Hyde Park ready to stage protests over Rebreanu bust

The NGO Hyde Park says it will stage protests unless the authorities hurry up with the installation of the bust of Romanian writer Liviu Rebreanu on the Classics' Alley in Chisinau. The announcement came in response to the authorities' failure to attend a public debate addressing the subject, held at Liviu Rebreanu Library on Saturday, Info-Prim Neo reports. The idea to place Rebreanbu's bust on the Classics' Alley, a “walk of fame” dedicated to prominent figures of Moldovan/Romanian classic literature, dates to 2003, and the debate participants blamed the previous communist government for delaying the installation, because of its “unwillingness to allow a Romanian symbol in Moldova”, says Oleg Brega, a Hyde Park member. “Once his work is studied in schools, once the streets and lyceums are named after him, this bust deserves to exist, they like it or not”, added Oleg Brega. Hyde Park invited representatives from the Ministry of Culture, the municipal Culture Department, the Writers' Union and the Artists' Union to attend the debate, but no one came. “I came here today as a culture consumer to hear directly from them why they are delaying this installation. The new government doesn't care to tell us either, and I feel disrespected. They could have found 15 minutes to join us today, when they are not busy at work. Their absence is totally unjustified”, says one participant named Gheorghe Lupusoru. Since 2003 Hyde Park has repeatedly asked for the installation of Rebreanu's bust and its members were even arrested once for that, when they demonstrated peacefully outside the Culture Ministry building in 2006. The debate participants think it would be opportune to install the bust on November 27, when Chisinau will hold commemorations for Liviu Rebreanu. It is also a deadline set by Hyde Park, after which it will take to the streets to protest.