Chisinau, November 10 (Infotag). Democratic and genuinely free elections in Transnistria will only be possible within no earlier than 2-3 years, believes Ion Manole, the Executive Director of the Promo-Lex, a Chisinau-based human rights watchdog focused on defending farmers’ property rights in Transnistria.

He stated at a news conference in Infotag today that the Transnistrians are subjected to terror from the Tiraspol regime’s behalf – a regime that has usurped power in the region with the military’s help and that has been reigning on the left Dniester bank for 15 years.

In his words, any attempts of dissidence are curbed in the Transnistrian region, and there are no opposition or free press as such there.

Last week, Mr. Manole – together with Mr. Ion Iovcev, Principal of the Romanian-language Lucian Blaga lyceum in Tiraspol – visited the United States where they met with the representatives of the State Department, Congress, Senate, and told them how the Tiraspol regime oppresses the Transnistrian population.

Ion Manole believes that the US’ and international community’s support is particularly necessary for thousands of Moldovan peasants whom Tiraspol has deprived of the right to work on their lands, and whose children cannot study in their native language.

Iovcev maintains the Tiraspol regime persistently wages a policy of ethnic purge in the region, so the proportion of the ethnic Moldovans on the left bank steadily diminishes.

“By closing down Romanian-language schools, by oppressing the pupils and parents of remaining Moldovan educational institutions by means of the ministry of state security, Tiraspol forces the young generation to go for studying to Moldova or Romania. They cannot come back home, because the foreign diplomas on higher education would not be recognized by the Transnistrian government, and the procedure of diploma legalization in Transnistria is awfully long and hard”, said the lyceum principal.

In his words, the Lucian Blaga lyceum has only 3 hundred pupils and 35 teachers left. It is denied registration by the Tiraspol authorities, is forced to huddle in leased premises, and desperately lacks space, didactic materials, and school equipment.

…AND SAYS TIRASPOL IS GOING TO BUILD MILITARY EXERCISE GROUND ON DOROTCAIA FARMLANDS

Chisinau, November 10 (Infotag). The reasons why the separatist Transnistrian authorities do not let Dorotcaia villagers to work on their private lands are political, not economic ones, Ion Manole stated at the news conference in Infotag.

Over 90% of the village’s farmlands are situated behind the said highway, and Tiraspol claims the lands to be the state property of the Transnistrian Moldovan Republic, so all kinds of obstacles are put to using the fields or carrying harvest from them.

The Dubossary raion administration addressed to the Dorotcaia peasants to conclude land rent contracts, as, in its assertions, there shall be no obstacles or restrictions put on them. However, the peasants were quick to grasp that this trick is made to equalize the Dubossary and Moldovan peasants in what regards land taxation: in the Transnistria-controlled Dubossary raion, tax rates are higher than in Moldova.

Manole said there is yet another reason why the peasants are reluctant to conclude land contracts: “All this are but Tiraspol’s trap. It is impossible to conclude any legal documents with the illegal regime. Besides, local farmers do not rush to own the lands concerned because they know about Tiraspol’s plans to use those fertile fields for building a military exercise ground – in the immediate proximity to the Moldovan villages of Dorotcaia, Cosnita and Pirita”.

Promo-Lex has lodged with the European Court of Human Rights a collective complaint against the Russian Federation Government. The Organization is convinced that it is with Russia’s connivance that the Tiraspol regime violates the Moldovan peasants’ land ownership rights. About 1.3 thousand peasants have put their signatures under the complaint, and the European Court has already accepted it for consideration.

Ion Manole stated the Tiraspol regime meticulously and stubbornly advances its military posts into the Moldovan territory – step by step, this usurping thousands of hectares of territory.

“That was how it happened in Dorotcaia, and then in Copanca. The village of Corjova has by now been completely brought under the Dubossary administration’s control”, he said.