This report comes to us from Die Welt;
Moldova's Communist rulers arrested 193 opposition protesters early on Wednesday and riot police regained control of the presidential offices and parliament, ransacked in anti-government riots. An Interior Ministry spokeswoman said police would use firearms to restore order if necessary.
President Vladimir Voronin accused the opposition -- which favours closer ties with the West -- of attempting a coup, after violent protests swept the capital of Europe's poorest country.
Interfax news agency later said Voronin had accused neighbouring Romania, with which Moldova has ethnic and linguistic links, of involvement in the protests. RIA news agency said he had declared Romania's ambassador persona non grata.
One woman died and about 100 people were hurt after protesters, who say Sunday's parliamentary election was rigged, ransacked Voronin's offices and looted parliament, where fires raged into the night.
Many waved European Union and Romanian flags.
About 300 anti-Communist demonstrators gathered outside government headquarters in Chisinau on Wednesday and blocked the main boulevard in the city, Reuters witnesses said.
They jeered at the arrival of riot police but there was no sign of the kind of violence that engulfed the city centre on Tuesday.
Opposition leaders had predicted demonstrations would spread across this mainly rural nation of four million people wedged between EU member Romania and former Soviet Ukraine.
An Interior Ministry spokeswoman said police would use firearms to restore order if necessary.
Mass street protests against disputed election results in other ex-Soviet states led to power changes in Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan, though it was not clear in Moldova's case what grassroots support the protesters had.
Most of Moldova was formerly part of Romania and the country is divided between those who want to continue as an independent state in a region which Russia regards as part of its sphere of influence, and those who want to reunite with Romania.
Russia's foreign ministry, in a statement on Wednesday, said the riots were a plot aimed at undermining Moldova's sovereignty and it pointed a finger at forces which favour a reunion with Romania.
"The Russian foreign ministry hopes that common sense will prevail, public and constitutional order will be restored in the next few days and the choice of the Moldovan citizens will be confirmed by all politically responsible forces," it said.
The United States and the EU urged an end to violence.
"We want calmer heads to prevail," U.S. State Department spokesman Robert Wood told reporters in Washington.
"What's important here is that ... people desist from any type of violent activity. That doesn't help anything. It only adds more tension to a region that doesn't need any further tension," the spokesman added.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who had congratulated Voronin on his party's election win, called for a speedy and calm resolution of the crisis.
Vlad Filat, leader of Moldova's Liberal Democrats, accused the government of going back on an earlier agreement to recount Sunday's election and predicted "some very serious repression".
"I am not ruling out arrests both of political leaders and participants," he told Reuters in an interview.
Interior Ministry spokeswoman Ala Meleca said 193 people, including eight minors, had been detained overnight on charges of looting, robbery, hooliganism and affray.
Some 96 police and 79 demonstrators were injured in the riots, and 57 people remain in hospital because of their wounds, she added.
"The police intend to uphold public order," Meleca said by telephone. "If necessary, they will use special means, including firearms."
Reuters reporters at the scene said dozens of riot police had regained control of key buildings in central Chisinau during the early hours and were standing outside both.
In Tuesday's riots, protesters smashed the large plate glass windows of the presidential offices and forced their way into the parliament building, setting it ablaze and hurling computers and other equipment out of windows into the streets.
I am very proud of the people of Moldova, the young in particular. (Though they do seem ignorant of the dangers stemming from the EU) They are well aware of the inherent dangers imposed by communism and were quite simply unprepared to allow such a government to continue on its destructive path. What they have done was the bravest thing that free men and women could do under such circumstances, and I must say that I applaud them to no end.
The fight against communism and all forms of Marxist thought is by far the greatest endeavor of our time. Some may say that it is Islam but I argue that point tooth and nail. Had it not been for the leftist ideology and populism of Europe, these muslims would never have been permitted to set foot upon European soil. We must understand that the true culprit behind the Islamisation of Europe are the ones who decided to eradicate traditional Europe by flooding her with immigrants whose vote could be easily bought. The Marxist view that religion and culture are the biggest threat to "progress", has been the driving force behind their program aimed at eradicating traditional European society. The easiest way to gain a majority through voting of course was to promote socialism in order to bribe the voter. To speed up the process they needed to import voters who could never make it our world and would therefore become dependent upon the state. To put it bluntly, the average Marxist politician knows that ethnic Europeans cannot be trusted in the long term to continue voting for less freedom and higher taxation. Instead, all they needed to do was to import people who would happily vote for the left, and for higher taxation so long as it ended up in their hands. It basically came down to, "If you won't vote for higher taxation and nationalization, then we will bring in people who will, by promising them your money."
If we are to succeed in our fight against Islamisation, then we must shut down those who are responsible for opening the gate, and for tolerating their every violent desire in order to gain votes. Without dismantling and finally smashing the Marxist left, we will never make any headway against islamic barbarity in Europe. We all know that the muslims enjoy their operating freedom due to leftist tolerance; human rights, multiculturalism, tolerance, and socialism, have always been a charade by the left to grab more power and more control. How else could one explain a continent where the criminal is far more protected than the victim? This madness must be eradicated.
The burden that the heroes of Moldova currently shoulder is the same one that we shoulder. These people knew the dangers they faced when confronting the Marxist beast, and still they fought. I couldn't be more proud of those courageous people than I am right now; yet I feel humbled as well. Will we take it upon ourselves to stop this onslaught against everything we are? I would like to think so. As for the calls, by various European leaders, to remain calm; nonsense!!! Fight on I say. Fight with everything you have, for the shame of inaction is far greater than the sting of defeat.
Great closing line... Fight with everything you have, for the shame of inaction is far greater than the sting of defeat.
American's would do well to remember this, too. Allowing our current President to rule unimpeded will do incredible damage to the nation.
Posted by: MAS1916 | April 09, 2009 at 04:17 PM
Thank you for your article!
I am Romanian and I think that is great what the Romanians in Moldova (Moldavians are Moldavians just because Russia and the Communist bastards that are in power there say so)are doing. It something that took us all by surprise and and i have great respect for the young Romanians deciding to stand against the totalitarian regime in Moldova.
By the way? Did you see that majority of the press, which is marxist/PC/internationalist/retarded in the Western Europe sees the young anticommunists in Moldova like they see the anarchist idiots that become violent at every Nato Summit, or G7, or G8, or freaking G20? With one small difference: they do not show the sympathy towards the young protesters in Moldova like they show to the maxist/anticapitalistic idiots that trash things in the West
Posted by: costin | April 10, 2009 at 08:39 PM