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On 31 March 2010, the hygiene and epidemiology centre in Tighina, subordinate to the unconstitutional Tiraspol authorities, put forward a recommendation in which it notified that the activities of the “Alexandru cel Bun” school in Bender -which falls under the jurisdiction of the constitutional authorities and teaches in the Latin script- could be suspended after the 15 April 2010, on the pretext of alleged health-regulation violations. The recommendation was signed by medical chief D.G.Chirsta, who has threatened the school administration that he will prohibit the use of its premises. Alongside the health regulations, the self-proclaimed authorities have also cited the fact that the school’s curriculum does not correspond to the curriculum followed on the left bank of the Nistru.

Beginning on 4 April 2010, the hygiene and epidemiology centre in Bender, working jointly with the border services subordinate to the regional administration, have prohibited the delivery of food supplies to the school, along with other items and daily supplies required by the students. Food supplies at the school will soon run out, and the situation could become critical, in particular around the exam period. We cannot rule out the possibility that the regional administration could escalate the situation, repeating events of 2004, when institutions in the Transnistrian region under the jurisdiction of the constitutional authorities were evacuated, or their activities illegally suspended.

We must also point out that this pressure is coming at a time when students are registering for year I. We believe that these actions are deliberate and intended to provoke, aimed principally at reducing the number of students enrolled in these institutions. These actions can thus be seen as nothing other than a form of intimidation, repression and discrimination, and as a continuation of serious violations of the fundamental rights and freedoms of at least these groups of people (teachers, parents, students). Precisely because of the continuous harassment on the part of the illegal administration in the region, the number of students in class I in this institution alone fell from 250 in 1999, to 50 in 2009.

We are concerned by the alarming situation created artificially in the region, and in this context we are calling upon the Unified Control Commission (the single mechanism that can, and should, intervene in cases of human rights violations). We request that this issue be examined as a priority, even in today’s hearing (April 15) and that the administrations in Tiraspol and Bender stop, immediately and unconditionally, their persecution and harassment of the school administration, and the discrimination against inhabitants of the Transnistrian region through eliminating their possibility to choose freely for themselves the institution of study, language, and education programme for their children. We also seek the active involvement of the other actors with an interest in resolving the Transnistrian problem in preventing an escalation of the conflict surrounding the institutions teaching in the Latin script on the left bank of the Nistru.

The “Promo-LEX” Association recalls that on 9 June 2009, public hearings took place at the European Court of Human Rights against the Republic of Moldova and the Russian Federation following applications from groups of students, parents and teachers from 3 schools from the Transnistrian region that teach in the Latin script (the “Evrica” school in Rîbniţa, the “Ștefan cel Mare și Sfânt” school from Grigoriopol which at present is based in the village of Doroţcaia, Dubăsari, and the “Alexandru cel Bun” school in Bender). Until now the ECHR has not ruled on these applications, while the problems encountered by these institutions have neither been resolved nor treated seriously by the defendant governments. The original administrative building has not been returned to the “Evrica” school, while students and teachers at the “Ștefan cel Mare si Sfânt” school in Grigoriopol continue to commute daily to Dorotcaia in the Dubasari raion so as to be able to study in their chosen language and according to the educational programme chosen by their parents. We request that discussions on all these issues be put on the agenda of the Unified Control Commission and of the Republic of Moldova and Russian Federation, the latter two being both responsible for the human rights situation in the Transnistrian region of Moldova.

For more information contact Alexandru Postica at the Promo-LEX legal department, on tel. 243578.