A group of war veterans announced a protest rally to be held Thursday while Parliament will assemble for a plenary meeting. They called on farmers, carriers and others to join the event.

“We urge war veterans, supporters of war veterans, farmers, transporters, teaching staff from the State University of Tiraspol, the Agrarian University and other educational institutions, civil society members and all the citizens of Moldova who are willing to support us to come on September 19, at 10:00 a.m., when the Parliament session will take place. Please come out and fight for our rights in a peaceful protest”, said Anatolie Bîzgu, president of the Transnistrian Refugee Movement, during a press conference today.

According to Bîzgu, after a protest rally held earlier this month, the veterans waited for a reaction from the government: “I thought that the state authorities would come out and say that they have changed their mind about scrapping the benefits as proposed by draft Amendment 194, that they will comply with the rulings of the European Court of Human Rights  and the Supreme Court to provide housing for war veterans, that they will approve the action plan Memory, Honor, Respect in the shortest possible time. But none of this happened”, added Bîzgu.

He went on to condemn a rival group of veterans and bloggers with apparent pro-government views of starting a “smear campaign” against the protesters and of trying to portray the protests as being orchestrated by “the hand of Moscow”. Bîzgu also criticized the “slanderous” attitude showed by PAS lawmaker Boris Marcoci at the veterans’ protest.

“We are forced by the situation to revolt and if the authorities do not hear us, go out to protest, because it’s not normal that there is no response to our grievances for so long", declared Anatolie Bîzgu.