CoE must continue monitoring Moldova - Stefan Uratu

The Council of Europe has to continue monitoring Moldova. The need to prolong this process is dictated by the current realities, said Stefan Uratu, the head of the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights (HCHR), commenting on Tuesday’s actions of the police, when several members of the Liberal Party (LP) and Pro TV Chisinau reporting crew were detained by police and the tape of the DTV channel was erased. According to Uratu, these actions damage Moldova’s image abroad, while the effect anticipated by their authors who expected that they would do the authorities a favour, was absolutely contrary. The HCHR leader condemned the police’s intervention against certain persons who were walking in the street, and the act of erasing the video tape, which, according to the cited source, is a blatant violation. Uratu said he will request to set up a committee composed of NGOs and representatives of parliamentary factions, which would examine these abuses of the police. HCHR issued an Appeal requesting the Police Commissariat to annul the administrative proceedings initiated against the participants in the “unauthorised march”, and to make a public apology on behalf of those involved in the conflict against their will. At the same time, the Chisinau Prosecutor’s Office is to carry out investigations into the case to establish the real cause for which the police had intervened, and grounds on which the members of LP and “Hyde Park” NGO were hindered from exercising their constitutional rights, while reporters (PRO TV, DTV etc.) – from doing their job. The Committee also seeks to let the public know about the results of this investigation. More than one police squad intervened on Tuesday, during a march heading for the Central Cemetery, where LP representatives planned to lay flowers at the graves of the National Assembly members on the occasion of the 89th anniversary of the unification of Romania with Basarabia. 15 members of LP, including the president of the party Mihai Ghimpu, and vice-president Dorin Chirtoaca, were arrested and transported to the Centru Police Office. Later, the Centru District Court fined Chirtoaca on grounds of participated in an unauthorised march. The others were to appear before court on Wednesday. The reporting crew of Pro TV Chisinau was also arrested, but a few moments later it was set free. The second crew, of the DTV channel, was arrested in the headquarters of the Centru District Police Office. The policemen took out the tape from their camera and erased it.