Human right NGOs draw conclusions, make plans after Thursday's protest

Representatives of NGOs dealing with human rights drew the conclusions of Thursday's protest march at a round table hosted by Info-Prim Neo agency. On the eve, on December 25, a number of NGOs picketed administrative institutions in Chisinau and filmed how the police was hampering the attendees to protest. The organizations eye to lodge a complaint to the General Prosecutor's Office referring to the incorrectness of the police's conduct in events in front of the buildings of the presidency, parliament and government, said Sergiu Ostaf, the executive manager of the Resources for Human Rights Center (CreDO). The protesters will also ask the Interior Ministry to carry out an internal inquest to sanction the officers guilty of obstructing the manifestations. Amnesty International Moldova's executive manager Evghenii Goloşceapov has said the manifestation supporting people whose right to free speech had been breeched was a success. “I think we did it pretty well. We wanted to end, symbolically, the manifestation which had not taken place: laying a fir tree to the Interior Ministry, I went with masks of pigs and donkeys to support Anatol Matasaru,” Golosceapov said. A Moldovan businessman, Anatol Matasaru, has won international fame after he had dressed a donkey in police clothing and a pig – in a jacket on which he wrote 'porcuror' (a pun deprecative of prosecutors), on December 18. The police had hindered him then to reach Chisinau's downtown, while a Chisinau court fined him 200 lei. The human rights defending NGOs have decided to ask the Interior Ministry for a copy of the renowned internal regulation, the policemen refer to in order to chase away protesters from the authorities' buildings. In case that regulation runs counter the law, the NGOs will sue it to declare it void. The practice of applying the law on assemblies will be the subject of a reunion that the NGOs plan to ask to have with the relevant committees of the Parliament. A similar reunion they want to have with the General Prosecutor's Office to learn why the policemen obstructing the manifestations are not punished. Thursday's protest was attended by leaders and representatives of the Association for Participative Democracy ADEPT, Amnesty International Moldova, the Independent Press Association, the Acces-Info Center, the Law Center from Causeni, the Journalistic Investigative Center, the Independent Journalism Center, the MEMORIA Center, the Romas' National Center, CReDO, Eco-TIRAS, Hyde Park, the Human Rights Institute, the Lawyers for Human Rights, Promo-Lex, the International Society for Human Rights.