Signatory organizations express their deep disappointment regarding the way the authorities of the Republic of Moldova have exercised their duties in connection with the protests and public demonstrations that took place in Chisinau municipality on 26-27 August and 1 September 2018. We will highlight some of the key issues that we consider important for the public knowledge and in relation to which we request the authorities to take the necessary measures.

In a joint statement, the signatory organizations:

1. condemn the way the authorities acted as regards the protests in the Great National Assembly Square (Piața Marii Adunări Naționale – PMAN) and ask the Mayor’s office of Chisinau municipality and the police to provide public explanations shortly as to why they allowed the Shor Party the organization of demonstration in the PMAN on 26 August 2018, even if it did
   not submit a prior declaration. The police and the Mayor’s office of Chisinau municipality should have provided to Shor Party either another place for demonstrations or a shorter period for
   holding it, so that their demonstration did not to coincide with the other two protests (announced for 13:00 and 14:00 respectively) given the imminent risk of altercations and the absence of prior declaration regarding the Shor Party demonstration. Allowing Mr. Shor demonstration has in fact created situations of provocations and altercations among the participants, which would have given the police „legal” reason to intervene forcefully against the participants in the protest.
2. condemn restriction of the journalists’ access to the events of 26-27 August 2018 and police inaction when the representatives of Shor party have pushed the journalists off. We reiterate the statement by media NGO’s of 28 August 2018 on preventing journalists from covering the events of 26-27 August and request the competent authorities, first of all the Prosecutor General’s Office and the Ministry of Interior, to investigate promptly and impartially the cases reported in the statement.
3. condemn the way the police dispersed the protesters at the Stefan cel Mare monument in the morning of 27 August 2018 and the brutal way in which the protesters were dispersed, despite the fact that they were peaceful and in a much lower number than the policemen, presenting no danger to the lives and security of the latter
4. condemn and qualify as illegal the dispersal of the civic group of protesters OccupyGuguță and seizure of their goods in the morning of 27 August 2018.
5. condemn and qualify as excessive the actions of the police and of the Government administration on 1 September 2018 against the participants in the Centenary March.
6. are concerned and require the Ministry of Interior to explain the presence of the persons in civilian clothes alongside the police without the possibility of identifying them and the way how to identify the policemen in balaclavas.

Signatory organisations reiterate that the peaceful protest is an important method of showing disagreement with certain public policies. The way in which the protest is conducted and the conduct of public authorities at the protest is an important indicator of the state of democracy in a state. The conduct of the public authorities of the Republic of Moldova during the protests of 26-27 August and the demonstration of 1 September 2018 raised many serious questions. Organisations request the competent public authorities – in particular the Mayor’s office of Chisinau municipality, the Ministry of Interior and the Prosecutor General’s Office – to provide a comprehensive analysis of the events of 26-27 August and 1 September 2018, thoroughly investigate all complaints regarding those events and publish the results of the analysis and investigations within a short period of time.

Signatory organizations:

• Legal Resources Centre from Moldova
• Amnesty International Moldova
• Association for Participatory Democracy “ADEPT”
• Association for Efficient and Responsible Governance
• Association of Independent Press
• Foreign Policy Association
• Centre for Investigative Journalism
• Centre for Independent Journalism
• Rehabilitation Centre for Torture Victims “Memoria”
• National Environmental Centre
• WatchDog.md Community
• CPR Moldova
• Institute for European Policies and Reforms (IPRE)
• Institute for Public Policy
• Pilgrim-Demo
• Transparency International – Moldova

English version of the statement is available here

Romanian version of the statement is available here

Russian version of the statement is available here