[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 79 (Friday, May 12, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1026-E1028]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                  THE PLIGHT OF THE ROMANIAN MOLDOVANS

                                 ______


                          HON. MARTIN R. HOKE

                                of ohio

                    in the house of representatives

                          Friday, May 12, 1995
  Mr. HOKE. Mr. Speaker, we all know that the central and eastern 
European revolutions of 1989-91 marked a historic event in the European 
struggle for freedom, democracy, and sovereign independence after so 
many years of Communist rule. The revolutionary period, however, was 
chaotic and difficult for the ethnic minorities long held in check by 
Soviet imperialism and repression. The suffering was also experienced 
by the ethnic minorities in the republics of the former Soviet Union.
  The history of the Romanian Moldovans is one of such suffering 
peoples. Upon the declaration of independence by Moldova in August 
1991, cordial relations were established with the neighboring country 
of Romania. From that time forward, much has seemingly gone wrong in 
that fragile region.
  I am inserting into the Congressional Record some interesting 
information that has been brought to my attention regarding the plight 
of the Romanian Moldovans. I know this will be of great interest to you 
and I hope you will have the opportunity to read this report:
     Moldova and the Case of Ilie Ilascu--Background to the Problem

       Elie Wiesel, an Auschwitz survivor, once said that 
     forgetting the victims is like killing them a second time.
       Indeed, oppressors and oppressing states often insist on 
     forgetting the past for the sake of a new start. It is 
     particularly convenient for them because the past can be 
     extended from yesterday to whatever date suits their 
     interests.
       In this case, Russia wants to forget Soviet Union's brutal 
     past and injustices and to start with perestroika. Moscow 
     conveniently ignores that Bessarabia or western Moldova was 
     annexed from Romania in 1940 following the Nazi-Soviet secret 
     pact signed in Moscow by Ribbentrop and Molotov in 1939.
       Hundreds of thousands of Romanian Moldavians were deported, 
     imprisoned, or summarily executed. Hundreds of thousands of 
     families were split, uprooted, displaced, never to meet 
     again. Hundreds of thousands of Russians and Ukrainians were 
     brought in to reorganize and supervise the new republic of 
     Moldova.
       The former Romanian province was territorially mutilated 
     and its borders redrawn. While the northern and southern 
     regions of the new republic were granted to Ukraine, a small 
     piece of land on the left bank of the Dnestr River was given 
     to Moldova. This area was highly russified and its capital, 
     Tiraspol, served for a very long time as a center of Soviet 
     Marxism and Russian nationalism. In fact, Tiraspol was a 
     spring board for Party activists to jump to power in the 
     capital of Moldova, Chisinau, or to other Soviet places.
       While imposing Marxism as a new political form of social 
     organization, Moscow also demanded strictly that the 
     indigenous population calls itself Moldavian rather than 
     Romanian. And to make a modicum of distinction within an 
     otherwise undivisible nationality, Moscow forced Moldova to 
     adapt the Russian alphabet instead of the Latin script used 
     by Romanians. For a while, the ploy worked, but only as long 
     as the people was brutally suppressed.
       Perestroika, nevertheless, brought along freedom of 
     expression and of political organization. Hundreds of 
     thousands of Moldavians gathered on many occasions in 
     Chisinau to reclaim their history, their language, the right 
     to be themselves, their Romaian nationality. Some of the 
     first acts the Moldavians did, were to declare again their 
     Romanian identity and to reimpose from within the Latin 
     alphabet. And the Romanian tricolor was flying again 
     everywhere.
       Eventually, Perestroika caused, at least in theory, the 
     dissolution of the former Soviet Union and it made possible 
     wide spread declarations of independence.
       Moldova too declared its independence on August 27, 1991 
     and a euphoric state followed. It also adopted the Romanian 
     national anthem, it eased control at the Romanian border, 
     while union with the old country appeared imminent. And in 
     the avangarde of this struggle for national recognition was 
     the Moldavian Popular Front. But the initial enthusiasm was 
     soon replaced by the harsh realities imposed again from the 
     center. Moscow would not give up its empire.
       First, the small Gagauz minority of Moldova was pushed by 
     the Russians to declare its independence. When this move 
     failed, the Tiraspol Russians declared their own separate 
     Dnestr Republic and vowed to rebuild communism and a new 
     Soviet Union around it. The new Marxist republic readopted 
     the former Soviet system and began to hire mercenaries to 
     fight against Moldova. Confronted with dismemberment, Moldova 
     formed an army made mostly of volunteers and in 1992 the two 
     sides were poised for war.
       Moscow followed with great interest the events and 
     manipulated the war to make sure that Moldova would not be 
     allowed to rejoin Romania. Whenever the war turned sour for 
     the Dnestr Republic, the 14th Russian Army located in 
     Tirapsol openly intervened to its defense. It also armed to 
     the teeth Cossack and Russian volunteers from all over USSR 
     to fight against Moldova.
       Within a few months, the war turned very ugly. Many 
     Romanians from the Tiraspol area under the new Dnestr 
     Republic were arrested, disappeared, or were murdered in a 
     barbarous manner. Several Romanians were mutilated, skinned, 
     or nailed to crosses.
       At the same time and in order to bit Moldova into 
     submission, Russia stopped the supply of energy and raw 
     materials, resulting in freezing temperatures during the 
     winter and industrial idleness. What Moscow wanted was to 
     bring Moldova back into the newly formed CIS, to alienate it 
     at any price from Romania, and to make its people accept the 
     misnomer of ``Moldavian.''
       At the beginning, the new leaders in Chisinau resisted and 
     fought the trend, but later a new group of pro-Moscow 
     individuals gave in to the Russian demands.
       It was at the beginning of the war of 1992 that the Dnestr 
     authorities arrested the leaders of the local Moldavian 
     Popular Front and started a shameful process which lasts to 
     this day. The case is now known as ``The Tiraspol Five,'' and 
     it has acquired international attention.


