On April 5, 2009, as legislative election returns showed that the Party of Communists had scored another victory, cell phones and internet chat rooms were abuzz with messages calling for anti-Communist protests in downtown Chisinau.
On April 6, a few non-governmental organizations held a peaceful rally, which continued with larger crowds on April 7. Toward the afternoon on April 7, however, a group of protesters began throwing stones at police officers in front of the Parliament and Presidential buildings, and eventually made their way into the institutions and set numerous floors on fire.
On the evening of April 7, security forces began a massive repression campaign. Over 700 people were detained in the next couple of days, and a Soros Foundation report published recently said that over 300 of those, mostly young men and women, were beaten and tortured. Some had not even attended the protests.
The deaths of at least three young men have been tied to the repression. The case of Valeriu Boboc is the most well-known, in part because media outlets managed to take a picture of his face, which shows a large dent at the top of his head. The picture even made its way into the front pages of large Romanian dailies like Evenimentul Zilei. Autopsy reports, including ones done by foreign experts, indicated that Mr. Boboc, a husband and a father of a young child, was beaten to death. Moldovan authorities initially said, however, that the young man had died from intoxication with gas.
The new Government has promised to begin thorough investigations into the behavior of the security forces after the April 7 protests and recently called for help from the Council of Europe to ensure the presence of the British expert who performed Mr. Boboc's autopsy and concluded that the young man died because of head injuries.
h/t www.voceabasarabiei.net
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