Moldova-and-pman

Excellent roundup from Thursday April 9

A summary and list of sources

This article documents a current event. Information may change rapidly as the event progresses.

by Veronica Khokhlova

After Orange (Ukraine), Rose (Georgia) and Tulip (Kyrgyzstan) revolutions the first try of next generation demonstration took place in Moldova after last weekends parliamentary elections. Known now as "Twitter Revolution" the protest was self-organized by two youth movements - Hyde Park and ThinkMoldova - using their generation's tools of social messaging network to gather 10,000-15,000 demonstrators on streets in Moldova's capital Chisinau, ransacking presidential palace and parliament building.

The protests in Chisinau have started because young students were unhappy with the elections stolen by the Communist Party. They have organized themselves through blogs, and social networks like Facebook and Odnoklassniki.ru. By the way, the administration of Odnoklassniki.ru, a Russian social networking site, has reportedly shut down the discussion group that mobilized Moldovan youths. Students wanted to organize just a simple flash-mob, lighting candles on the Great National Assembly Square as if "mourning the Communist Moldova". The initial group did not think about a protest rally, or any big demonstration. However, they were joined by thousands of other young people, who felt and though similar. Their slogans were "Freedom!", "I fight, I resist, I am anti-communist!", "We want another voting!", and so on. Authorities have ignored young people, which were united by the noble idea to defend their rights and their disagreement to accept the lies bought by everyone else (their parents, the public functionaries, other people feeding on the Communist cronyism, international observers and officials). Because they have seen it with their own eyes, they have seen how useless was ODIHR this time in identifying frauds.