CHISINAU, January 15 (Itar-Tass) —— A Romanian border guard opened fire at a Moldovan citizen who refused to have his car searched at the Giurgiulesti-Galati border crossing post, the Moldovan Interior Ministry spokesman told Itar-Tass.
“The incident happened on the Romanian side of the border. A Moldovan citizen going to Romania was due to have his car searched but he turned back to Moldova. A Romanian border guard opened fire and injured the driver. The car reached the Moldovan customs and the driver was given medical aid. The incident is being investigated,” he said.
This is the second incident involving Moldovan citizens this year. Two weeks ago a Russian peacekeeper lethally injured a Moldovan citizen at a checkpoint. The incident happened at the ninth peacekeepers post on a bridge across the Dniester River, near the town of Vadul-lui-Voda, at 7:15 a.m. local time (9:15 a.m. Moscow time) on January 1. Two teenagers from the Pyryta village on the eastern bank of the Dniester River were riding towards Chisinau. When the car entered the bridge, the driver ignored the stop road sign at the peacekeepers post and disobeyed the demand to pull over. About 20 minutes later the car returned and drove on without stopping. The peacekeepers post commander fired into the air in warning before firing at the car. The peacekeepers called an ambulance and the boy was taken to the Chisinau hospital. He died of a big loss of blood.
Residents of several villages and members of the Moldovan ‘civil society’ organized protests near the checkpoint. They demanded to punish the Russian serviceman, to dismantle the checkpoints and to withdraw the peacekeepers.