A group of veterans of the Security and Intelligence Service (SIS) and its predecessor, the Ministry of National Security, are asking the Moldovan top leadership to reprimand the current SIS director for what they say amounted to “neglect” and “disrespect” towards them.

During a press conference, ex-defense minister Anatol Plugaru declared that the veterans are “simply ignored” by the specialized agencies and that the SIS “violates their fundamental rights guaranteed by the Moldovan Constitution”. Plugaru says they recently sought an audience with the new SIS director, but “the veterans were treated in an unexpected manner”. “The previous SIS director had a bad attitude towards us the veterans, but now the new director treats us even worse”, he claimed.

“Dear fellow Moldovans, dear leaders of the country, today is August 24. In two days, we will celebrate Independence. Can you imagine that to this moment we don’t have the slightest trace of an invitation to lay flowers to the monument to our fallen comrades?”, fumed Anatol Plugaru. He called on Moldova’s top leadership, the president, the speaker and prime minister in particular, to do something about the “disrespect” shown by the SIS leadership to the veterans.

Ulian Chetruș, administrator of the SIS veterans’ association, deplored the “break in (the SIS’s) institutional memory”. He praised the previous SIS directors for their “respectful attitudes” towards the veterans, who were allowed to contribute with advice in improving the legislation and erect a monument to the fallen comrades. But, says Chetruș, the relationship soured with the appointment of the prior director, and worsened even more with the incumbent.

“We brought up this class of people who think they are some sort of boyars, who are in power over us, who rob us and want to bring us to our knees, but we will defend our honor and dignity”, declared Valeriu Bujor, a veteran. Another one, Oleg Triboi, claimed that the veterans supported the current government hoping for a change and now it is “very painful” that they are “not listened to”. Vitalie Basiul, another member of the group, says that he celebrated his 20th birthday in the trenches, and many of his comrades were even younger, but all of them had a lot of devotion to the country. “All of them sacrificed their youth, health and even their lives for the motherland. And now those who survived, when they ask for respect, are asked back who they are”.