Members of the Association “Parliament 90” accuse the ruling party of intentionally burning the original of Moldova’s Declaration of Independence adopted by the first Parliament on August 27, 1991. They say that such an act is a real coup and that de jure Moldova does not exist as a state anymore, Info-Prim Neo reports. “Without this document we cannot prove who we are. It’s like we have lost the birth certificate,” Alexandru Arseni, a member of the presidium of the Association, told a news conference on Wednesday. He said that we witness a true coup d-etat staged by Russia through the agency of the current Government. The head of the first Parliament Alexandru Mosanu said that the Moldovan state will not disappear from the map because it is recognized by the whole world, but stressed that the Declaration of Independence was burned intentionally. This is a moral blow, a crime and irresponsibility by the present Government, he said, adding that the members of the first Parliament have never known where the document is. Other states keep such documents in museums and people from all over the world queue up to see them. Alexandru Mosanu also said that this document will never be restored as many of those that signed it passed away. He expressed his indignation at the statements made by the PCRM candidate Mark Tkachuk, who named the Declaration “a temporary document that is in Bucharest”. “An independence document sees its birth, but does not see its death,” he said. Mosanu stated that when the statehood of a country is at risk, the first step that the Government takes is puts the important and historical documents in a safe place. As the Moldovan authorities did not do it, such a move might have been planned by them. “If they were speaking about the burning of the Declaration of Independence during the protests, the person that set fire to it knew what it was,” he said. In a statement, the members of the Association “Parliament 90”demand that Vladimir Voronin resign over an irresponsible attitude towards the symbols of the country’s independence and policy aimed against the principles and values stipulated in the Declaration. They also ask the Prosecutor General’s Office to investigate the case and open a legal case over non-fulfillment of the constitutional duties and complicity in destroying the document. They call on the Council of Europe to probe how the Declaration of Independence was destroyed. The Association’s president Pantelei Sandulachi said that the relevant bodies have not yet answered whether the Declaration was indeed burned during the April 6-7 violent protests. He also said that allegedly the shorthand reports of the first sitting of the first Parliament were also burned. At a news conference on Wednesday, the outgoing President of Moldova Vladimir Voronin said that the Declaration of Independence was kept in the Parliament’s achieve that was 80% destroyed. Therefore, there are many questions that cannot be answered. The copy of the document is safe in the Presidential Office, Voronin said.