New Opposition Party Alleges High Levels of Intimidation

UNCLAS CHISINAU 000580

SENSITIVE

SIPDIS

STATE FOR EUR/UMB AND DRL/AE

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PHUM KDEM MD
SUBJECT: New Opposition Party Alleges High Levels of Intimidation

Sensitive but Unclassified. Please Protect Accordingly.


1. (SBU) Summary: The National Liberal Democratic Party of Moldova
(PLDM),established in January, has accused the ruling Party of
Communists of harassment, and the Christian Democrats and Democratic
Party of false charges of corruption and member-buying. End
Summary.


2. (SBU) Sniping began not long after the PLDM was registered on
January 25, 2008. In March, Democratic Party (PD) leader Dumitru
Diacov (whose party Filat deserted last year) and Christian Democrat
(PPCD) leader Iurie Rosca accused Filat of bribing other parties'
members to join PLDM. On March 28, Rosca accused Filat of
corruption, fraud and mismanagement while director of the
Privatization Department between 1998 and 1999, and urged the
Prosecutor General's Office (PGO) and the Center for Combating
Economic Crimes and Corruption (CCECC) to launch an investigation.
On April 2, two corruption cases were opened against Filat; the PLDM
was also charged with document fraud that day. President Voronin
has regularly described Filat as the "creature" of Valeriu Pasat,
former Security and Information Service (SIS) director and former
Minister of Defense.



3. (SBU) In a May 23 conversation with us, Filat stated that more
than 1,000 party members had been interviewed by low-level employees
of the PGO, after authorities had taken their names and addresses
from party registration documents. According to Filat, party
members were asked whether they had received money to join the
party, why they had left their previous parties, and what they
discussed at PLDM meetings. PLDM members of local councils were
questioned about the party's financial sources. No charges were
made, but, according to Filat, the interviews were a form of
intimidation, a violation of citizens' freedom of association, and
part of a larger campaign to discourage opposition parties before
March 2009 parliamentary elections.


4. (SBU) Under Moldovan law, financial or other inducements to join
a party are not illegal. Police are allowed to question citizens in
relation to a case, and are within their rights to extract names
from a party-founders' petition, and present those names to the PGO,
which issues subpoenas for questioning. Filat claims that low-level
PGO officials are not qualified to do the questioning. Citizens who
are questioned have the right to remain silent and have a lawyer
present during the interview. Only if a citizen is named as a
suspect or a witness can he or she appeal to the courts, but
interviewees have the right to protest abuse committed by officials
during questioning. In short, the GOM appears to be using legal
fact-finding powers to frighten members of a particular political
party.


5. (SBU) Comment: Politics in Moldova can be a rough game, and
local and international election observers have regularly noted the
ruling party's intimidation of voters and misuse of administrative
resources. Anxiety in the Party of Communists about its fall in
vote share since 2005 may increase such activities. However, the
fact that these charges are widely reported in the media shows that
Moldova is making progress in opening such matters to public debate.
End comment.

Kirby