MENU
Documenting
war crimes in Ukraine

The Tribunal for Putin (T4P) global initiative was set up in response to the all-out war launched by Russia against Ukraine in February 2022.

Were Ukrainian observers presented as the enemy in Moldova?

30.07.2009   
The Committee of Voters of Ukraine believe that the obstructions and deportation from Moldova of Ukrainian members of a team of international observers elements of the Moldovan regime’s pre-election political technology

The Committee of Voters of Ukraine [CVU] consider it possible that the obstructions posed and deportation from Moldova of Ukrainian nationals within the team of international observers at the early parliamentary elections were elements of the Moldovan regime’s pre-election political technology. This was suggested at a press conference on Thursday by Sergei Tkachenko, Head of the European Network of Election Monitoring Organizations (ENEMO) Mission in Moldova.

He said that the pre-election programme of the then ruling communist party was based on postulates regarding stability, prevention of unrest and of the export of various “colour” revolutions. He assumed that, because of the Orange Revolution, Ukrainians might have been presented as the enemy.

Mr Tkachenko pointed out that when watching programmes on Moldovan television on the eve of the elections, the observers had seen that the events connected with the observers were the main items in local media outlets. They were, moreover, portrayed as people who had come with the aim of destabilizing the situation before the elections. He believes that they thus became a part of the election political technology and that this was part of an attempt to make them into a threat to the country.”

He added that the mission’s observers had begun receiving threats and that the management had felt compelled to wind up work and return observers home out of considerations of safety

Oleksandr Chernenko, Head of CVU, stressed that it was difficult to explain the actions of the Moldovan regime at all, and considered them absurd. On 22 July the Moldovan Central Election Commission had decided to allow ENEMO to observe the elections, and on 24 July 53 of the 140 put forward received accreditation. Then on 27 July the others were turned down.

Moreover the Georgian representatives had not even been allowed out of the airport, even those who had received CEC accreditation and were sent home. The Ukrainian nationals were detained by the migration service and police and also deported.

Mr Chernenko said that the representatives of the Moldovan authorities had acted “spontaneously, in a disorganized manner, and through phone calls and that the observers had received no official explanation. He added that the CEC Secretary had called the ENEMO observers “unreliable and unwelcome”, while the Head of the CEC had spoken of “criminals implicated in the organization of the colour revolutions” He stressed that the mission had contained representatives from other countries – Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and others, yet only the Ukrainians and Georgians had received such treatment.

It was also stressed that Moldovan citizens in general, and representatives of the authorities in the regions, had been welcoming until the phone calls, after which the position of the local management changed and they demanded that the observers leave their country.

CVU considers that the Ukrainian authorities must make a response to such actions from their Moldovan counterparts. They should at very least demand an official explanation for the detention and expulsion of the six members of an official observer team on 28 July.

From a report at http://human-rights.unian.net/ukr/detail/191727

 Share this