Protesters in Moldova begin picketing state institutions

CHISINAU, September 14. /TASS/. Leaders of Moldovan grass-roots protesters said on Monday they would change their tactics to picket state institutions and expand the geography of protests to embrace other Moldovan cities.

"The authorities don’t heed us and don’t want to. We have no reaction from the authorities to our demands committed to paper in a resolution of last Sunday’s rally," Andrei Nastase, a leader of the Great National Assembly Council formed by the protesters, said at a news conference in Chisinau’s central square. "We must invigorate out efforts in this situation. We will organize marches and picket state institutions."

Earlier on Monday, about one hundred protesters gathered at the building of the Moldovan prosecutor general’s office. They accuse prosecution agencies of opening criminal cases against the leaders of the initiator of protests, the Dignity and Truth Civil Platform.

"We demand resignation of Prosecutor General Corneliu Gurin who is a pillar of the current regime," Nastase told journalists, adding that he had he knew that security services were eavesdropping telephone conversations of the protest leaders. "We have certain information, we see that our telephones are running down suspiciously quickly," he said.

An anti-government rally organized by Dignity and Truth in Chisinau on Sunday, September 13, was attended by less people than a similar rally a week ago. The organizers called for a general strike and civil disobedience. The rally was held peacefully although police forces in central Chisinau were reinforced. Protesters put a tent camp in the central square demanding resignation of the Moldovan government and early elections.