Former political prisoner from Tiraspol Ilie Ilascu accuses the former Minister of Defence Valeriu Pasat of impeding him from setting free his imprisoned colleagues (Ilascu group). The Romanian senator made this statement at the Science conference “War on Nistru: causes and consequences” on February 20, Info-Prim Neo reports. Ilascu says that after he was set free in 2001, he has prepared an operation to set free his comrades, but it could not be brought to life because of Pasat who went to Bucharest to complain to the intelligence services. “I was advised by my comrades not to do this operation, as the proceedings at the European Court for Human Rights already started. I chose ECHR to accuse and condemn the Russian Federation although a rescue operation would have been successful at 95%”, the senator says. Ilascu denied the statements of Russia about the fact that the lawsuit at ECHR is political, saying that those 17 judges had irrefutable proofs about the start of the war and involvement of Russia in the war. More, the involvement continues until the present days, but the international bodies do not know this fact. According to Ilascu, he always pleads in favour of his colleagues detained in Tiraspol and although he is the representative of Romania at the Council of Europe he deals mainly with the problems of Moldova, because the “representatives of Moldova at the Council of Europe are silent, except Valeriu Cosarciuc. Maria Postoico is the way she is and Vlad Cubreacov says he must talk with his boss”. Referring to the events occurred in 1992, Ile Ilascu said “they were not an ethnical conflict or a civil war, they were an attack of the Russian Federation over Moldova in order to include in its zone of influence”. The Romanian senator says that this war could not be avoided in any way, in light of the fact that it was planned by Moscow to hinder Moldova’s reunification with Romania. Ilascu says that besides the hundreds of heroes who fought for the integrity of Moldova, many cowards and traitors participated in the war, including high officials. “My group was working at Chisinau’s order. When I was arrested in the Transnistrian region together with other 32 persons, the receipts of the group members according to which they received guns had been thrown in my face, although they should have been kept at the Moldovan Ministry of Security” Ilascu says. Also, he accuses many statesmen of the fact he qualifies as “treason and war crimes”. “I am a bad Christian, because I will not forgive them. We were detained in Hilinaia prison for several years, although we could have been easily set free, but we were abandoned by “the men of the nation” from Chisinau, Ilascu stated. According to the Romanian senator, in 1992 Moldova has also lost the informational war because the world was informed about the events via the Russian media. “I checked all the archives in Romania and I did not find a single request for help sent by Moldova”.