                         the ``tiraspol five''

       On June 2, 1992, a group of five members of the Tiraspol 
     Branch of Moldova's Popular Front was arrested on false 
     accusations of ``terrorist acts against the Soviet Power.'' 
     They were llie llascu, president of the local branch of the 
     Front, Alexandru Lesco, Tudor Petrov-Popa, Andrei Ivantoc, 
     and Petre Godiac. A sixth person who was arrested at the same 
     time, Valery Garbuz, had been infiltrated by the local secret 
     police into the organization in order to testify against the 
     group.
       It should be mentioned that at the time of the arrest, the 
     Tiraspol branch of the Popular Front was working legally and 
     openly within the laws of Moldova. By contrast, the 
     authorities of the Dnestr
      Republic that arrested them were illegitimate and did not 
     represent any legal state.
       At first, the group was detained at the headquarter of the 
     14th Russian Army in Tiraspol, raising additional questions 
     about the status of this Army. Initially, some 20 persons 
     were detained, but most of them were freed when they 
     retracted their pro-Romanian stand. As a matter of fact, the 
     most insistent demand of the investigators was that they give 
     up their claim to be Romanians and accept instead their 
     regional identification as Moldavians.
       In spite of the unbearable conditions to which the victims 
     were subjected, no one confessed to any crimes, but this did 
     not change anything. During the investigations, Ilascu was 
     visited unexpectedly by the ministers of security of both 
     Moldova and the Dnestr Republic, making him think that the 
     two entities acted in unison. On at least one occasion, the 
     two security ministers left Ilascu's cell together, making 
     fun of him.
       As Ilascu mentioned in a letter, the defenders were visited 
     by people from Romania, Switzerland, Italy, Poland, and even 
     from the United States. But never by any official of Moldova. 
     During this ordeal, Ilascu states, they were kept alive only 
     because the international press took an interest in them.
       [[Page E1027]] When the trial began, the entire evidence 
     against the defenders was based on the false testimony of 
     Valery Garbuz. And in order to scare them and influence the 
     judge, numerous local communists were brought in to chant 
     ``death to the terrorists.'' To complete the picture, the 
     defenders were kept in an iron cage, and the trial was staged 
     in a local factory. It was a reminder of the Stalinist trials 
     of the 1930's.
       Kept under such conditions, members of the Ilascu group 
     came to the conclusion that their arrest and subsequent trial 
     was orchestrated by the Tiraspol Russians with the support of 
     certain circles in Moscow. And, according to Ilascu, the 
     Dnestr authorities also had the cooperation of the new 
     leaders of Moldova who wanted to annihilate the opposition.
       The most prominent among the new leaders of Moldova are 
     President Mircea Snegur, Prime Minister Andrei Sangheli, and 
     Speaker of the Parliament Petru Luchinski. All three of them 
     are former secretaries of the Moldavian Communist Party. 
     Apparently, they are also under Moscow's pressure and 
     threats. Under such circumstances, the independence of 
     Moldova is far from being real.
       Moldova is only independent of Romania, which is exactly 
     what Moscow wanted. And to make sure of achieving their goal, 
     the Russians planned the 1992 Denstr War and the 
     dismemberment and federalization of the small republic. 
     Allegedly, Moscow also threatened that if Bucharest insisted 
     on claiming Moldova, they would transform Romania into a 
     second Yugoslavia.
       Thus, the true goal of the arrest of the Tiraspol group of 
     the long public trial, and of the convictions, seems to be 
     threefold:
       To intimidate and demoralize the Romanian majority of 
     Moldova;
       To cover up the murders perpetrated by the very authorities 
     of the Dnestr Republic during the summer of 1992;
       And to kill any desire or aspiration of the Moldovan 
     Romanians to unite with Romania.
       Although imprisoned, in February 1993 Ilie Ilascu was 
     elected to the Moldavian Parliament. This enraged his captors 
     even more. In December 1993, he was sentenced to death while 
     his colleagues received long prison convictions. In spite of 
     his sentence, Ilascu shouted: ``Long live Romania. You can 
     kill us, but you cannot defeat us.''
       As of the end of January 1995, when President Mircea Snegur 
     came to an official visit to Washington, Ilie Ilascu and his 
     group were still in prison, tortured continuously and dying a 
     slow agonizing death. (See Appendices)
                 recent moldavian visits to washington

