Ziarul de Garda designates four 'persons on guard'

The first four laureates of the Person on Guard prize offered by Ziarul de Garda (ZdG) to persons who prove temerity were awarded by the publication's manager Alina Radu on May 10. These are Oxana Radu, Valentina Cusnir, Grigore Gorea and Anatol Croitoru, Info-Prim Neo reports. ZdG editor-in-chief Aneta Grosu said the idea of instituting the prize was put forward by a Moldovan businessman who settled in France. He provided the necessary amount of money. The selection of candidates started on April 6, when it was a year of the youth revolution and the tragic events that followed. “We decided to offer the Person on Guard prizes to persons who showed that they are nonconformists and have the courage to tell what they think. These are: Oxana Radu, a victim of the April 7 events who was not afraid to make revelations, former MP Valentina Cusnir, who was a witness and a victim of the April events, former detainee Grigore Gorea, who made sensational disclosures about the manufacturing of cases by the CCCEC, and Anatol Croitoru, a Transnistrian resident who fights for the national cause,” said Aneta Grosu. Oxana Radu said she told about the experience she went trough at the police station because she wanted the people to know what really happened and don't believe those who say there were no cases of maltreatment and use of torture. Former MP Valentina Cusnir said she follows the example of her father, who struggled with those who did not respect the behavioral norms, stressing that she could not overlook what happened in the Great National Assembly Square on the night of April 8, 2009. Grigore Gorea said the team of Ziarul de Garda was itself an example of temerity and permanent fight against evil. He said he decided to tell what was going on at the CCCEC as he could no more bear the pressure to conduct investigations by order. The son of Anatol Croitoru, who took the prize for his father, said Anatol Croitoru had to seek refuge after the April 7 events. He stressed it wasn't easy for him to live in a family of a promoter of the ideals of Romanianism. He also said that on May 19, his father will be present at a commemorative dinner in honor of the comrades of the battles of 1995 that will be held in Cosnita. The four laureates received by a symbol made of clay by plastic artist Oleg Dobrovolschi, a diploma, a picture of the April 7 protests and a money award. The Person on Guard prizes will be awarded monthly.