Moldova's decision not to vote on UN resolution has no connection with neo-Nazi manifestations, Foreign Ministry

Moldova's abstention from voting on the UN Resolution on the Inadmissibility of Certain Practices that Contribute to Fueling Contemporary Forms of Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance has no connection with neo-Nazi manifestations. This is how the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration of Moldova responded to the Communist Opposition's request to explain why Moldova did not vote on the resolution on November 19, 2009, Info-Prim Neo reports. Foreign Minister Iurie Leanca said in the Parliament that the decision to abstain from voting on the given resolution was made by the Communist government in 2005 and confirmed by its abstentions in 2006, 2007 and 2008. “Consequently, the Communist parliamentary group should know very well the reasons and arguments for such a decision,” the minister said. Leanca explained that the text of this year's resolution does not differ from that adopted the previous years. This fact made the Moldovan authorities decide to abstain again from voting and to align themselves with the European Union's common position on this subject. “We remind that the aim of the given resolution is to give an appropriate description to all the contemporary forms of racism, not only to the neo-Nazi re-manifestations,” Iuirie Leanca said. The Foreign Ministry says the abstentions by 55 countries, including all the EU member states and the associated or partner countries like Moldova, were determined, as in the previous years, by the lack of balance in the final text that does not include all the proposals submitted by a number of delegations, including about the non-selective treatment of the racial practices, in accordance with the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.