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Oleg Khorzhan, supposedly a victim, explains that claims by Stefan Urîtu and his Helsinki Committee are pure made-up fantasy

TIRASPOL (Tiraspol Times) - A human rights group in Moldova, calling itself the Helsinki Committee, is being accused of inventing false cases by one of the very victims that it claims to protect.

" - Ştefan Urîtu is a liar," says recently released opposition leader Oleg Khorzhan, fresh out of jail following a 72 hour administrative detention for violating a city ordinance.

The leader of the Pridnestrovie Communist Party, a left wing opposition group, says that self-styled human rights defender Ştefan Urîtu invented pure fiction about the way he was treated while detained, and that he wants nothing to do with this "defender" and his group, the Moldovan Helsinki Committee for Human Rights.

" - He is a sick liar," Khorzhan told news agency Lenta PMR when asked about an official press release issued 12 March by Ştefan Urîtu linking Khorzhan and fellow detainee Nadezhda Bondarenko to "application of electroshock in order to oblige them to self-incrimination". No source was given for the extraordinary claims, which the supposed electro-shock victim denies ever took place.

The press release, which was quoted by government-funded media in Moldova and internationally, was issued in the name of the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in the Republic of Moldova (Comitetul Helsinki pentru Drepturile Omului), an organization founded and led by Ştefan Urîtu.

The group's activities are financed in part by the US State Department through the United States Embassy in Moldova. The group makes no attempt to hide this financing, and proudly displays the seal of the United States. In return, the United States has often quoted fictitious statements by the group in its annual human rights reports, issued in Washington. Reached for comment, a public diplomacy spokesperson at the US Embassy in Chisinau confirms that the organization bases its annual report on input from groups such as the self-styled Helsinki organization in Moldova, and that "there is nothing we can add to it."

Controversial claims

On Monday, Oleg Khorzhan and Nadezhda Bondarenko, two leaders of the opposition Communist Party, were sentenced by a local court to 72 hours' administrative detention after failing to observe a city ordinance for mass rallies.

Quoted by Moldova's state news agency, the Moldovan Helsinki group and its self-appointed leader Ştefan Urîtu reiterated that the committee's observers signalled that the held people have been tortured, including through electric shock, in order to make them incriminate themselves. The group loudly denounced the arrests.

The group's founder and leader, Stefan Uritu. An active imagination?

However, upon his release, a Tiraspol-based news agency interviewed Oleg Khorzhan and confronted him with the statements of the Moldovan organization. Lenta PMR asked: "Moldova's media repeatedly transmitted statements by Ştefan Urîtu that the police beat you and applied electric shocks to you. Is Ştefan Urîtu right about this?"

" - Why would I have anything to do with Ştefan Urîtu? He is a baldfaced liar, and besides we have absolutely no connection to each other."

" - The content of his statements doesn't have anything to do with this case, and are not in any way connected with me. I deny the statements by Urîtu that any electric shocks were applied to me. The attitude on the part of the local law enforcement was quite normal."

Khorzhan then used words not fit for print to describe the press release issued by self-styled human rights advocate Stefan Urîtu, adding that Urîtu nor any "observers" from his group ever made any attempt to contact him to ask about the conditions of his detention. He also confirmed that fellow detainee Bondarenko was well treated during their 72 hour detention.

The opposition politician says he was treated better by police than by those who claim to defend him, referring to the Moldovan Helsinki Committee and the false use of his name in their press release PR stunt.

"Government-funded propaganda factory"

The statement was immediately rebroadcast by government-funded media outlets financed by the Republic of Moldova, the OSCE and the US government. Neither of these government-funded news organizations checked the veracity of the claims, or attempted to contact the main subject of the article, supposed torture victim Oleg Khorzhan to verify the accuracy of the serious charges.

" - This shows the eagerness with which US government and OSCE sponsored groups are quick to always paint Transdnestr with the blackest of black, regardless of any evidence or lack thereof" says columnist Michael Garner, a researcher and longtime commentator for the Tiraspol Times.

" - US government outlets and OSCE sponsored groups are two sides of the same coin, and they uncritically repeat everything that comes out of Moldpres, Moldova's official state mouthpiece. Who feeds them this information? It all starts with Stefan Uritu's vivid imagination and his increasingly discredited group."

The notorious claim was repeated by the Voice of America (VOA), the official international radio and television broadcasting service of the United States federal government. Funded by American taxpayers, VOA - a remnant of the Cold War - is officially listed as a United States government propaganda organization.

Moreover, the accusations were published by Moldpres, the state-run news agency of Moldova's government, as well as by a website financed by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, OSCE.

Garner notes that the Moldovan-created "Helsinki" group feeds off US taxpayer dollars, and that the US government in turn relies on the content produced by Ştefan Urîtu for its own news media, such as Voice of America, and for use in annual human righs scorecards.

" - In fact, if it wasn't for government money, Uritu's outfit would most likely have closed up shop a long time ago," believes Garner. "But they feed off each other: Stefan Uritu needs the cash to keep going, and both Moldova's and America's governments need people like him who can produce wild or paranoid claims about what goes on inside the black hole which they created in their own imagination."

" - There is just one problem with this construct, as anyone who has ever been to Tiraspol can tell you: The black hole doesn't exist. It is the product of a government-funded propaganda factory, but it is not based in reality. Instead, what you have there is a socially coherent state with effective government, increasing democracy, regular elections, and working institutions. It goes without saying that no one applies electroshocks to anyone else, regardless of what so-called Helsinki groups dream up."

No respected independent news outlet repeated Ştefan Urîtu's electroshock accusations. When the Tiraspol Times attempted to reach Urîtu's office for comment, the contact email address listed in the official press release bounced. Fictional or erroneous, it does not exist.

See also:
» Communist protesters detained for 72 hrs; refuse to move rally [1]