After the result of the parliamentary elections was made public, huge protests started on the streets of Chisinau on April 7th.

Now Moldavian and Romanian citizens in The Republic of Moldova [Bessarabia] are asking themselves if their rights have been nullified overnight. Who should protect them? Romanian and the EU just shrug their shoulders, while the Moldavian repression forces are intimidating, beating, seizing, deporting all those who are not going along with them.

Bessarabian students cannot go home!?!

I believed that after compulsory visas for Romanians were introduced, the situation with blocking Romanian-Moldavian borders would become more relaxed, and Bessarabians would be able to go home. Today the Easter holiday starts officially for all students and the buses heading for Chisinau and Balti are leaving full from Bucharest. For now, it is not known whether they will reach home.

Some students were turned away from the borders today already. Others were able to pass into Moldova, but they are being threatened that if they return home they will no longer be allowed to enter Romania. The situation of those with double citizenship is even more ambiguous; they leave Romania and enter Moldova with their Moldavian passport, but when they return they will be asked by the Moldavian border guards for a permit to stay in Romania. If they are Romanian citizens they cannot have such a permit, so when returning to Romania they will need to show their Romanian passport, but then their stay in the Republic of Moldova will be declared illegal (as they do not have the required visa in their passports). The repercussions are yet unknown...

Several buses with young Bessarabians who were returning home have passed this morning onto Moldavian Republic territory, but close to the town of Ungheni they were stopped by the police. The youth was told that they would not be allowed to reach their destination and that their parents or relatives must come to pick them up from there. It seems incredible to me that this is happening... the obvious conclusion being the absurdity of the repression by Moldavian authorities towards their own citizens whose FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT is nullified in their own country. This type of actions are characteristic for a totalitarian system whose last resort is based on brutal force.

At the same time, different journalists from RM are harassed, intimidated, beaten, searched, held in police stations, etc. The homes of some of them have been searched by force (without warrants) and certain possessions were confiscated. The FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION is also nullified by force. At this point certain Moldavian journalists and two Romanian journalists about whom it is known or believed that they are being interrogated at police quarters in Chisinau, with the pretext that they must be identified and based on proof that they have gathered information related to Parliament and Presidency buildings on the date of April 7th, have been declared missing. There is no information about several of them so far.
Other Romanian journalists were turned away at the RM border or at the Chisinau airport, and some of those who were already in RM have been deported to Romania.

A number of people have been indicted, on accusations of organizing the protests on the streets of Chisinau, in spite of their existing official declarations denying any involvement in initiating or instigating the street actions.

Some of the approximately 200 youths who were arrested these past days have declared that they were beaten and tortured police and secret services while they were being held by force in police stations. They declare that they are afraid to go out because police dressed in plain clothes is kidnapping people from the streets, and others have received threats and have been picked up from their homes.

Romanian citizens who wish to enter RM territory will need to undergo a process which lasts about 10 working days. They must send to the Moldavian Department of Internal Affairs ("Ministerul Afacerilor Interne," MAI) a copy of their passport and a letter in which they state their reasons for wanting to enter the country. MAI will analyze the request and in approximately 2-3 days must offer a response to the applicant. If it is approved, the applicant must then file the request, together with a series of other documents (passport, a picture, a fee of 35 Euros, the response from MAI, round-trip ticket for travel) at the RM Consulate in Bucharest, where it will be processed in 5 working days. Thus, the first citizen with only a Romanian citizenship will be able to enter RM around April 20th at the earliest (this would be for those who apply for the visa today).

Questions arise in the case of Romanian citizens (with a single passport or with double citizenship) who are now in RM and whose stay in RM, starting today, is declared illegal in the absence of a visa in their passports.

Tudor Cojocaru (The League of Bessarabian Students) thinks that at this moment nobody can anticipate the degree of repression that will be reached in Chisinau, because those currently in power are playing their last card, as they feel their grip loosening more and more.

You can find more information that is being continuously updated at:
http://www.unimedia.info (also in English)
http://www.curaj.net (mostly in Romanian)

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Here you can see pictures from the last 4 days
http://unimedia.info/?mod=foto&id=1

An article in NY Times with photo gallery
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/08/world/europe/08moldova.html?_r=3&WT.mc...

Images and videos from the solidarity demos in Bucharest http://www.curaj.net/?p=14127
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From the Independent Journalism Center, Moldova:

08.04.09/ Media organizations are protesting against the interdiction to entry Moldova for journalists coming to cover the events in Chişinău.

On 7 April, at least 18 journalists who were traveling from Romania to Chişinău were stopped and returned from their way at the customs points Galaţi-Giurgiuleşti and Oancea-Cahul, according to the Romanian Media Monitoring Agency - ActiveWatch and Romanian Center for Investigative Journalism. Moldovan customs officers claimed a breakdown in their computer system and requested a number of documents from journalists, such as written invitations, special healthcare insurances, media accreditations from the Moldovan Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration. According to current regulations EU citizens need only their passport to cross the border from Romania to Moldova.

more: http://www.ijc.md/eng/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=250&Item...

09.04.09/ Declaration of media NGOs from Moldova on the situation of the press, violations of the right to access to information and attacks on journalists.

Media NGOs are expressing serious concern about the recent deterioration of the media situation in Moldova, violations against the public right to access information and recent incidences of journalists’ harassment by law enforcement officials.
more: http://www.ijc.md/eng/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=252&Item...

10.04.09/ ARTICLE 19 condemns the climate of fear created by the Moldovan government, including the intimidation and censorship of dissenting voices and the media. The organisation calls on the authorities to release all those imprisoned for the peaceful expression of their views, and urges them to establish the whereabouts of those that have allegedly “disappeared”. ARTICLE 19 also demands that that those peacefully expressing their views are protected from arbitrary detention and police brutality.
more: http://www.ijc.md/eng/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=253&Item...