Alleged violations against Romanian teacher in Ukraine
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Date: Fri, 6 Apr 2001 13:14:09 +0300 (EEST)
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Subject: Alleged violations against Romanian teacher in Ukraine
From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>
Original sender: Zinaida Pinteac <[email protected]>
Alleged violations against Romanian teacher in Ukraine
ZINAIDA PINTEAC - case
Odessa region of Ukraine
E-mail: [email protected]
Tel&Fax: 00380 48-48-51240
Dear Sir/Dear Madam,
I am Zinaida Pinteac, Romanian from Southern Bessarabia (Ukraine),
teacher of Biology at the Medium School from Staroselie/Frumusica
Veche (Sarata District, Odessa Region, Ukraine) and director of this
school until January 2000, position from which I was abusively
dismissed by the state authorities.
Starting with the school-year 1998-1999 more and more pressure was put
on the directors of Romanian schools in Southern Bessarabia (Odessa
Region - Ukraine) from the Regional Administration, in order to force
the change of Romanian language into Moldavian in the educational
curricula (Moldavian language and Moldavian nation are fictions of the
Soviet authorities aimed to replacing the real national identity of
the Romanians from Bessarabia).
There are 18 Romanian schools in Southern Bessarabia (some of them
already endangered due to the abusive measures of the state
administration). Although not sufficient for the large Romanian
community of the region, these schools enjoyed the possibility to
provide education for this community in its mother tongue.
Until 1998 the school curricula included the subject "Romanian
Language". Starting with the fall of 1998 the Odessa Regional
Administration imposed the schools to use the name "Moldavian
Language" instead. Those ones who didn't comply (instructors, teachers
and especially directors of schools) suffered from the behalf of the
authorities in different ways, despite the fact that the action itself
constituted a violation of the right to identity of persons belonging
to a national minority.
As the director of the Medium School from Staroselie/Frumusica Veche
(a Romanian village in Southern Bessarabia - Ukraine), I refused to
modify the subject "Romanian Language" in the school curricula. In
April 1999 I was convoked to Odessa by mr. Bogdanov D.S., head of the
Education Direction of the Odessa State Administration, who asked me
directly to modify the curricula, otherwise I will be dismissed from
the position I held. As I didn't comply with this abusive intention of
the administration, I was "advised" - during the summer - to "quietly"
quit the position of director, which I refused.
In this situation the administration organised an unusual control at
our school, using curious and non-pedagogical methods of testing the
level of knowledge of the pupils. For an example, the pupils of the
9th and 11th forms had to answer to 8 testing-papers in 2 days (4
tests a day!), on November 17 and 18 1999.
On November 19 I was convoked again at the State Administration in
Odessa, where I was announced that I dismissed for "various
shortcomings" of my activity. Defamatory papers were used against me
without the effective possibility to defend myself. Among the reasons
for my dismissal there were references to my openly asserted Romanian
identity.
The wired fact is that just one year previously (in March 1998), after
a pedagogical seminar - "Education in National Minority Schools in
Sarata District" - held at our school, the regional authorities
awarded me a special diploma, as an appreciation of the school
activity and of the high level of pupils' knowledge.
Considering my dismissal an abuse, I brought my case before a judicial
court. The district tribunal concluded that the administration
decision was correct, so I asked the regional court (the hierarchical
superior judicial instance) to make justice for me. The regional court
decided that I was right and re-sent the case to the district court.
In December 2000 the representative of the District Education Section
asked for postponing the conclusion of the case until the Ministry of
Education from Kiev will officially assert which is the right
denomination - Romanian or Moldavian Language. This hilarious demand
is a clear contradiction of the right of minority persons to freely
choose their national identity, as stipulated in the international
documents that Ukraine signed and ratified. This demand was recorded
on January 19 2001 and a period of 40 days was permitted for receiving
the answer. The answer didn't come until today and the trial is
postponed without reason.
Another aspect regarding the good faith of leading the trial regards
my request for an interpreter of Romanian, as I don't speak Ukrainian
as well as my mother tongue and the court doesn't use Russian (which I
speak very well as the former official language of the country during
USSR). I was told that there will be an interpreter, but of
"Moldavian" language, not of Romanian.
During this time, a whole intimidating action was taken against my
family and me. Various documents were used against me during the trial
without being authenticated. I tried to call before the court some
instructors who wrote defamatory papers against me - papers containing
false affirmations used for my dismissal - but both the district and
regional courts refused to consider the case. My telephone is
permanently watched - I presume this is done by the secret police -
and many times I simply cannot use it.
All my private correspondence is violated - I usually receive open
envelopes both from Ukraine and from abroad. Each time I pass the
border (to Romania or Republic of Moldova) my luggage is carefully and
time-wastefully controlled, determining nervous reactions of people
waiting their turn to cross the border.
In January 2001 officials of the District Passport Section tried to
intimidate my minor girl (home alone at that moment) asking for the
passports of my husband and mine. Two days later my husband went to
the Passport Section to find if there is any problem. Our passports
were confiscated without explanation. They were finally returned after
one week, upon the intervention of the district prosecutor.
Another intimidating action was the attempt to question my "Title of
Excellence for Teachers of Ukraine", which I was awarded in 1996. Some
instructors of the school were asked to sign a paper defaming me.
After my intervention at the regional and district administration
education sections - where I asked for explanations - this attempt
failed.
I also have to mention that my husband was illegally fired during this
time and the judicial cases he opened for obtaining a remedy are
postponed for no reasons. I can assume that this can be also a
punishment for his civic attitude regarding the ecology of the region.
He protested against the illegal military experiments (in the area of
5 former Romanian villages, dismantled during USSR) that determined a
lot of strange diseases in the region, which the authorities refused
to investigate. In the absence of an impartial investigation, there
are suspicions that chemical or nuclear weapons were tested in that
area.
I consider that in my case the state authorities violate:
- The International Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of
Racial Discrimination (art. 2, art. 5 par. a)
- The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (art. 27)
- the right to respect for private and family life, as stipulated in
the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and
Fundamental Freedoms (art. 8)
- the right to an effective remedy, as stipulated in the European
Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms
(art. 13)
- the prohibition of discrimination, as stipulated in the European
Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms
(art. 14) and in the Council of Europe's Framework Convention for the
Protection of National Minorities (art. 6 par. 2)
- the right to one's identity, as stipulated in the UN Declaration for
the Rights of Persons belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and
Linguistic Minorities (art. 2) and in the Council of Europe's
Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities (art.
3, art. 5)
- the right for freely using one's mother tongue, as stipulated in the
Council of Europe's Framework Convention for the Protection of
National Minorities (art. 10)
Given the situation I am asking for your intervention at all the
levels you consider appropriate in order for me to reach an effective
and immediate remedy.
Sincerely Yours,
Zinaida Pinteac
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