       While visiting Washington, President Snegur painted Moldova 
     as a young but democratic republic struggling to reform 
     politically and to create a free market economy. He insisted 
     that he wanted to integrate his republic into the European 
     organisms, but also to keep close relations with Russia and 
     CIS. (The question is how can one serve two masters?)
       During the same period of time a prominent member of the 
     opposition and a leading member of the Moldavian Parliament, 
     Vasile Nedelciuc, was also in Washington for the National 
     Breakfast Prayer.
       Meeting several congressmen, Nedelciuc spoke on behalf of 
     the democratic opposition of Moldova and raised a number of 
     questions. He insisted that the opposition supports fully the 
     idea of integration with Europe and greets with enthusiasm 
     good relations with the United States.
       On the other hand, he underlined that closer relations with 
     Russia and the CIS bloc could prevent the process of 
     democratization and integration with Europe and especially 
     with the mother country of Romania. He also insisted, as 
     President Snegur did, that the presence of the 14th Russian 
     Army headquartered in Tiraspol represents a big threat. This 
     army and its huge arsenal should be withdrawn from Moldova as 
     soon as possible.
       With regard to the much needed and appreciated American 
     aid, Nedelciuc insisted that most of it goes to state 
     enterprises or state structures, and very little is used to 
     encourage private businesses.
       He stressed that the reforms did not touch that 
     countryside, where former Soviet state and collective farms 
     have not been disbanded and their chairmen oppose any 
     changes.
       He underlined that the opposition has no access to radio 
     and television which remain exclusively in the hands of the 
     new government and its party.
       He also said that the government has abusively fired from 
     administrative positions most people who belonged to the 
     opposition. Among them there were several freely elected 
     mayors.
       He stressed that most of the visiting US governmental 
     delegations, and even the personnel of the American Embassy 
     in Chisinau, avoid to meet the opposition. A dialogue with 
     the opposition would be beneficial to all parties.
       He insisted that educators, teachers, men and women of art 
     and letters of Moldova, are again persecuted for declaring 
     openly their Romanian language, culture, and identity. 
     Renowned poet and writer, Grigore Vieru, for example, 
     repeatedly received telephone threats. In this light, 
     Nedelciuc . . . pleaded that the recent Appeal of Moldova's 
     educators be distributed in the West and their cause be known 
     and defended (See attached Appeal)
       With regard to Ilie Ilascu and his group, Vasile Nedelciuc 
     stressed that their unending ordeal is an insult to the 
     entire Romanian nation and to the concept of independence of 
     Moldova. President Snegur also promised to intervene on his 
     behalf. As Eli Wiesel put it, to forget them is killing them 
     a second time around.
       The United States has granted Moldova over two hundred 
     million dollars as assistance. This year Moldova is scheduled 
     to receive twenty-two million dollars. This is our taxpayers' 
     money. It is unacceptable to help Moldova while the 
     government persecutes its majority and at the same time it is 
     unable or unwilling to free its own citizens from prison.
         Peter Lucaci, National President, Union & League, R.S.A., 
           Inc.
         Rt. Rev. Bishop Nathaniel Popp, Romanian Orthodox 
           Episcopate of America.
         Archibishop Victorin, Romanian Orthodox Archdiocese in 
           America and Canada.
         (Archmandrite) J. Michael Botean, Apostolic 
           Administrator, sede vacante, Roman Catholic Diocese.
         Dr. Nicholas Dima, Union & League, Washington 
           Representative.
                                                                    ____

