NGOs CALL ON EXTERNAL PARTNERS TO STOP FINANCING REFORMS IN MOLDOVA

A number of Moldovan nongovernmental organizations condemned the country’s authorities for imitation of reforms, human right violation and called on external partners to suspend financing of reforms, which do not give any long-term results.

This was said in a letter, directed to the leadership of the EU, the European Parliament, the Council of Europe, as well as representatives of foreign diplomatic missions and organizations, accredited in Moldova, with the demand to bring Moldova back to the democratic path and to force its authorities to fulfill the adopted liabilities.

According to the authors, the reason of address is the fact that the authorities not just failed to investigate the stealing of the billion from banks, but also tried to legalize revenues from these crimes by means of the so-called tax amnesty, while after that changed the elections system for their benefit and against the public welfare.

“Now, in order to survive and preserve the power, the illegal and unpopular Government is adopting the remaining instruments – fear and threatening. Standing against the recent peaceful protests, the Moldovan authorities recurred to prosecution, threatening and downright lie, violated the main human rights such as the right to peaceful gatherings and the freedom of expression”, the address says.

According to NGOs, the police, the pro-Government politicians and media companies, controlled by them, were engaged in an open campaign on population disinformation about protests and denigration of innocent people.

“The 2020 reform of the Ministry of the Interior was condition for liberalizing the visa regime between the EU and Moldova, as well as the National Action Plan in the field of human rights, the results of which were jeopardized in 2017. With a big concern we are witnessing the rolling back of the justice system reform. Demanding considerable funds, the Government is reducing the transparency and the access to information, journalists are increasingly more hindered to do their work. The authorities are not combating corruption at the high level, while the taken measures mostly help protecting and preserving it”, says the document, the authors of which maintain that in such conditions, the providing of financial assistance to Moldovan authorities in these sectors is not the best using the money of the EU and US taxpayers or any other people.

Public activists are concerned that large financial reserves, accumulated by corrupt politicians, may be set in motion at next elections for concealed financing politically biased media outlets, politicized administration and law enforcement bodies.

“We think that Moldova approached the point of no return in its way to authoritarianism and are concerned that the trust of our people and external partners were deceived and trampled”, NGOs maintained calling on the European partners to conduct the investigation of the theft from Moldovan banks by themselves and apply personal sanctions against the implied officials.

The address was signed by the Association for Participatory Democracy, Association for Efficient and Responsible Government, Center of Policies and Reforms, Moldovan Center of Legal Resources, Institute for Public Policy, the Transparency International Moldova, the WatchDog.MD.