EU official thinks April events wouldn't have happened had Moldova respected human rights recommendations

If Moldova had implemented the recommendations of the Council of Europe and the UN concerning respect for human rights, the April events wouldn't have happened, Gunnar Wiegand, the head of the European Commission's Unit for Relations with Eastern Europe, has stated on Thursday at a meeting in Chisinau. The meeting brought together human rights experts from Moldova, the European Union, the European Commission, the European Court for Human Rights (ECHR) and the OSCE. The convention was unofficial and, according to Moldova's governmental agent at ECHR Vladimir Grosu, represented “an example of dialogue between the competent authorities of Moldova and the EU authorities concerning respect for human rights”. “We have discussed the application of torture and inhumane treatments in Moldova as well as freedom of expression. It is the EU's initiative to hold such conventions, at least once a year. As a rule, at the end of these discussions certain conclusions and recommendations are made, and their goal (of the Europeans) is to see how these recommendations are carried out and promoted”, explained Grosu. “Today's meeting is important especially in the context of the events that took place in Chisinau in April, which was a tragedy for all the Moldovan people and a shock for the international organizations involved in the process of democratizing Moldova”, stated Gunnar Wiegand. According to him, those events demonstrated that there are many things undone in what concerns the recommendations of the Council of Europe and the UN. In the opinion of the European official, the resolution of the problems should not be hampered by the electoral conditions and require a “national effort”. Wiegand expressed his hope that, following the establishment of the special commission for the investigation of the April events, “a real effort and not a partisan one” will be made. Moldovan Minister of Justice Alexandru Tanase said the meeting with the experts is an “extremely important” event, the expected outcome of which is not just the signing of documents, but also the conveyance of certain messages, internally as well as internationally, concerning the attitude of the new government toward the subject of human rights. “This is the toughest burden inherited from the previous government and which needs immediate intervention. If there are no human rights safeguards it will never be possible to effect economic reforms and eradicate corruption so that the citizens of Moldova could have a decent living at home” said the minister. Talking about the April events, Tanase said that “while buildings can be repaired, human lives can never be recovered”. He said the behavior of the police in those events cannot be justified. In the wake of the April events, there were filed more than 80 complaints against the police. So far only one police officer has been pronounced guilty.