Transnistria residents are exposed to dangers, NGO representatives consider

The Moldovan citizens residing on the left bank of the Nistru face dangers to their life, health and personal security, the Association “Promo-LEX” says. Info-Prim Neo learned from a communique from the organisation that one more citizen died while serving in the Transnistrian paramilitary forces. According to the cited source, the 19-year-old resident of Lunga village, Dubasari district, died on January 2 only four days after conscripted into a military unit in Tiraspol. “The Tiraspol-based military prosecutor’s office said the cause of the death was acute cardiac insufficiency, but the parents told the press that the body of the young men bore signs of violence. Promo-LEX says that if the cause of the death was indeed acute cardiac insufficiency as the military prosecutor’s office announced, it is an abnormality to conscript into the army a person with heart disorders and the quality of the examination of the health condition when conscripting is unacceptable, the communiqué says. Members of Promo-LEX say they know many cases and situations when the persons enlisted by force were subjected to torture and inhuman treatment. Many of those that served in the Transnistrian “armed forces” return home as invalids or at the best with serious health problems. The secessionist organisations that illegally control the eastern region of Moldova hunt young men in order to make them join the Transnistrian paramilitary forces. For the purpose, the Transnistrian local authorities draw up the list of persons that “do not want to do the military service” and announce them “wanted”. The petitioners’ official refusal to do the military service in the Transnistrian paramilitary forces is sanctioned administratively and legally by the separatist Tiraspol administration, the Association says. Promo-LEX considers that the forced conscription of the Moldovan citizens into an illegal paramilitary organisation created by an unconstitutional regime on the territory of the state is a serious problem for the Moldovan authorities because the rights and fundamental freedoms of the citizens that live in the Transnistrian region are not guaranteed and protected in the same way as for the people from the other parts of Moldova. If the constitutional authorities will not carry out an efficient investigation into the death of the young man, they could be sanctioned for violating the right to life by virtue of the European Convention, the communique says.