The public meetings that were held in the course of August took place with elements of violence, preferential treatment of participants by the police, unjustified limitation of the public space for the given assemblies or abusive dispersion of participants. The conclusions are stipulated in the first assembly monitoring report for August 1 – 31 that was presented by the assembly monitoring mission of Promo-LEX Association, IPN reports.
According to the director of the Human Rights Program of Promo-LEX Alexandru Postica, one of the assemblies initiated by the Shor Party on August 5 in Orhei degenerated into violence. The rally stopped being peaceful when the protesters physically attacked peaceful persons and blocked them inside a shop.
“Accidentally or not, the protesters clashed with representatives of the PAS, PLDM and PPPDA where the protesting mass used force (hitting with brooms) so that the police had to form a cordon to defend the minority group in a shop. This group stayed there for over an hour. Regrettably, the aggressive persons could not be dispersed later too and the minority group had to be evacuated from the shop,” stated Alexandru Postica. The expert noted that the attacks staged by the participants in the main protest violated public order and the organizer, together with the police, had to disperse those persons, as the law provides.
The representatives of the Shor Party also broke the law on assembly by not submitting a notice to the Chisinau City Hall concerning the organization of an event in the Great National Assembly Square on August 26. Also, the same day protesters disseminated messages that incited violence and hatred from the rally’s rostrum. Journalists and the observer of Promo-LEX were mistreated during the event.
The report also focuses on the legislation and the legality of the Chisinau City Hall’s order to temporarily limit public access to public areas on August 27. Even if no official events took place near the café Guguță and the public area wasn’t closed to the public, the possessions of protesters were confiscated by the police. According to Promo-LEX, these actions can be classed as illegal and abusive. The City Hall’s contribution can be described as violation of the freedom of assembly that is enshrined in the European Convention on Human Rights. The police intervention was disproportionate, illegal and didn’t follow a justifiable goal from the viewpoint of the law on assembles.
Also on August 27, the protesters of ACUM were to comply with the police demands to allow holding the events that were planned before these decided to protest near the statute of Stephan the Great and Holy and had free the square while the declared official ceremonies were being held. However, the stopping of the protest mounted by ACUM and the dispersion of participants were exceptional measures to which the City Hall and the police resorted first of all, without examining other options, even if these had enough time to negotiate other measures.
Another situation monitored by Promo-LEX refers to the adoption by the local Executive Committee of a resolution to ban cultural and sports events in ATU Gagauzia so as to prevent the spread of measles. According to Alexandru Postica, the law on assemblies regulates the holding of sports and cultural-artistic events as well. Consequently, even if the assembly could not be limited de facto, as a meeting of an opposition group of Gagauzia was held on August 26., it was established that the resolution, through the angle of the law, anyway limits the right to assembly. But the meetings can be limited by another procedure that the local public administration was to follow.
The monitoring mission formulated a number of recommendations for the local public authorities, the police and event organizers, including reviewing the staff that ensures the proper holding of assemblies in the central square of Chisinau by the City Hall and ensuring the integrity of persons by the General Police Inspectorate, regardless of their political affiliation, etc.
As many of the protesters reported violent acts during the demonstrations, Promo-LEX recommended that the Prosecutor General’s Office should examine the given cases.