                               Appendix I

 Statement by Ilie Ilascu addressed to the Prosecutor of the Tiraspol 
 Court on December 11, 1993, after being sentenced to death (summary).

       ``The undersigned Ilie Ilascu was illegally and brutally 
     arrested by the anticonstitutional authorities of the so-
     called Moldavian Dnestr Republic on June 2, 1992, at four AM 
     at my home address on Pacii Str. Nr. 50/1. apt. 1, Tiraspol.
       ``The arrest was conducted by Vladimir Ivanovici Gorbov, a 
     lieutenent colonel of Moldova's Ministry of Security, who was 
     secretly dispatched for this mission from Chistinau. His 
     mission was:
       1. To join the security authority of the Dnestr Republic 
     pretending that he was a political refugee from Moldova.
       2. To collect compromising information for the liquidation 
     of the Tiraspol branch of Moldova's Popular Front, considered 
     an organization opposed to the communist regimes in Chisinau 
     and Tiraspol.
       In view of his mission, Gorbov arrived in Tiraspol in 
     February 1992 and shortly after in March, he was already a 
     member of the Dnestr security department. A few month later, 
     he became deputy Minister of the Dnestr Republic's Security 
     Ministry.
       The arrest of the Tiraspol Five was coordinated with V.I. 
     Garbuz, a former militia captain and a known police informer, 
     who had been infiltrated into the local branch of the Popular 
     Front. Before my arrest, the local militia planted in my 
     apartment arms and ammunitions of which I had no knowledge.
       For months, I was investigated by Gorbov, who applied the 
     most brutal methods: beatings, intimidations, threats, lies, 
     starvation, isolation, psychological pressures, and several 
     mocked executions.
       He told me, for example, that my younger daughter was 
     kidnapped and that my wife had lost her sanity. Gorbov and 
     Shevtsov also asked me continuously to confess, to deny my 
     position, and to sign false statements already written by 
     them. They tried to make me sign confessions that I was a CIA 
     agent as far back as 1989, and that I also was a Romanian 
     secret agent trained to execute terrorist activities in 
     Moldova.
       When I totally refused, they beat me to a pulp. Later, they 
     tried to make me sign confessions that I had been a paid 
     agent of Moldova's Security Ministry trained to carry out 
     terrorist activities in the territory of the Dnestr Republic, 
     which I also rejected as ridiculous.
       Mr. Prosecutor, I also want to stress that during the 
     night, Gorbov called his con in Chisinau several times. In 
     the silence of the night I could hear that he received from 
     him secret information regarding the evolution of the Dnestr 
     War. (This should be construed as plain treason).
       He also bragged frankly about dozens of members of the 
     Popular Front whom he had killed with is own hand at Benderi 
     during the height of the war in the summer of 1992.
       Interestingly, after accomplishing his mission, Gorbov 
     disappeared from Tiraspol and returned to Chisinau, where 
     allegedly he had retired to live in . . . peace and honor.
       In view of that Mr. Prosecutor, I demand that Gorbov, my 
     investigator and accuser here in Tiraspol, be himself 
     arrested and tried for his crimes. Ilie Ilascu, December 11, 
     1993.


                              Appendix II

                  Letter by Ilie Ilascu from Death Row

       My cell is made exclusively of iron and cement, and it does 
     not have any ventilation. The windows have three rows of bars 
     and are covered by a metal sheet. There is no light and no 
     fresh air. I have been kept alone and have not been taken out 
     since February.
       My kidney problems have aggravated. Many times I can no 
     longer stand the pain. I also have acute pains on the right 
     side of the body in the abdominal, liver, and lung areas. It 
     has now been two years since I could no longer control my 
     left cheek, which shakes very often. My eyes itch 
     continuously, and following the 1992 beatings, I lost two 
     teeth while a third one was broken. Above the right knee, I 
     have an area that is now completely numb. My migraines are 
     continuous, and there are times when I can no longer get up 
     alone.
       [[Page E1028]] The cell has never been heated, and I have 
     been continuously starved. Mircea Sengur has not allowed 
     anybody to help me. Not even the Red Cross has been allowed 
     to visit.
       I will resist as long as God will keep me alive.--Ilie 
     Ilascu, September 25, 1994.
                                                                    ____

