Government of Moldova in exile in Bucharest for four days

[Info-Prim Neo article from the Series “Moldova-20! Whereto?”] On the first day of the Moscow Putsch, on August 19, 1991, two Chisinau officials – Foreign Minister of the Government of the 1990s Nicolae Tau and First Deputy Speaker of Parliament of the 1990s Ion Hadarca left for Bucharest, where they organized the Government of Moldova in exile. During four days, Moldova had a Government in exile. The first question discussed with Romania’s administration was certainly Moldova’s Independence, remembered Nicolae Tau. Everything started on the first day of the Moscow Putsch. That morning, Nicolae Tau was surprised by an interurban telephone call. It was a correspondent of the BBC radio station in London. The correspondent’s question was direct: was he aware of the events in Moscow and how the consequences of the Putsch will affect the Soviet Union in general and Moldova in particular? “Expressing my personal opinion, not the viewpoint of the Ministry that I represented, I answered that at union level the Putsch will intensify and stimulate the dismemberment of the Soviet Union. There are enough arguments in this respect. There will appear personalities whose dignity, career and life were prejudiced mercilessly and unjustly by the Soviet power. They will fight on barricades against dictatorship because they are offered a chance that mustn’t be missed. This was my answer,” said Nicolae Tau. He related that that day a presidential decree was signed, whereby Mircea Snegur was named chairman of the National Security Council that included Head of Parliament Alexandru Mosanu, Prime Minister Valeriu Muravschi, Foreign Minister Nicolae Tau, chairman of the National Committee on State Security Tudor Botnaru, Minister of the Interior Ion Costas and director general of the Partnership for Military Problems Nicolae Chirtoaca. “The Council held a meeting in the evening of that day. After the meeting, Mircea Snegur asked me to remain. He looked at me piercingly and told me: We decided that you and First Deputy Speaker Ion Hadarca will go to Bucharest to organize there the Government of the Republic of Moldova in exile,” said Nicolae Tau. He stated that Mircea Snegur asked him to organize the departure and work in Bucharest. “I returned to the office of the Foreign Ministry and contacted the then Foreign Minister of Romania Adrian Nastase, who I informed about the decision of the National Security Council. He told me we should hurry up as they possessed information that the border may be closed at 12 midnight,” he said. After crossing the border, at 5.30 Nicolae Tau and Ion Hadarca went to the Foreign Ministry, where Adrian Nastase was in his office. “I should mention the prodigious contribution of Adrian Nastase to establishing the relations between Romania and Moldova. He was like a brother for us, but he also was a politician and diplomat with greater experience. He left aside a number of current duties and, through the agency of his counterparts abroad, helped us to find out which countries and when will welcome and recognize the Declaration of Independence of Moldova,” said Nicolae Tau. He also said that they later discussed the key issue – Moldova’s independence. “In the afternoon of that day, we had meetings with the President of Romania Ion Iliescu, Prime Minister Petre Roman, Chairman of the Senate Alexandru Barladeanu, and Chairman of the Deputies’ Assembly Dan Martian and discussed the situation in Moscow and in Chisinau. None of the interlocutors denied they know what was going on. They were furnished with information by the Romanian Embassy in Moscow,” said the former minister. During the next three days, Nicolae Tau and Ion Hadarca had stayed at the Foreign Ministry more. “Adrian Nastase took us under his wing. We had access everywhere and had been in contact with highly-qualified specialists of the Ministry. We were shocked by the fact that the Romanian diplomats were much more concerned than we about the events in Moscow and how they threatened the former Soviet republics and the countries of the former Socialist camp,” said Nicolae Tau. Until August 24, Nicolae Tau and Ion Hadarca stayed in Bucharest, where they had been permanently in contact with Moldova’s Foreign Ministry, the Government, the Presidential Office and President Mircea Snegur. “We knew that a meeting was organized in the Great National Assembly Square on August 20, which involved about 20,000 people,” said the ex-minister. His family was in Chisinau in that period. “On August 24, we returned to Chisinau. We were accompanied by the traffic police and got to Chisinau in four hours,” he said. On August 27, Nicolae Tau took part in the Great National Assembly that started at 10.00. At 12.00, the MPs stated work and adopted the Declaration of Independence and Moldova’s anthem “Desteapta-te Romane...”. Nicolae Tau said on August 28 he was invited by the Romanian Foreign Ministry to pay a working visit to Romania in order to sign the protocol on the establishment of diplomatic relations. “I went to Romania as Foreign Minister of the independent Moldova already,” he stated. “That experience was useful as we all were united and knew what we must do. Currently, this is not felt even if we have a common goal – the integration into the EU. That euphoria that exited during the National Assemblies now does not exit event if the April 209 events showed that democracy has power in Moldova,” said Nicolae Tau, adding those events should give a stimulus to the people so that concerted effort is made to make progress on the path to European integration.