Volunteers and members of the Liberal Party from October 3 will guard nonstop the Commemorative Stone located in the Great National Assembly Square of Chisinau, which was to be replaced by a monument to the victims of the Soviet occupation. Liberal leader Mihai Ghimpu told a news conference that the decision was taken after they found out from reliable sources that President Igor Dodon intends to have the stone removed until the national holidays Independence Day and Romanian Language Day, IPN reports.

“We will not allow this to happen because this stone for us represents the pain through which our grandparents, parents and our citizens, regardless of nationality, went. The occupation resulted in deportations, famine, nationalization and creation of mad people’s homes for healthy people and I think nobody has the right to remove it,” stated Mihai Ghimpu.

The commemorative stone was unveiled on June 28, 2010 following a decree signed by Mihai Ghimpu, who then held the presidency of Moldova on an interim basis. Under the same decree, a monument was to be erected in the place of the stone and June 28, 1940 was declared Soviet Occupation Day. Later, based on a challenge by the Party of Communists, the Constitutional Court decided that this decree is unconstitutional.

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