                                 Appeal

   To the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, European 
 Commission on Human Rights, the Committee on Relations With European 
                          Non-Member Countries

       The present Appeal is a document adopted at a protest 
     meeting, held on January 20, 1995 in Chisinau (Moldova), 
     which was attended by over 400 people representing 29 
     educational, research and cultural institutions.
       We, the participants to the meeting, fully support the 
     efforts directed at obtaining Republic of Moldova's 
     membership in the Council of Europe, since, to our strong 
     belief, this prestigious international body can give some 
     additional guarantees to the irreversibility of democratic 
     changes that occurred in our society during the last years.
       It's precisely the concern for the fate of democratic gains 
     of 1989-90 that made the people gather at this meeting.
       The issue under discussion might seem pretty insignificant 
     to anyone but those who know how skillfully and 
     hypocritically it had been manipulated by the totalitarian 
     regime. It deals with the term ``Moldovan language''--a term 
     invented by Stalin for the sake of building a ``Berlin wall'' 
     between it and Rumanian language, and culture in general (for 
     this purpose ``Moldovan language'' was even given the Russian 
     alphabet). That proved to be one of the most powerful 
     instruments of uprooting the ethnic identity of the Rumanian 
     population of Bessarabia and of depriving it of its cultural 
     values. The most progressive and honest scientists from both 
     the Republic of Moldova and Russia could never accepted this 
     falsehood.
       That is why the issues of language and its alphabet have 
     become pivots in the general democratic demands of 1989. As a 
     result, the Academy of Sciences officially recognized--and 
     the first democratic Parliament confirmed--that there is only 
     one literary Eastern Romance language--Rumanian, Moldovan 
     being just one of its sub-dialects (spoken also in Rumanian 
     Moldova). In the general bliss of those years it seemed that 
     there is no way back to the old political manipulations.
       In this context one can understand the frustration related 
     to the return of the false term ``Moldovan language'', a term 
     the actual majority party succeeded to introduce in the 
     Constitution (Article 13.1). By the way, the Academy, when 
     consulted by the Parliament on the issue, reaffirmed its 
     previous opinion and was thus ignored by the latter.
       Things wouldn't be so dramatic, if people didn't know what 
     the implications of this ``minor'' untruth would be to the 
     study of history, literature, etc., but most of all to the 
     MORALITY of the whole society. This would mean another 
     spiritual isolation, i.e. our further distancing from the 
     ideals of European integration.
       Even more troublesome is the direct pressure on behalf of 
     the Government upon the teaching staff of the educational 
     institutions not to use the term Rumanian language. Threats 
     are already being heard towards those specialists who do not 
     accept the linguistic and historical untruth. Teachers feel 
     humiliated by the fact that, after they have enjoyed the 
     freedom of telling the truth, they are forced to perpetuate 
     old propagandistic lies and find it immoral.
       We, the participants to the meeting, protest against the 
     above mentioned facts, qualifying them as violations of our 
     human and professional rights. These are also violations of 
     the students' right to education in their native literary 
     language (and not just a sub-dialect of it), on the basis of 
     scientific truth.
       We also express our protest against the inaccessibility of 
     state radio and TV (the only ones in Moldova) not only to the 
     opposition parties, but also to the researchers, teachers, 
     university professors that have different opinions from those 
     stated officially.
       We appeal to the high authority of the Council of Europe 
     for support in the hope that it will not disregard these 
     cases of encroachment on our professional liberty and human 
     dignity.
       Anticipating the membership of the Republic of Moldova in 
     the Council of Europe, we are eager to work towards the 
     democratization of our society and towards achieving the 
     noble goals of this European forum.
       With our highest consideration,
         Timofei Melnic, Chief of the Department of Rumanian 
           Literature, State University, Chairman of the Meeting.
       Address: str. Miron Costin 15/2, ap. 125, Chisinau, 
     Republic of Moldova, Tel. (3732) 32-25-22.
         Ion Vicol, Researcher, State University of Moldova, 
           Secretary of the Meeting.
           

                          ____________________