War veterans warn of protests after April vote

“We'll be quiet during the race, but after the elections we'll restart our protests. They will be less peaceful and more extensive, unless the next Parliament refuses to consider raising the pensions for the people disabled by the military conflicts in which Moldova engaged”, Anatol Caraman, the leader of the veterans' association Tiras-Tighina, told a news conference on Thursday, February 26. According to him, the Law 94-XVI adopted last spring made a dramatic cut in the benefits for the war invalids. “We believe it was a method for the government to have their revenge for the fact that the law enforcement bodies and the army refused in 1989-1992 to help the Communists keep their power over this land”, declared Caraman. According to Tiras-Tighina's vice president Sergiu Tataru, the war veterans are ill-treated by the authorities. “The veterans who fought on the Nistru are intimidated, held in derision, treated like enemies of the people, instead of being honored as heroes”, he said. In a joint statement signed by a number of veterans' organizations, it is also said: “the Communists and their Christian-Democratic allies have dipped their hands into the pockets of the WWII veterans, who were detained in Nazi concentration camps. The bonuses to the pensions fell from 1,900.36 lei to 300 lei”. The leaders of these organizations urged the electorate to vote for right-wing parties and “categorically not for the parties of the foes and traitors”. In May 2008, the Moldovan Parliament adopted a law which diminished the amount of benefits paid to war veterans. Later, on November 18, under the pressure of the veterans' associations a task force was created to negotiate better social welfare for this category of people, but no decision has been taken by the parliament yet.