The heads of five associations of war veterans and the chairman of the Confederation of War Veterans of Moldova invited to dialogue the group of veterans that on July 27 asked the senior administration to exclude acting minister of the interior Oleg Balan from the list of members of the new Cabinet. The veterans said the opinion expressed by that initiative group does not reflect the position of all the veterans and hadn’t been discussed with them.

Police colonel in reserve Mihai Badea, who heads the Council of Veterans from the Internal Affairs System, in a news conference at IPN on July 28, said that after Oleg Balan was named minister of the interior, a constructive dialogue between the authorities and veterans’ organizations was established.

Head of the Trade Unions Federation “Sindlex” Mihail Lascu said there were disagreements between the state bodies and trade unions at different stages, but these were solved by consensus reached during discussions. Lascu noted that he also took part in that meeting of the veterans with the minister, but didn’t hear offensive words applying to the veterans. Maybe there were misunderstandings in other circumstances, but these should be dealt with at internal level.

Ex-deputy minister of the interior Ghenadie Cosovan said what his colleagues-veterans did in yesterday’s news conference is serious because these said it was the opinion of all the veterans, but this is not true. By such statements they generate division and conflict situations at internal level. The former deputy minister called on all the veterans to have a dialog so as to identify the existing problems and find solutions to them.

The head of “Tiras-Tighina” Association Anatolie Caraman said the veterans should end this internal war and should not yield to provocations from outside. The members of “Tiras-Tighina” not only once expressed their disagreement with the minister’s opinion, but an agreement was finally reached. 

The leaders of the associations expressed their support for the current acting minister of the interior and invited their colleagues from the initiative group to a meeting at the Trade Unions House on July 28, starting at 4pm.

In a news conference on July 27, a group of Nistru war and Afghan war veterans, who are knights of the Order of Stephan the Great, demanded that acting minister of the interior Oleg Balan should apologize publicly for the slander against the veterans. Moreover, these demanded removing Oleg Balan from the list of candidates for minister in the new Cabinet or they will mount protests.