Moldovan PM, cabinet members participate in commemoration of Stalinist deportations' victims

Chisinau, 6 July /MOLDPRES/ - Prime Minister Maia Sandu and the cabinet of ministers today participated in an event on commemoration of the Stalinist deportations’ victims. The 70th anniversary of the biggest wave of deportations is marked on 6 July 2019. In the presence of the officials, the state flag was flown at half-staff outside the government building. Subsequently, the governmental team laid flowers at the monument, The Grief Train, on the square of the Chisinau railway station, erected in the memory of the victims of Stalinist regime’s deportations, the government’s communication and protocol department has reported.      

At the event, the prime minister said that the trauma of the deported families was the trauma of our whole people and it is important that these people are not forgotten. “While remembering them, we keep their names alive, we learn their values and these values make us act with dignity and love for people. Namely these values should guide the political leaders and the statesmen in their work. You, those who stayed righteously, with dignity, facing the injustices, represent a model for us – one of resistance and courage and especially of kindness.”      

At the same time, PM Maia Sandu noted that the deported people had represented the elite of our people and, despite the tragic circumstances, they preserved their dignity and moral values, which were further conveyed to children. “We must be proud of the strength of our parents and grandparents, who remained pillars of kindness, correctness, decency and they managed, even if they lived in inhuman conditions, to convey these convictions and behaviors to their descendants. There is no family in Moldova which was not hit by this tragedy,” Maia Sandu said.     

Maia Sandu also said that the current governance would initiate procedures of amending the law, in order to provide the deportees with rehabilitation certificates, including to the children born in places of deportation.

Attending the commemoration event were Interior Minister Andrei Nastase, Education, Culture and Research Minister Liliana Nicolescu-Onofrei and Finance Minister Natalia Gavrilita.

The victims of Stalinist deportations are yearly commemorated on 6 July, which is declared national mourning day. Known with the name IUG (South – in Russian), the deportations from 5-6 July 1949 represent the second and the biggest wave of deportations.