The Alliance for the Centenary, which consists of a number of unionist organizations, submitted to the Ministry of the Interior a number of complaints against the police actions taken on September 1, when three buses of the participants in the Centenary March, who were to reach the central square of Chișinău to take part in the Great Centenary Assembly, were stopped and a number of participants who protested against this were mistreated. 

In a news conference at IPN on September 3, vice president of the National Unity Bloc Oleg Chicu related that immediately after the Centenary March participants approached Chișinău, two police cars blocked the buses without any explanation. The police officers instructed the drivers to follow them. The buses were guarded by masked persons in civvies and by a number of police cars. Police officers got onto the buses, took pictures and banned anyone from getting in.

The member of Romania’s Parliament Constantin Codreanu said there were the personal belongings of the participants in the march on the buses. Initially, the buses were taken to an area near the tractor factory Tracom. Dissatisfied that the police blocked the units of transport, the participants in the Great Centenary Assembly decided to go and discuss with the police. But the police took the buses to the outskirts of the city. When the crowd started to head for the outskirts, the place of the buses was changed again.

When on the sport, the people could not have a dialog as the masked persons refused to discuss and to inform the superiors. Moreover, they resorted to violence, trying to distance them from the buses. “We were beaten and pushed to the roadside without any explanation. This shows that the current regime is in agony,” stated Constantin Codreanu.

The leader of the Public Association “Unirea ODIP” Vlad Biletski said that after the altercations, it became known that the buses were stopped because someone called 112 and informed that there were explosives on them. These statement are false as the buses were relocated for several times. But this is not done when there are suspicions that explosives are being transported.

According to Vlad Bileţchi, while being on the spot, he saw how the goods were transferred from two buses to one bus. It was later proposed that all the possessions should be taken to a police minibus and the three empty buses should be allowed to go to central Chisinau. This shows that it was an abuse and misuse of power.

The president of the National Unity Bloc Ion Leashchenko said that last week everyone witnessed anti-democratic departures in the Republic of Moldova. At the customs post, the participants in the Centenary March were prevented from entering Moldova during 24 hours. On September 1, the buses that accompanied the marchers throughout the way were sequestrated. The buses carried epoch pictures, union documents and historical papers that were to be presented to the participants in the Great Centenary Assembly.

In a press release, the General Police Inspectorate said the participants in the September 1 event, contrary to the previous statements, intended to take the buses to the Great National Assembly Square, which cannot be allowed for security reasons and because they can disrupt traffic in the area. Thus, in accordance with the legislation, the police requested the participants to unblock the road and then had to relocate by force the persons from the roadway to the roadside. All the actions taken by the police were within the law.