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Vasiliy Kalko, human rights ombudsman for Pridnestrovie, leads an office with 23 people.

TIRASPOL (Tiraspol Times) - Old war wounds heal slowly, and while Moldova maintains a dubious and historically indefensible territorial claim on Pridnestrovie, there is a risk that they may never heal completely.

This concerns Vasiliy Kalko, who last year was chosen among three candidates for the job of Pridnestrovie's first-ever Human Rights Ombudsman when the parliament of the unrecognized country created the post. It opened an office with 23 human rights workers, and gave them complete autonomy to go after any branch of government - even the legislature itself, should the PMR Constitution or the human rights of the citizens be found to be violated in any case.

Kalko and his people collaborate in a frosty, Cold War sort of way with neighboring Moldova and there is an ongoing inter-change of information. But, as he says in this interview, "we've witnessed many times that our right-bank colleagues presented false information about us to Europe and to the world community at large."

Are there any statistics concerning the total amount of complaints, how many cases of human rights abuse has been registered? Which of them have been redressed?

" - We have only a few unsubstantiated complaints. More than 90% of the complaints we receive relate to real violations of human rights. Approximately, every fifth person is redressed partially or in full. Some hurdles, mostly related to limited time, money and so on, unfortunately still impede complete restoration of everyone's rights.

460 complaints have been filed by citizens with the Ombudsman for the last four months, compared to 229 complaints filed in the last three months of the year 2006. The number of petitions has roughly doubled, but don't take this a proof of an increase in actual human rights violations. In our opinion, it is a natural result of greater public awareness of the existence of the Human rights Ombudsman office.

Tiraspol, with Dnestrovsk, leads with 153 complaints. From Bender, there are 71 complaints. We got 11 complaints from Grigoriopol, 38 from Slobodzeya, 69 from Dubossary and 13 from Rybnitsa.

In addition, 78 complaints have been filed with the Human Rights Ombudsman Office by inmates of the PMR prison system, and 6 complaints filed from other States: 4 complaints from the Republic of Moldova, and 2 complaints from Russia.

Most of the complaints raise an issue on administration of law at all stages: detention, investigation, detection, court trial and imprisonment (135 complaints out of 460, or 29,3%). It doesn’t mean an improper functioning of our court system. Most of the petitions concern civil and criminal suits having been brought long ago. I think their number will reduce in the near future. Social security is another concern of people. Due to lack of funds, the state is currently unable to provide the level of protection that our pensioners would like to have.

48 complaints relating to property issues have been filed. And citizenship, passport, and residence permit issues remain a major concern of people, with 44 complaints. 27 complaints deal with the exercise of the right to work; 26 – the national health system; 6 – land matters; 9 – the right to education; 6 – business. There were 30 collective complaints; and 33 complaints have been re-filed. Those are the statistics of the work of the Human Rights Ombudsman Office in Pridnestrovie for the first quarter of the year 2007."

Would you tell us about international cooperation of the Human Right Ombudsman office?

" - Ever since the Human Right Ombudsman office opened in the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic, the decision was taken to promote cooperation with our colleagues from neighboring states. Most of our citizens hold citizenship of the Russian Federation or Ukraine, so we put our efforts to establish relations with the Supreme Rada of Ukraine, via the Human Right Ombudsman in Ukraine and in particular Nina Ivanovna Korpacheva, and the Human Right Ombudsman in the Russian Federation, Vladimir Petrovich Lukin.

On 22 March 2007 in Moscow we signed a cooperation treaty between the Human Right Ombudsman of the Russian Federation and the Human Right Ombudsman of the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic. The treaty consists of 9 articles and is aimed at rendering real aid to the Russian citizens residing in the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic by the Human Right Ombudsman in the Russian Federation and, vice versa, to the Pridnestrovian citizens residing or staying in the Russian Federation. It is not a secret that the most of our fellow-citizens went to Russia to earn their living. And you know about the attitude towards people who came to a foreign state to work often is not perfect. So it’s our direct duty to protect their rights in the Russian Federation. So we’ve signed a treaty. It’s one side of the issue.

Another one: due to our unrecognized status at the international level, many people treat us if not with horror, then at least with fear. We have no opportunity to communicate and to apply the practice of the Human Right Ombudsman offices in other states. The treaty also stipulates our promotion at the international level and reporting to the world community of the human rights situation in Pridnestrovie. We witnessed for many times that our right-bank colleagues presented false information about us to Europe and to the world community at large. I’d like to note that we interact anyway: it is not an ideal cooperation but we don't ignore each other. We correspond with the parliamentary lawyer of the Republic of Moldova, Ms. Larisa Apolskaya. We do exchange information.

As for Ukraine, we have no cooperation agreements yet, but we often contact Nina Ivanovna Korpacheva, the secretary to the Human Right Ombudsman in Ukraine and I think we’ll sign an agreement in the near future. It has not been concluded yet due to current events in Ukraine."

Do you have any contacts with European representatives and your overseas colleagues. Do they request any information about your work?

" - It would be wrong to say that we have no contacts. Catherine Franklin, the head of OSCE Office for Human Rights, has personally visited our office for many times. We also met with her in the Tiraspol-based OSCE Mission, and we have taken part in the events organized by the OSCE Mission in Bender. We asked them to give some reference books on human rights and they provided us with necessary material. We also answered some questions and we are waiting for an answer. As for the contacts with other structures… Of course, you understand that we do not visit Brussels, they do not invite us, but we try to make contact with those people who visit Pridnestrovie, to exchange our opinion with them, to listen to them and to persuade them to listen to us. Recently we’ve met with Deputy Director of the Bureau of the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Alexander Gessel.

