Moldova calls on West to help restore order

CHISINAU — Moldovan President Vladimir Voronin called on the West to help restore order after protesters seized his offices and ransacked parliament, Interfax news agency reported. “

Moldovan authorities are extremely concerned by the mass disturbances in the centre of the capital and call on Western structures to intervene to resolve this situation,” Voronin was quoted as telling foreign ambassadors by Interfax news agency. Moldova yesterday also recalled its ambassador to Romania for consultations in Chisinau on the events.

Earlier, as many as 10,000 demonstrators massed for a second straight day in the capital of Europe’s poorest country after the Communist Party led by veteran president Vladimir Voronin scored a big victory in a weekend parliamentary election. Protesters overwhelmed riot police and ransacked the president’s office, hurling computers into the street and waving flags from the roof while police took cover behind riot shields.One woman died and dozens of people were injured. Opposition leaders condemned the violence and demanded a new election to resolve the confrontation with Voronin, the only Communist president in Europe.

“Everything that they have undertaken in the last 24 hours cannot be described as anything other than a coup d’etat,” Voronin said in a television address. “The authorites in Moldova will not allow groups of fascists intoxicated with hatred to trample on our democracy,” he said, adding that opposition leaders had “embarked on the path of violent seizure of power”.

Voronin made his comments after meeting opposition leaders, who denied reports by Russian news agencies that the authorities had agreed to a recount in the elections. Official results put the Communists in front with close to 50 per cent of the vote. Most of the protesters were students who see no future if Communists keep their hold on the ex-Soviet state of 4 million people. Wedged between Ukraine and Romania on edge of the European Union, Moldova is within what Russia sees as its sphere of influence.

Opposition leaders called for a halt to the violence after protesters hurled computers into the street and heaped tables and chairs onto a bonfire outside parliament. Fires were also lit inside. Moldovan state television said a young woman choked to death from carbon monoxide poisoning in the parliament building.