Moldovan acting premier's statements on incident in Afghanistan

11:03 | 25.11.2015 Category: Official

Chisinau, 25 November /MOLDPRES/- Acting Prime Minister Gheorghe Brega today chaired an emergency government meeting on an incident occurred in Afghanistan on 24 November 2015. A helicopter belonging to a Moldovan company was involved in, the government's communication and media relations department has reported.

Attending the meeting were: acting Deputy Prime Minister, Foreign and European Integration Minister Natalia Gherman, acting Interior Minister Oleg Balan and Defence Minister Anatol Salaru, SIS Director Mihai Balan and representatives of Civil Aeronautics Authority.

The participants in the meeting considered the situation given preliminary information, and agreed on actions due to be taken by Moldovan authorities in the current situation.

"MI17-1V helicopter is a private one operating in Afghanistan under contracts with other private companies for transporting humanitarian aid. It is not about a UN helicopter. There were 21 people, out of whom three members of Moldovan crew and 18 Afghan passengers", the acting premier said.

Brega said that the Foreign and European Integration Ministry requested official information about the three Moldovan citizens, crew members of helicopter captured in Afghanistan.

The official also said that Moldova had asked support of states able to help releasing hostages captured in Aghanistan, among which: U.S.A. and Romania. He announced that Deputy Foreign and European Integration Minister Andrei Galbur would manage activity of crisis cell, created on the matter.

Details on the current situation will be provided further on.

(Editor L. Alcază)

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