Human rights organizations condemn April 7 acts of violence

A number of human rights organizations Wednesday issued a joint statement condemning the acts of violence and vandalism committed near and inside the buildings of the Presidential Office and Parliament of Moldova on April 7, Info-Prim Neo reports. The organizations say that democracy in Moldova should be promoted and strengthened by peaceful public meetings and protests. “The power of the word and peaceful will cannot be vanquished while building real democracy. The real democracy is designed to change society, but not through force and violence. Violence induces fear, leads to the violation of the human rights and compromises the free development of the society,” the statement says. The NGOs call on the public authorities to ensure the security of the people that want to publicly express their opinions. “We urge the public authorities to show firmness towards the acts of certain irresponsible, criminal players that lead to violence,” Sergiu Ostaf, executive director of the Resource Center for Human Rights (CreDO), told a news conference held at Info-Prim Neo. According to him, CReDO has video proofs that certain persons made the peaceful protests to degenerate into a riot. “A large part of the protesters did not have violent intentions, but certain persons incited the excited crowd to acts of vandalism. But this is not an excuse for what happened,” Ostaf said. Ion Manole, chairman of Promo-Lex Association, reiterated that the authorities bear overall responsibility for the happenings. “The authorities did not want or could not cope with the events. Many questions arise in such a situation. The fact that the vandalizing of the state institutions was permitted shows that the authorities knew about such acts, but did nothing to prevent them,” Manole said. Antonita Fonari, secretary general of the National Council of NGOs of Moldova, criticized the authorities for exposing the youngest police officers and leaving them alone with the furious crowd. She also criticized the Opposition parties that supported the protesters, but could not convince them to protest peacefully. The head of the National Youth Center of Moldova Vera Turcanu appealed to all the young persons to refrain from taking part in provocative events. Sergiu Neicovcen, director of Contact Center, called on other organizations to subscribe to the appeal of the NGOs that issued the statement. Also, the NGOs call on the leaders of political parties to take a responsible attitude and not make statements that could incite the people, but urge the society to hold dialogues. The mass media is urged to correctly and responsibly inform about the events and ensure the diversity of opinions. The statement was signed by 11 nongovernmental organizations that form part of the National Council of NGOs of Moldova.