May 4, 2014
A roundup of domestic and international news
România Internațional, 04.05.2014, 13:48
Ukrainian forces carry on operations against pro-Russian militants who have seized public buildings in the east of the country. Kiev officials have stated that Ukrainian soldiers have taken control over several buildings in Kramatorsk and surrounded the city of Slovianks, which is now an insurgent stronghold. On Saturday night, the centre of Mariupol, in the Donetk region, was also the stage of some violent clashes. The secretary of the Ukrainian Security Council, Andrei Parubi, has warned that when the current operation has been completed, the Ukrainian armed forces will intervene in other regions as well. Moscow, on the other hand, has warned that such actions may have catastrophic consequences and has called on the West to condemn the operations carried out by the Ukrainian authorities. In another move, Ukraine’s interim PM Arseni Iateniuk has stated that the security forces did nothing to prevent the violence on Friday in Odessa, in which over 40 pro-Russian protesters lost their lives. He stressed that by attacking a manifestation staged by supporters of Ukraine’s unity, pro-Russians did trigger the incidents, but the passivity of the security forces led to disastrous consequences.
Government officials in Bucharest on Monday will analyze the latest developments in neighboring Ukraine and their implications with regard to the security of both Romania and the Republic of Moldova, which has a predominantly Romanian speaking population. The announcement was made on Sunday by Romania’s Prime Minister Victor Ponta, who also stressed that the crisis in Ukraine was a big issue for the two countries. Previously, Ponta had stated that despite the dangers in the region, Romania was under no threat. In response to allegations carried by the Russian media, saying that the Romanian Army would not last more than 30 minutes if a war broke out, Ponta stressed that Romania was a NATO member country and benefited from interoperability. In another move, the Romanian Foreign Ministry has called for a solution to the situation in Ukraine and has voiced solidarity with the Ukrainian people and authorities’ efforts to stabilize the situation. Also, authorities in Bucharest are monitoring the situation of the almost half a million ethnic Romanians in Ukraine.
British Foreign Secretary William Hague is expected to the Republic of Moldova on Monday, part of a regional tour that also includes Ukraine and Georgia. He will meet with representatives of the pro-Western administration in Chisinau, namely president Nicolae Timofti, Prime Minister Iurie Leanca and Foreign Minister Natalia Gherman. The agenda of talks includes the Republic of Moldova’s European integration efforts, bilateral relations and the situation in the region. Recently, the foreign ministers of Germany and France, Frank Walter Steinmeier and Laurent Fabius have also visited Chisinau. In the past month the Republic of Moldova has been visited by many US and European officials, against the background of the crisis in Ukraine and Moldova’s rapprochement to the EU.
Active Watch, an organization that fights for the promotion and protection of the freedom of expression will on Monday publish the report on the freedom of the press in Romania in 2013. On Saturday, which was World Press Freedom Day, journalist Mircea Toma told Radio Romania that media tycoons impose their own political agendas on the media institutions they run. The Romanian Press Club has also stressed that the media in Romania is subject to a double pressure, economic and political, and has condemned authorities’ lack of interest in supporting the press in a European, transparent and nondiscriminatory manner. With a press described as partially free, Romania ranks 84th in a classification of 197 drawn up by Freedom House for 2013. Similar positions with regard to the freedom of the press got Botswana and the Dominican Republic. The Republic of Moldova, Romania’s neighbor with a predominantly Romanian speaking population, ranks 112th, alongside Lebanon and Tunisia. In the same classification, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden stand as the countries with the highest level of freedom, with Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and North Korea at the opposite pole.
The UN has confirmed that the Palestinian Authority has officially joined five international conventions, as requested by president Mahmoud Abbas. The status of observer, obtained at the UN General Assembly of 2012 grants Palestinians the right to join UN institutions without being a member of the organization.
