Transnistrian authorities harass opposition lawmakers, US report says

Land of the unfree? A new human rights report speaks of repression in Tiraspol, Pridnestrovie's capital (file photo)

TIRASPOL (Tiraspol Times) - "Authorities continued to discriminate against Romanian speakers, although to a lesser extent than in previous years" says the United States in it latest State Department report on human rights, published this week.

According to the US report, "authorities reportedly continued to use torture and arbitrary arrest and detention." However, no examples of torture were given and three different civil society groups consulted by Tiraspol Times say that they have absolutely no knowledge of any such cases.

" - I can, however, tell you that there was one case of a detention, but it was only Moldova's state-owned news agency, Moldpres, which characterized it as arbitrary," says Petru Gladchi, a human rights campaigner and civil society activist from Tiraspol.

The detention is the only one mentioned in the report, and centers around a routine investigation into two bombings in Tiraspol which took the lives of twelve people in the summer of 2006. On 17 August, Ghenadie Taran and the three other members of a pro-Moldovan NGO called "Dignitas" were brought in for questioning in relation to possible involvement in the Tiraspol bombings. He was released immediately after interrogation, a fact confirmed by news agency Moldova Azi on 21 August (Quote: "Alexandru Macovenco, Ghenadie Taran, Igor Ivanov si Iurie Zatica, au fost eliberati la sfarsitul saptamanii trecute, din lipsa de probe.") Nevertheless, the US State Department wrongfully states that the four men were not released until August 22. Neither the report nor the men themselves claim that they were subjected to torture during investigation into the bombings or, for that matter, at any other time.

Unsupported allegations of torture and exaggerated claims of arrests are not the only errors in the yearly human rights overview. The report also says that "Transnistrian authorities continued to harass independent media and opposition lawmakers." No names were listed and no examples of any actual cases were provided. There is likewise no mention of a seminar organized by the British Embassy and Moldova's Foreign Policy Association in September 2006 which concluded that in Pridnestrovie, a relatively free press exists which is independent from authority. Also not mentioned is the finding of the British Embassy seminar that that the does not blindly transmit the government's viewpoint.

The report said that prison conditions remained harsh, and that two members of the so-called Ilascu group, convicted of killing two PMR state officials, will remain in prison until the end of the sentence in June of 2007.

Confusion over government and laws

Perhaps the most serious charge against Tiraspol is that "the right of citizens to change their government was restricted and authorities interfered with the ability of residents to vote."
A local civil society activists says that this is true, but that it is only a half-truth.

" - Be very careful how you read this," cautions Gladchi. "It is based on a misunderstanding of the terms. When the United States uses the term "their government" it does not mean the 'de facto' government that we have here; which is the elected government of the Pridnestrovskaia Moldavskaia Respublica, or Pridnestrovie. Since they consider us to be part of Moldova, they think that our government is, or at least should be, the Moldovan government. And yes, it is true: The right of citizens in "Transnistria" to change the government in Moldova is indeed restricted. How so? Because here, we don't let Moldova set up polling booths and organize their elections. Anyone who wants to vote in a Moldovan election can freely do so, but they must go to Moldova to do it. That is what the US reports is talking about when it refers to the restriction and the interference in the the ability of residents to vote."

The report itself confirms that voting for Moldova's March 2005 parliamentary election did not take place in the area east of the Dniester River; however, more than 8,000 voters residing in Transnistria (Pridnestrovie) were able to vote at polling stations established by the Moldovan government on territory controlled by Moldova.

The ability of residents of Pridnestrovie to change their own PMR government was not restricted, and authorities did not interfere with the ability of residents to vote. On the contrary, during 2006 the government twice mounted large scale "get out the vote" campaigns in an effort to secure respectable voter turnouts for the 17 September independence referendum and the 10 December 2006 presidential elections.

'Acts of terrorism undercut human rights'

The report correctly acknowledged that Moldova has no authority in Transnistria. Using a boilerplate phrase reserved for governments who cooperate with the United States politically, such as Moldova, who sent troops to Iraq, it said that Moldova "generally respected the human rights of its citizens" but then went on to acknowledge a litany of human rights problems far worse than anything mentioned in connection with Transnistria.

On Transnistria, the harsh words suggested that Moldova is freer, but a number of glaring omissions leave the United States open to charges of hypocrisy. Not mentioned at all: That in 2006, PMR's parliament established a wholly autonomous Human Rights Ombudsman office with independent funding and wide powers to go against the government. Also not a word about the feisty PMR Constitutional Court which in case after case consistently found in favor of plaintiffs, overruled the government on important cases and overturned laws which it found were overreaching or unconstitutional.

The report said the ongoing genocide in Sudan's Darfur region was the world's worst human rights abuse in 2006, adding that conditions worsened in Afghanistan and Iraq, despite what it claimed as US-led military and civilian efforts to combat extremists in both countries.

In Iraq, where deadly attacks have surged after US troop involvement in the country, "both deepening sectarian violence and acts of terrorism seriously undercut human rights and democratic progress in 2006," it said.

Also cited for democratic backsliding were US allies Pakistan and Egypt, along with Belarus, China, Eritrea, Iran, Lebanon, Russia, Syria, Venezuela and Zimbabwe, where the United States reports that governments cracked down on the rights of citizens or failed to protect them from abuses.

Language that downplayed human rights atrocities committed by Moldova was consistent with the State Department's political support for Communist Party president Vladimir Voronin, while a number of vague and unsourced blanket statements on Pridnestrovie were "shaped by political considerations," said Gladchi. He found it hard to understand how a number of important human rights advances achieved by the new and emerging country throughout 2006 were not mentioned in the report. He acknowledged that in 2007, there is still room for improvement.

" - Our democratic system of governance is accountable, but it is not infallible," he said, adding, "We are nonetheless guided by enduring ideals."

The report refers to Pridnestrovie as 'Transnistria' or 'the Transnistrian region', following Moldovan government practize of not dignifying Pridnestrovie with the name used by the majority of its inhabitants. The word Transnistria is an artifically created name, invented by Romania for the territory in World War II when troops allied with Hitler's Nazi Germany invaded and designated the territory just outside Romania's traditional borders as a mass deportation- and extermination area for hundreds of thousands of unwanted Jews. Out of sensitivity and due to memories related to its Nazi-origins, the name is not in common use locally.

See also:
» Press freedom 2007: Down in Moldova and Ukraine, up in Transdniester
» 2006 Year in Review: Pridnestrovie's voters confirmed, consolidated independence