Ribnita authorities must return confiscated school building – OSCE Mission Head

The Head of the OSCE Mission to Moldova, Ambassador Louis O’Neill, has urged local authorities in the Transnistrian town of Ribnita to return a confiscated building to the school teaching in Latin script located in the town. According to the Mission’s Spokesperson Claus Neukirch, Ambassador O’Neill paid a visit Friday, November 24 to the school, and said that this building was constructed for the pupils of the Moldovan Lyceum Evrica, it belongs to them and should be returned to the school without further delay. The visit to Ribnita was part of Ambassador O’Neill’s fact-finding trip to learn about the situation in six Romanian-language education institutions in the region that use the Latin script, in accordance with the curriculum of the Moldovan Education Ministry. The Head of the OSCE Mission met the director of the Evrica lyceum at the school’s temporary premises, located in a kindergarten at the local steel factory. Ambassador O’Neill expressed gratitude to the management of the factory for its willingness to provide this assistance to children. The official also visited the original school building which was stormed by Transnistrian militia and then confiscated during the height of the school crisis in summer 2004. The lyceum was built by the Government in Chisinau and was nearly finished when the Transnistrian militia took it by force. “The building has not been in use for more than two years now and has begun to deteriorate. This is unacceptable,” said Ambassador O’Neill. Local authorities in Ribnita had signaled in March their readiness to compromise on this issue, but have thus far failed to follow through. Over 600 children attend the Romanian Lyceum in Ribnita.