War graves, commemorative works to be protected under law in Moldova

Chisinau, 3 August /MOLDPRES/ - The war graves and commemorative works will be protected by law, and their record will be kept by the National Agency for Cult of Heroes, under a draft law on war graves and commemorative works, approved by the government today.   

The draft is developed in line with the European and international practices in the field and with the international commitments Moldova has taken by ratification of the Geneva Convention on War Victims Protection from 12 August 1949.  

The goal of the draft law is to regulate the legal regime of the military graves and the works built in the memory of the people dead in wars, victims of military conflicts or to commemorate the events connected with these conflicts. The draft introduces, respectively, the notion of war grave and war commemorative work in the legal circulation. The graves of foreign soldiers from the territory of Moldova will have the same regime as the graves of the Moldovan citizens.

The document regulates such activities as identification, registration, maintenance, preserving and ensuring the security of the graves and commemorative works, the   powers, obligations of the central and local public administration authorities in this respect. To organize these activities nationally, as well as to organize events related to the commemoration of the dead on battlefields, victims of the First and Second World Wars, War of Transnistria, the National Agency for Cult of Heroes will be set up, subordinated to the Defence Ministry.   

(Reporter V. Bercu, editor M. Jantovan)