amnesty has to be voted by the new Parliament which will be formed in at least 2 months from now.
But the people are still wondering how many dead people will be sent to their families in coffins, how many of the ones that disappeared will ever reappear, how many of them will physically and psychologically recover? Does recovery also mean to pretend that they forget about everything? How will they be able to reintegrate in a society that tortured them and disregarded all their rights? How will they…? Or where would they go? Westwards the border with Romania and the UE is closed…Eastwards they are being treated as slaves and are being abused by the Russian police forces.
For a long time now, Moldova didn’t offer any future and pushed the people out of the country to work on foreign labor markets…Today Moldova proved that it can only build the present through violence, brutality, lies, terror, cruelty and deceit.

In the future to come Moldova has only a handful of choices: become a totalitarian dictatorship, change into a completely different political regime that will try to get legitimacy by improving the lives of its citizens, or disappear from the map by spreading in all directions where its citizens are actually living nowadays.

The people there deserve to have a better life outside the geostrategic cage that Moldova is on the map of a divided Europe. For the current situation and for all the recent abuses, there are no excuses…And where there are no excuses, no lies are needed either.