April 7 events in the context of Moldova’s Independence at its 18th anniversary. Info-Prim Neo interview with Vlad Filat

[{The April 7 protests that resulted in acts of violence, including clashes between the protesters and the police, human victims and destruction of the buildings of the Parliament and the Presidential Office, constituted the most prominent evens this year and, perhaps, one of the rarest and memorable events in Moldova’s period of independence. Paradoxically, the events were not treated as such by the political class and the society. The survey on the April 7 events initiated by the news agency Info-Prim Neo among leaders of political parties of different orientations and of the civil society aims to diagnose the quality of Moldova’s Independence at its 18th anniversary and of the society in general and to find answers to the question “what should we do next?” This time, the questions are answered by the president of the Liberal Democratic Party of Moldova Vlad Filat.}] [– What did the April 7 events represent for Moldova’s Independence: an occurrence or a phenomenon?] – The April 7 events have no connection with the Independence of our state. The Communists Party prepared a wide-scale provocation to hinder the peaceful protests of the young people against vote rigging so as to justify the settling of accounts with the Opposition and the abandonment of the pro-European course. Those events were neither an incident, nor a phenomenon. They were a dirty provocation typical of authoritarian regimes. Such provocations were recorded in history. The international commission that we will set up will give us very clear answers to all the questions. [– Why the violent clashes, acts of vandalism, human victims and other blamable conducts could not be avoided?] – The violence could not be avoided because there were special commanders who were instructed to destroy and set fire to the buildings of the Parliament and the Presidential Office. Instead of stopping these acts, the police stimulated them as well as they could. The attempts of the politicians from the Opposition failed as the groups of provokers were well-trained and did their ‘job’ well. As to the repression of the peaceful protesters, they had a well-defined goal – to frighten the young people so that they do not dare to protest against the Communist regime in the future. Crimes were committed and innocent people were killed. I’m sure that the persons to blame will be held accountable. [– Why the causes of these events weren’t probed and the results weren’t published even five months afterward?] – Those that planned the scheme and put it into action could not truthfully investigate those events. The decision to create a commission to investigate the April 7 events, which included only representatives of the Communists, showed that the regime wanted to hide the truth. [– Can you draw an analogy between the April 7 events and some other historical events?] – The setting of fire to Rome by Nero in order to hide the crimes committed against the Christians and to the Reichstag by fascists in order to justify the extermination of the opposition. [– What lessons the independent Moldovan should learn from the April 7 events?] – The main conclusion is that the authoritarian, anti-democratic and antihuman parties like the Communists Party must never come to power.