The diplomats and the authorities should demand that the journalists and human rights defenders be offered free access to the Transnistrian region if the Transnistrian administration wants the cooperation relations with it to be maintained, said the executive director of Promo-Lex Association Ion Manole. According to him, the restricted access of the representatives of the mass media and lawyers to the region controlled by the separatist regime violates the basic rights of the citizens living there, IPN reports.
The head of Promo-Lex noted that the Transnistrian administration’s abusive decision to limit the journalists and human rights defenders’ access to the region runs counter to the international legislation and violates the rights of the citizens from the left side of the Nistru to information and a fair trial.
“It is a territory where hundreds of thousands of people live and these people have basic human rights and freedoms in accordance with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the European Convention. From this angle, the access of journalists, human rights defenders, lawyers and other categories of people should not be limited. The cooperation or meetings with those from Tiraspol should be conditional on free access. No diplomat, no representative of the foreign authorities should be allowed to have contacts from those from there without insisting on the freedom of movement for these categories of people. The human rights are violated everywhere, but efficient instruments should exist. When an abuse or a violation is committed, the victims must be able to defend themselves,” Ion Manole stated in the program “Refection Points” on Vocea Basarabiei channel.
Promo-Lex lawyer Vadim Vieru said the Prosecutor’s Office does not react to the abuses committed on the left side of the Nistru, invoking the absence of constitutional control over the region.
“If the administration there commits abuses, the persons complain to the Prosecutor’s Office and file lawsuits. What do you think happens to these criminal cases? Nothing. The criminal cases started over the abuses committed by the Transnistrian administration and remitted to court are very small in number. The last case was the one that refereed to the arrest of Adrian Glijin. The other criminal cases were suspended. It seems that the Prosecutor’s Office is in a permanent comfort zone and it hides behind the absence of effective control, knowing that the persons who commit acts that can be considered offenses travel via the Republic of Moldova and attend football matches,” stated Vadim Vieru.
Promo-LEX, which has defended the human rights in the Transnistrian region for over 20 years, was officially banned in the region in 2015. The so-called state security committee opened a criminal inquiry against Promo-LEX over alleged actions meant to interrupt the negotiations in the 5+2 format and over subversive actions against Transnistrian statehood.
