Policemen will be additionally taught law on assemblies

The police officers will be instructed additionally so that they know very well the law on assemblies. Such a conclusion was reached by representatives of the police and the civil society during a seminar on the observance of the right to assembly in Moldova. Petru Corduneanu, division head at the Ministry of Internal Affairs, said during discussions that the policemen will continue to be taught so as to reduce the number of cases when the right to assembly is violated. He stressed that those that break the law are now disciplinarily punished. “The disciplinary punishments are sufficient for observing the law on assemblies and there is no need to use criminal punishments. But many problems appear because the organizers do not always announce the local public administration about the meetings or the representatives of mayors’ offices do not announce the police so that they can ensure public order during the event,” Corduneanu said. Deputy Minister of Justice Nicolae Esanu said that the right to assembly was and will be violated in Moldova and in order to redress the situation the relevant cases should be investigated, while the persons to blame punished. “We cannot say that the rights of the people will not be violated anymore, but we have to investigate all the cases when the right to assembly is violated and every person to blame for such violations will be punished,” Esanu said. According to the deputy minister, most of the violations are committed when the protesters use a special method to express their opinion and offend the police officers. “The police officers should learn from the national jurisprudence and avoid causing material damage to the state when they do not act in accordance with the law. The courts prove that certain acts by the police are not justified and they cause damage to the state as well,” said Sergiu Ostaf, the director of the Resource Center for Human Rights (CreDO). According to him, the police should ensure the security of the protesters and hamper not connected persons from hindering the holding of peaceful public meetings. Representatives of the civil society, including the leader of Hyde Park Association Ghenadie Brega, expressed dissatisfaction with the fact that the high-ranking police officers of the Interior Ministry that nonprofessionally coordinate the activity of their inferiors are not punished. “Representatives of the Ministry holding important posts banned all the meetings staged by Hyde Park. Therefore, not the policeman that received instructions is to blame, but his superior that takes all the decisions. It is not the ignorance of the law that hinders the holding of public meetings, but the ill will of the representatives of the Ministry, who consciously violate the law,” Brega said. In the same connection, Anatol Munteanu, the head of the Center for Human Rights of Moldova, assumed the role of mediator between the civil society and the authorities in order to ensure the right to free assembly. According to the monitoring carried out by CreDO, the activism of the ordinary people rose by 30-40% after the new law on assembly took effect. This fact can be regarded as a positive factor in guaranteeing the right to assembly. Last yearend, the high-ranking official of the Interior Ministry Petru Corduneanu was filmed when he was swearing at the leaders of the human rights NGOs that were peacefully and legally protesting in front of the Ministry.