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The delegation of the European Parliament, who has been on a fact-finding visit to Moldova from April 26 to 29, has found grave violations of human rights that occurred in Chisinau after the April 5 elections. “The mission was extremely difficult because we could not imagine how much violence occurred in Moldova,” said MEP Marianne Mikko at a news conference ending the visit. The delegation of European parliamentarians met with NGOs, ombudsmen, media, leaders of those three opposition parties entering the parliament, representatives of the Government and of the Central Electoral Commission. The MEPs visited police stations and the Penitentiary 13. They also met with the former Chairman of the parliament Marian Lupu. The outgoing president Vladimir Voronin did not find time to meet with the European parliamentarians. The delegation reiterated its support for democracy in Moldova and condemned the violence, especially maltreatment of citizens. The European parliamentarian Karin Resetarits from Austria showed herself astonished there was no official reaction to what happened, so far. The EP delegation insisted on including the representatives of the political opposition and European experts into the commission investigating the post-election events. It urges the ruling party and the opposition to start to dialogue. The European parliamentarians continue to support Moldova’s getting closer to the EU, through the frame of the Eastern Partnership. On Thursday, April 30 the delegation is going to present a report to the leadership of the European parliament and the European Parliament will pass a resolution on Moldova on May 7. (Source: Info-Prim Neo)

“In my opinion, the fight for the freedom of expression for the public television Moldova-1 is lost. Therefore, I think that the necessary reform is an emergency, as I did not observe any progress in this regard for five years since I monitor the evolutions in Moldova,” the head of the European Parliament’s delegation for relations with Moldova, Marianne Mikko, said in Chisinau on Wednesday. According to the European official, the change of the name into public institution by Moldova-1 television is nothing but a cosmetic change, which replaced the substantial change that should not be late. “If this TV channel was really free, it would have introduced to the public all ombudsmen who hold evidence on torture and violence occurred in the last weeks,” Karin Resetarits, a member of the European Parliament delegation, stated. (Source: jurnal.md)

The National Council of Moldovan Non-Governmental Organizations (the NGO Council) sends a letter to the Ministry of Justice and the Tax Inspectorate expressing its concern about their requests addressed to a group of NGOs. The letters of the Ministry of Justice imply that the NGOs concerned would have been the co-organizers of the April 7 events, facts which are not true, the NGO Council stated. It is also concerned about the latest actions of the Tax Inspectorate that sent, largely to the same organizations, letters demanding to present financial reports on their activity in 2008–2009, within short terms. The NGO Council recommends a series of actions to eliminate tension and concerns: starting a dialogue between the state structures and the NGOs to elucidate the position of the latter ones; publishing the full list of organizations subjected to financial checkups and those having received letters from the Ministry of Justice. The NGO Council was elected by the NGO Forum held in December 2008, which was attended by over 100 representatives of over 1,000 Moldovan non-governmental organizations. (Source: Info-Prim Neo)

A number of foreign organizations are demanding from the European structures to help stop intimidation of Moldovan non-governmental organizations by the Communist authorities and to protect the NGOs from the Moldovan Government’s ill-treatment, the Pro Democratia Association (APD) wrote in a press release. The statement was also signed by Golos (Russia), GONG (Croatia), European House (Hungary) and Society for Democratic Culture (Albania). The organizations claim the intimidation of organizations-members of the Civic Coalition for Free and Fair elections “Coalition 2009” that monitored the election process and stated that the 2009 parliamentary elections were incorrect and partly free. The authors of the statement criticize both the behavior of the Ministry of Justice that “mistook the Civic Coalition for Free and Fair Elections «Coalition 2009» for the Civic Coalition «Elections 2009»”, and that of the Tax Inspectorate that launched an financial checkup simultaneously for all organizations members of the Coalition 2009 Council. The foreign organizations consider that this simultaneous checkup of NGOs is “an attempt to browbeat the independent and critical attitude of the watch dog organizations, and thus to intimidate the whole Moldovan civil society”. This statement was sent to the European Parliament, Council of European Union, and Council of Europe. (Source: Info-Prim Neo)

Dorin Chirtoaca will table his mandate of lawmaker before May 5. Thus, the Chisinau mayor will not participate in the first plenary sitting of the new Parliament, which will convene at the Palace of the Republic. In these conditions, the next candidate on the electoral list of the Liberal Party, Boris Vieru, will get the seat of parliamentarian. (Source: jurnal.md)

The Party of Communists intends to enter into a constructive dialog with opposition parties in order to ensure an efficient work of the just elected new Parliament, the outgoing Moldovan President and Chairman of the ruling PCRM, Vladimir Voronin, stated during a meeting with the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Chinese People’s Republic to the Republic of Moldova, Shi Longzhuang, on Wednesday. According to the presidential press service, “Ambassador Shi Longzhuang appreciated the way the Moldovan authorities had resolved the April 7 crisis, and congratulated the country leadership on overcoming the crisis and stabilizing the socio-political situation of the country”. (Source: Infotag)

Actions of protest against violation of human rights in Moldova are continuing in Paris. Next such meeting will be held in front of the Paris Municipality on May 3. Vasile Calmatui of the initiative group told the Infotag correspondent that the last action of protest took place last Sunday. In the protest participated about one hundred people who tried to draw attention of the French authorities and civil society and of the international mass media to the violations of human rights in the Republic of Moldova. The protesters expressed their deep discontent about numerous violations of law during the 2009 parliamentary elections and about massive infringement on human rights after the elections. They cried out anti-communist slogans and called to “prevent the establishment of a bloody dictatorship in the center of Europe”. (Source: Infotag)