Carabineers may face, but also cause certain problems, Sergiu Ostaf

A series of problems concerning the carabineers’ ability to manage public order, including both the corporate culture of the carabineer system and the approach to public freedoms in Moldova in general, may appear in the near future, director of the Resource Center for Human Rights (CReDO) Sergiu Ostaf stated for Info-Prim Neo. ”There are seven bills, among which the Law on Carabineers and the Law on the Organization and Functioning of the Police, which are designed to essentially restructure the police system in Moldova. Under them, the task of maintaining public order will be transferred to the carabineers, while the police will continue to deal with investigation activities,” said Sergiu Ostaf. According to him, the carabineers may encounter certain problems in performing the new task as they have never carried it out before. The CReDo director said the problems can worsen given the rather obscure corporate culture in the activity of the police. The lack of instruments for making the carabineers involved in public order maintenance more responsible is another reason for concern. “We should not forget that the carabineer units today are nothing else but military institutions because they include persons doing the military service who will be entrusted with the task of maintaining public order. Imagine that all the public meetings taking place in Chisinau or in the country will be facilitated by carabineers with a military corporate culture. Problems can arise as in 2006, 2007, 2008, when the police was unable to correctly manage the meetings,” said Sergiu Ostaf. He also said that under the aforementioned bills, the central apparatus of the Ministry of the Interior will be demilitarized so that it includes only public servants. “The goal is very clear and I think the demilitarization of the central apparatus should be encouraged. At the same time, there are a number of drawbacks as regards the central apparatus’s control over the employees of the police department. The bill regarding the police department does not contain performance indices and does not ensure enough transparency. It does not say how the police department will report on its results to the central apparatus and to society,” stated Sergiu Ostaf. The strategy for reforming the Ministry of the Interior includes eight stages and is aimed at fulfilling the commitments made by Moldova in the context of the national program for implementing the EU-Moldova Plan of Action for Liberalizing the Visa Regime. The reform is expected to lead to the improvement of the quality of the services provided by the Ministry and its subdivisions. There will be created a simple and accessible system of services and ensured an appropriate and sustainable mechanism for increasing employees’ salaries.