Eurasia Press & News
April 7 – At least 30 people were injured in Moldova when anti-Communist protesters stormed the presidency and parliament buildings in a demonstration against the Communists’ election victory, Agence France-Presse reported.
Police officers and protesters were among those hurt, AFP said, citing the chief doctor at the emergency hospital in the capital, Chisinau. Protesters dragged furniture out of the parliament and set the items on fire, sending plumes of smoke into the air, AFP said. Police fought the demonstrators with tear gas and water cannon, the news agency said.
The Communist Party won a majority in the 101-member parliament, with 49.92 percent of the April 5 vote, AFP said. About 10,000 protesters gathered yesterday in the capital to condemn what they called falsified results, according to AFP. They were joined by leaders of opposition parties.
Moldova, a former Soviet republic between Romania and Ukraine, has a population of 4.4 million, about 13 percent of whom are ethic Russians. The Communists changed their pro- Russian stance to pro-European in 2005 and seek closer ties with the European Union, AFP said. Natural gas from Russian state gas exporter OAO Gazprom is carried to the Balkans in a pipeline that runs through Moldova.
