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Moldova blames Romania after anti-government riots
by Sabina Zawadzki and Dmitry Chubashenko

Reuters Translate This Article
8 April 2009

CHISINAU (Reuters) - Moldova's Communist president, Vladimir Voronin, accused neighboring Romania on Wednesday of trying to overthrow his government and ordered mass arrests of protesters in Europe's poorest state.

Moldova's former Soviet master Russia backed his allegation of foreign interference, but Romania, a NATO and EU member, rejected the veteran leader's words as a 'provocation.'

Western powers urged all sides to keep calm and avoid a repeat of Tuesday's post-election riots in which one person died, more than 270 people were injured and 193 were arrested.

The European Union said it was deeply concerned about escalating tensions.

'It is particularly important that there should be proper respect for freedom of the media and freedom of expression,' the EU Czech Presidency said in a statement.

Opposition parties called off further rallies after the violence which erupted during protests by 10,000 people against the victory of the ruling Communist party in Sunday's election.

In Moldova, parliament elects the president but Voronin, in power since 2001, cannot run for a third term. He has said, however, he wants to remain in a decision-making job.

On Wednesday evening, Moldova's Central Election Commission, in an announcement broadcast on television, said it had confirmed the results of Sunday's vote, giving the communists 60 seats.

That would leave them one seat short of the 61 seats needed to ensure election of their candidate when parliament later elects the president. Three pro-Western liberal opposition parties will hold 41 seats in the 101-seat assembly.

The announcement said the Constitutional Court had 10 days to confirm the results in turn, strongly implying that there would be no recount of the votes as demanded by the opposition.

POLICE ROUND UP PROTESTERS

Riot police rounded up protesters after clearing them from the president's office—from whose roof they had waved Moldovan, Romanian and European Union flags—and from the parliament building to which they had set fire.

About 1,500 people remained outside the government building which was guarded by dozens of riot police.

Vlad, a student demonstrating there, said the protest was an act of desperation against Communist rule in the impoverished country of 4 million people.

'The election was a huge deception. We are protesting because there is no other solution. I am 20 now and have no future in this country,' he told Reuters.

'It was the nation standing up, it was a revolution and it is continuing here. Young people were standing up by themselves. No one told them to do that.'

The protesters drifted away during the evening, leaving only a few dozen people in the area.

Voronin, Europe's only Communist president, accused Romania of masterminding the disturbances and said he was expelling Romania's ambassador and introducing visas for Romanians.

He says Romania does not recognize the border and wants to annex Moldova, most of which was part of Romania until World War Two, sharing strong ethnic and linguistic ties. Bucharest denies this.

'When the flag of Romania was raised on state buildings, the attempts of the opposition to carry out a coup became clear,' the 67-year-old Communist leader said. He vowed strict punishment for the ringleaders.

Moldovans are split between those wanting closer ties or even reunification with Romania and those wanting to keep what are also longstanding links with Russia.

ROMANIA REJECTS CHARGES

The Romanian Foreign Ministry said it was unacceptable that 'the Communist power in Chisinau transfers responsibility for the Moldovan Republic's domestic problems onto Romania.'

Voronin won strong backing from Russia, which said the riots were aimed at undermining Moldova's sovereignty.

'We all saw under which flags these outrages have been carried out and hope that the European Union will draw the most serious conclusions about what happened,' Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in a statement in Moscow.

Moldova, wedged between Ukraine and Romania on the edge of the EU, is in what Russia sees as its sphere of influence.

Opposition leaders condemned Tuesday's violence but demanded new elections. Some protesters demanded the resignation of Voronin, who is due to step down soon because of constitutional term limits but wants to retain power behind the scenes.

Vlad Filat, leader of the opposition Liberal Democrats, accused the government of going back on an earlier pledge to hold a recount and forecast 'some very serious repression.'

'We would expect the demonstrations to continue for several more days and possibly become more violent,' said Joanna Gorska, deputy head of Eurasia Forecasting at specialist intelligence company Exclusive Analysis, told Reuters.

Many Moldovans live in poverty and thousands of skilled workers have left to seek a better life abroad. Average monthly wages are about $250.

The violence, the worst to hit Moldova's capital in decades, could complicate efforts to resolve an 18-year-old separatist rebellion in the Russian-speaking region of Transdniestria, where Russia has had troops since Soviet times.

(Additional reporting by Peter Apps in London and Justyna Pawlak in Bucharest)

(Writing by Michael Stott and Guy Faulconbridge, editing by Tim Pearce)

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