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Ivan Burgudji, minority activist and former political prisoner in Moldova: "Democracy is failing in Moldova"COMRAT (Tiraspol Times) - With the Gagauzia elections for governor going into its final phase this weekend, human rights activist and former political prisoner Ivan Burgudzhi compares to them last weekend's election for President in Pridnestrovie; also known as Transnistria or Transndiester.
" - Elections in Gagauzia (Moldova) contrast sharply with the elections held last week in Transdniester. I am an observer at both, and I can tell you that they simply don't compare," says Ivan Burgudji, a human rights expert and a minority Gagauz national.
" - In Tiraspol, the elections were free and fair. The climate was joyful, with everyone smiling and celebrating the democracy fest," says first-hand witness Burgudji, "but in Comrat, the main city in Gagauzia, it is a different story. People go because they are forced to, and they are not smiling."
OSCE, which refused to see democracy in Pridnestrovie first-hand, has been observing all past elections in Gagauzia. The OSCE Mission to Moldova has declared its satisfaction with the outcomes. The Mission also plans to follow the run-off polls between the two strongest candidates scheduled for 17 December.
In an offical press release, OSCE's Claus Neukirch claimed that "in our judgment, the first round of voting was generally conducted in an orderly manner" and even used the occasion to take the now-customary swipe at Tiraspol: "This serves as further proof that strong regional autonomy can exist within a democratic, sovereign, and territorially whole Republic of Moldova."
" - But there is no such thing as 'further proof' at all", says the Gagauz national and human rights minority spokesman. "In fact, when you really look at the record, it is quite the opposite. OSCE is trying to connect some dots that shouldn't be connected."
- Moldova confiscates opposition newspapers
As reported by Regnum News Agency, Sergei Dimoglo, a member of the political minority movement United Gagauzia, was detained by the Moldovan police on November 28 with 5,000 newly printed copies of the newspaper "Gagauz Halki" in his posession at the time of the detention.
The Center for Journalism in Extreme Situations alerted its members to what it saw as a blatant, unjustiable attack on the freedom of press and on free political debate in Moldova.
Ivan Burgudji, the head of the International Legal Information Center, said:
" - I am confident that this detention is directly connected to the elections of the head of Gagauzia. The elections were scheduled to take place on December 3. The edition was devoted to independent candidate Mikhail Formuzalu, who is clearly preferred to party functionary Georgy Tabunshchik. What has occurred is outrageous. Sergei Dimoglo has still not been released and no detention protocol has been made. You involuntarily begin to think about the observance of human rights in the Republic of Moldova, the observance of freedom of speech and the press, as our paper was registered with the Justice Ministry."
The Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Moldova (HCHRM), led by Stefan Uritu, was silent on the matter. The group rarely speaks up against abuses of human rights in Moldova, when committed by the Moldovan government, but is often vocal in blaming Tiraspol for abuses - even to the point of inventing fictious claims which journalists or independent sources are unable to verify.
The election campaign in Gagauzia was muzzled from the start. Political debate was allowed on local TV, but authorities lowered the strength of the broadcasting signal during most of the pre-election period. As a result, most voters never got to see a free debate between candidates.
- Political prisoner in Moldova
Ivan Burgudji served time in Moldovan jails as a political prisoner.
When he was head of the Legal Department of the People’s Assembly of the autonomous region of Gagauzia, he was beaten and arrested in his office on 7 March 2002 by unidentified men carrying state-issue automatic weapons. He was then detained in the Security Information Service’s (SIS) isolator of preventive detention, the ex-KGB of Moldova. On 3 April he began a hunger strike, but Chisinau rejected the petitions of his lawyers.
The International Federation for Human Rights in Paris, France, protested to Moldova about the beating and political arrest of Ivan Burgudji. They demanded the immediate release of Burgudji "as his detention aims to sanction the freedom of expression."
Ivan Burgudji was tortured heavily while in Moldovan custody and still bears scars from the tortures. The United States, in an official statement to the OSCE, also protested the manner and circumstances of the arrest on March 7, 2002, of Ivan Burgudji, describing him as an official of the Gagauz region of the Republic of Moldova.
It said: "According to reports from the OSCE Mission in Moldova, as well as from our own Embassy in Chisinau, Mr. Burgudji was seized by ten civilians armed with automatic weapons. These men reportedly burst into his office and forced two other individuals to the floor at gunpoint. At no time did they identify themselves as law enforcement officers or present Mr. Burgudji with an arrest warrant or a statement of the charges against him.
We understand that Mr. Burgudji was held incommunicado for nearly three days, before a judge approved the arrest and issued an arrest warrant allowing his detention for a total of 20 days. At that time it became apparent that the individuals who removed Mr. Burgudji from his office were in fact members of a special law enforcement unit of the Ministry of Interior.
The manner in which he was taken into custody, held incommunicado, and presented with an arrest warrant only after the fact, do not meet our definition of the Rule of Law or basic international standards for the rights of the accused.
In June of 2003, after more than a year in isolation awaiting trial, Chisinau sentenced Ivan Burgudji to 5 years in prison on vague charges such as "abuse of power" which international human rights groups said were just a cover for his political activities. Burgudji supporters staged protests in Gagauzia following the decision. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's (OSCE) Mission expressed concern and the U.S. State Department highlighted the case in its annual Human Rights report.
- Gagauzia experience: A lesson for Tiraspol to avoid
The Gagauz are a minority Turkic people in Gagauzia, formally part of southern Moldova, that numbers around 250,000. They are among the few ethnic Turkic groups which are predominantly Christian (Eastern Orthodox and some Protestant).
Their quest for self-determination and independence was renegotiated to autonomy within Moldova. However, it is widely acknowledged that Moldova has failed to live up to its promise of widespread autonomy to the Gagauz people and that they feel mislead by Chisinau into giving up its struggle for independence.
" - Gagauzia has unfortunately been transformed into an autonomous area deprived of its rights, where Chisinau handpoints its own appointees who continue a policy against the national self-identity of the Turkish-speaking but Greek Orthodox Gagauz people," says Burgudji.
The Gagauzian human rights activist laments that in the Gagauzian experience, too much trust was put in Moldova's parliament.
" - This is the trap that Gagauzia fell into. The problem is that the parliament of Moldova at any time can change the rules of the game. This, actually, is what happened in Gagauzia. Without specific international guarantees, supported by a firm base, without a clear method of sanctioning Moldova when they infringe on the agreement, without an equal recognition of both sides who participate in negotiations, without respect for will of the people of Transdniestria, as stated in their referendum - without any of these components, any deal made with Moldova will backfire on Transdniestria and become unconditional surrender. And we know about this "favor". Come to Gagauzia, talk to the people there, ask them how do they live and how they feel about this authority called Moldova, and you will understand what it will means for Transdniestria if it ever succumbs to becoming an "autonomous region" within Moldova. Today in Gagauzia, a paradoxical situation has been created - in reality, if not on paper, the powers of our "autonomy" are below the actual powers of local authorities of normal, non-autonmous district of Moldova. Nominally "independent" Gagauzia is practically maintained as a raw appendage, as a colony, near breaking point."
" - I sincerely hope," Burgudji sums up, "that Transdniestria will have enough wisdom not to bite on this fishing tackle and that our bitter experience from Gagauzia will be taken into account."
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» 3 politicians, 3 ethnic groups, and one shared goal [1]