We just filed a request for a copy of a birth certificate of a person born in Armenia and now living in Pridnestrovie. Unfortunately, our colleagues from Armenia gave a negative answer to our request for cooperation, they offered us to appeal to them through the government departments of the Republic of Moldova. It means that the Human Rights Ombudsman in Armenia is politically biased. It is a matter of civil rights, but not of politics."

Did you receive any complaints on human rights abuse and persecution as to nationality?

" - Yesterday we met with a group of European lawyers from France and Belgium. They asked the same question. We do not have ethnic based pogroms of shops and cars like it happened in France. We received no complaints of human rights abuse as to nationality."

At the last session of Bender city Council it was reported that a branch of the PMR Human Rights Ombudsman Office would be set up in Bender. Will offices also be open in other parts of the republic?

" - The decision to set up the Human Rights Ombudsman Offices in other areas of the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic besides Tiraspol was taken long ago; Bender and Dubossary region are within the demilitarized buffer zone. The Russian peacekeepers posts are still there. Some settlements in Dubossary district have problems with jurisdiction; Bender is in a delicate situation. It turns out, in fact, that Bender city is, probably, the only place on the Earth where two legislations of different states are in force. In 1992 after the ceasefire and establishment of peacekeeping posts police and militia officers enforced the same legislation – the laws of the Moldavian SSR and the USSR. In the course of time our legislation and the legislation of the Republic of Moldova have become quite different from laws which were in force in 1992. A person is now facing a choice what laws to obey? People holding citizenship of the Russian Federation or Ukraine live in Bender city as well as in other Pridnestrovian regions. Under the laws of the Republic of Moldova a foreign national residing within its territory must be issued with a residence permit. Under Pridnestrovian laws a residence permit is not mandatory for Russian or Ukrainian citizens. So we’re now facing a problem when Moldova’s police officers check the passports of Bender inhabitants holding Russian or Ukrainian citizenship. If someone produces the Russian passport, they ask him/her to produce a residence permit. Of course, he/she have no permit, so an administrative action is brought against them for the breach of residence rules for foreigners. So the decision was taken to set up the Human Rights Ombudsman Office in Bender. But the procedure for opening of the office is protracted. We filed a request with the administration of Bender on February 7, but on May 4 the office is still not functioning.

We applied to Dubossary administration almost at the same time. The decision was taken on the following day and our office is functioning there. Bender has not decided yet. The session of the city Council only decided to allocate an office for us."

There was an information about inspections in children’s institutions and orphan’s homes. Were there any irregularities?

" - We have visited them this year. The members of the Human Right Ombudsman staff visited the main Tiraspol orphanage, because staff of the orphanage had submitted a petition. We were not first to visit that institution. The employees of the Prosecutor’s office had inspected it before. We are not authorized to annul or suspend decisions of officials; the Prosecutor’s office has such powers. We’ve been there, children live in good conditions. The relations between staff members are abnormal. The labour legislation is violated. Abnormal relations among the staff members affect children, but there are no such grave offences like in Russian orphanages having been reported recently on Russian TV.

We’ve recently had a meeting with a mother who lost her child. She informed us about poor treatment of orphans. We know that the treatment of our medical staff is not much better than in Russia. We plan to oversee the observance of chidren’s rights, especially orphans’ rights."

You’ve mentioned petitions submitted by citizens of the Russian Federation. Could you comment on them?

" - These petitions relate to problems of relatives living in Pridnestrovie. I’ve already given some examples. We have a complaint about a protracted trial of a civil lawsuit for compensation of losses. We can not consider it for the lawsuit is still tried in the court. We appealed to the Supreme Court with the request to pay attention to it.

The recent petitions relate to the exercise of the right to property and commercial activity in the territory of PMR. The point is that one of the residents of the Russian Federation is a co-owner of one of the branch joint-stock company operating within PMR. Due to some circumstances and the Arbitration court’s decisions he may not use and manage his own property. We are preparing all necessary material to petition the Constitutional court."

Do you feel the necessity to recruit more staff? Is the current staff enough for you?

" - There are two components. We practice other kinds of work as compared to the Human Right Ombudsman offices in Russia or Ukraine. For instance, about 130 people are employed by the Russian Human Right Ombudsman Secretariat. The Ukrainian Human Right Ombudsman Office have processed over 750,000 complaints filed by citizens since 1998. It means 500 petitions per day. You understand that 120 people are unable to process such a number of petitions. They also send petitions to the relevant government agencies. They themselves only deal directly with the gravest human rights abuse.

There are regional Human Right Ombudsman offices almost in half of the regions of the Russian Federation elected by the government. They are not subordinate to the central office, though they, of course, cooperate.

Our style of work is somewhat different. Our republic is not large. So the current staff deals with complaints rather efficiently. If we know that a petition can be dealt with without our assistance, we submit it to the relevant government departments, which always notify us of the decision having been taken. But most of the petitions are processed by our staff. We do not plan to employ more people. Parliament decided to recruit 23 people for the Ombudsman office, and so be it.

I’d like to note in conclusion: If there is ever anything you want to know, don't wait for press-conferences. If any question arises and you want to know about our work or problems facing the citizens, you are welcome to contact our office located in Tiraspol, on 25 October Street number 114. Or call us. Our contact phones are: 0 (533) 98119 and 0 (533) 55175."

See also:
» Opposition-controlled parliament appoints new ombudsman for human rights [1]
» Human rights ombudsman strengthened in Transnistria [2]
» Olga Gukalenko: "Pridnestrovie is a state where human rights are observed [3]

On the web:
» Human rights treaties signed, ratified by parliament [4]