Civil society calls on Transnistrian residents to boycott referendum from September 17

The Democracy and Human Rights Forum from the left side of Nistru River called on all the Transnistrian residents to boycott the referendum from September 17, organized by the Tiraspol regime. The Democracy and Human Rights Forum from the left side of Nistru River undertook on Wednesday, September 13, a round table with representatives of the civil society from the left and right banks of Nistru River. The Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in the Republic of Moldova, Promo-Lex, Citizens’ Union, Transnistrian Association, other NGOs, representatives of local administration, study institutions from Ribnita, Slobozia, Grigoriopol, Tiraspol also took part in the event. The participants have signed an Appeal of the civil society representatives regarding the unconstitutional referendum from the Transnistrian region of the Republic of Moldova and adopted a final document. The civil society insisted on the unconditioned retreat of all troops and munitions of the Russian Federation from the territory of the Republic of Moldova, requested the Republic of Moldova authorities to declare the Russian ambassador, Nicolai Reabov, as “persona non grata” and, as a reaction to the Russian Federation actions, to recognize the independence of the Republic of Chechnya. During a press conference that took place immediately after the meeting of the round table, the HCHRM president Stefan Uratu stated that the participants declares themselves against the participation of the population to this prank, organized by the Smirnov-Antiufeev clan that holds the region’s population as hostages in order to hold on to the power. If the population comes to vote, the results will be forgeries, as the outcome of the referendum was long before decided in Moscow. According to Uratu, the referendum will have no legal effect, and its results will not be recognized neither on the internal nor international arenas. A teacher in the “Lucian Blaga” lyceum from Tiraspol, Raisa Padureanu, declared for the journalists that the situation of the population from the left side of Nistru river is very difficult, as people are intimidated by aggressive activists to pronounce for the exit of Transnistria from the Republic of Moldova. The principal of the same lyceum, Ion Iovcev, claims that the population from the region lives like hostages, doesn’t have veridical information, its rights are not respected, including the right to speak Romanian. “If the Russian Federation doesn’t want to have several independent republics, it should stop supporting the referendum, and those that wish to live in an integral Moldova should not take part in the referendum”, Iovcev added. Currently 300 thousand citizens of RM live on the territory of the Republic of Moldova from the left bank of Nistru.