What a day in Chisinau/ Moldova. Is it a twitter revolution as some claimed? Or a grape revolution? Or not a revolution at all? One thing is remarkable: For the first time I did not switch on the TV for news updates but only checked twitter #pman and other news websites (for example Unimedia), mainly in Moldova and Romania. Mainstream (western) media was slow to report about the story today. It is not only happening on twitter, lots of facebook and photo sharing seems to be going on: And there are already lots of photos on the web, see for example here, here, here, here, here here and here. For a good blog and video overview (in English) check Nosemonkey, Julien Frisch, Maladets and Scraps of Moscow.
European media (see for example BBC, Spiegel, Sky News ) at least reported about the protests in Moldova although not as a main story, (former) news heavyweight CNN still does not cover the story (or I was not able to find it easily)… then again Moldova is a small country, demonstrations were not that huge and there was another earthquake in Italy. And similar events in Ukraine or Georgia only made it into the mainstream media after 2 days…
There have been a lot of rumors and unconfirmed stories which is quite normal in situations like this one. However, one should also take into consideration the Russian factor (Russia still supports the breakaway region Transnistria) as well as the nature of the regime in Moldova which has its democratic shortcomings as well as a tightly controlled media. Also the general technical infrastructure (internet, phone network) might not be able to cope with the heavy demand. At the moment it seems as if different scenarios are still possible depending on what will happen tomorrow – How will the police react? Will the army intervene? How many protesters will turn up again? What about Russia? Ukraine? etc.
Moldovan politicians were already talking about a attempt “coup d’etat” accusing Romania & “the West ” to be behind the protests. On the other hand, everything started with a peaceful demonstration backed by the major opposition parties. Protesters were mainly young people, however some of them started rioting and looting governmental buildings. Moreover, waiving Romanian flags on the building of the President is of course seen as a provocation. Police and fire brigades were ill-prepared. It is difficult to predict anything. So it will be interesting to follow the events tomorrow!
Interestingly so far mainly international organisations (and Russia) published diplomatic opinions on the situation Moldova. The EU as well as the Council of Europe and the OSCE issued statements that expressed concern about the violence. What else can be done? Nicu Popescu, a research fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) published already a possible draft EU strategy.
Daily Updates from Moldova: “Revolution, here we come”. Read the eye witness report by Guest blogger Dorina in Chisinau - here are part 1 , part 2 , part 3 and part 4 of her story!
3 Comments
Recommended read on Moldova: Check out @kosmopolit (twitter/blog). Incl. local guestblogger http://twurl.nl/4p3kou
Im from Chisinau. They kidnaped, hitted, even killed(at least 3 people died, but they said those people died cos of suicide or smth else), they took casual people from the streets, parks, just people who were walking there, not cos they were guilty but just 2 scare the others, many dissapeared they kidnaped even journalists & hitted 2, they have not allowed lawyers or relatives, or even doctors 2 talk with “arested people”, just 2 hide the signs on their bodies. they had a lawsuit all 2gether in next days without allowing or listening on the lawyers. the entire world knows whats happening from massmedia (the info which our “governament” let be known on their tv chanels, radio or newspapers), they tried 2 won even from the situation we got in, hiding documents, or eliminating concurents (political ones or economical ones). only simple people from chisinau know the truth. our governamen & police is guilty 4 that, who will believe? who will help??
the girls which have been “arrested” was RAPED right in the police station!! few “policemen” where holding a girl while the other one was abusing her sexualy, there were many declarations at prosecution, & even if their cases will be “checked” everybody knows that there will be no result. save our peoplem students, women!!