OSCE Mission Head urges Transdniestrian authorities to return confiscated school building

CHISINAU, 26 September 2005 - The Head of the OSCE Mission to Moldova, Ambassador William Hill, has urged the Transdniestrian authorities to return a confiscated school building to a Moldovan school in Ribnita.

"The local authorities in Ribnita have de facto stolen this building. They must give the building back to the school without any further delay and without any conditions," said Ambassador Hill.

Visiting the Evrica lyceum in Ribnita yesterday, he also called on the authorities make sure there is no pressure and harassment against pupils and parents opting for education in their mother tongue.

The school is one of the six education institutions in the region teaching Moldovan/Romanian in the Latin script and in accordance with the curriculum of the Moldovan Ministry of Education.

During the height of the school crisis in summer 2004, Transdniestrian militia stormed the Evrica lyceum and evicted the pupils, teachers and parents from their premises. Since October 2004 the school has been forced to operate 'in exile', renting the premises of a kindergarten from a local factory.

Although the Evrica lyceum, like the other Moldovan schools operating in the Transdniestrian region, received a permanent registration from the Transdniestrian authorities this summer, local authorities in Ribnita refuse to return the confiscated building.

The premises of the lyceum have been built by the Government in Chisinau and were just about to be finished when the Transdniestrian militia took it by force.