DA PLATFORM SUGGESTS RESUMING INVESTIGATION OF APRIL 2009 RIOTS

The parliamentary faction of the DA Platform party has stood up with an initiative to form a parliamentary ad hoc commission for investigation into the circumstances of the post-election April 7, 2009 mass disturbances in Chisinau.

MPs Dinu Plingau and Liviu Vovc said at a press briefing on Wednesday that the formation of such a commission was stipulated by the coalition agreement concluded between the ACUM bloc and the Party of Socialists (PSRM), but was put off due to the formation of other ad hoc commissions for investigation of the bank fraud, dubious privatization practices, usurpation of power last June.

“As two commissions have already presented their reports, we guess a moment has come for us to return to the 2009 events. We need to finally clarify the history and details of those tragic events, in which suffered hundreds of young people and police officers, one person died, and Moldova has in fact lost a whole generation of active young people, most of whom have left the country for good”, said Plingau.

In his words, the investigation is to provide answers to the following main question: who stood behind the organization of that post-election unrest, and who was its ultimate beneficiary.

“The ad hoc commission will present a detailed report, on the basis of which relevant authorities will have to bring perpetrators to justice”, believes Plingau.

The DA deputies underlined that voting for this initiative in parliament should become “a test for the new governing majority (of the Democratic Party and the Party of Socialists) because some persons, who had a relation to those tragic events, are now in the parliamentary majority”, hinting at incumbent Speaker Zinaida Greceanii, who in 2009 was Prime Minister of Moldova.

As already reported by Infotag, on April 6, 2009 the local youth came out to streets all of a sudden to express protest against the April 5 parliamentary election results, which had not been known by that time yet, but which the young people maintained had been “heavily rigged, so the Communist Party has managed to grasp as many as 44.7% ballots”. Nobody could explain afterwards how the young people could have learnt the election results to the tenths of a percent so early – before even the Central Election Commission had known.

Nevertheless, on the following day, April 7, the protesting developed into a massive riot in the center of Chisinau, during which the Parliament Building and the Presidential Office were severely stoned, damaged, plundered out and ultimately set fire on – all before the election result announcement.

Hundreds of persons, overwhelmingly young people, were detained on April 7 night and later on suspicion of fomenting and/or taking part in the riot, and dozens of criminal cases were started then. After a change of power following the July 29 parliamentary elections, an absolute majority of the cases were closed down, and the detained were released.