Rebel region NGOs organize non-stop picket of Moldova-run prison
Representatives of NGOs and municipal enterprises of the town of Bender in Moldova's breakaway Dniester region have been picketing the Moldova-run penitentiary for TB-infected prisoners for five days now, the Dniester official Olvia-press website reported on 1 June.
The local public demands that Moldova remove its prison from the territory of Bender saying that this "hotbed of tuberculosis" threatens health and safety of local residents, the agency said.
The picketers barred entrance to the prison with vehicles on 28 May and said the Moldovan leadership should no more ignore this problem. The agency quoted one of the picketers as saying that "we will stay here till the end until the prison is withdrawn from Bender".
According to a participant in the rally, Sergey Makarov, since the start of the picket, the prison's guards have been reinforced "first by Bender and Varnita policemen and then a group of 50 young and sport-looking men incivilian clothes", Olvia-press went on.
Makarov also said that sanitary conditions in the penitentiary facility are very poor and it is located in close vicinity to apartment blocks, Olvia-press added.
On 28 May, the Dniester state-run Channel One TV featured the head of the Moldovan delegation to the Joint Control Commission, Ion Solonenco, as denying presence of TB-infected in the prison. The Joint Control Commission is an international body based in Bender and responsible for maintaining peace in the security zone between Moldova and the Dniester region.
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