Europe: Moldova: Communist-gov police take back parliament from youth protestors who used Twittert

In IrishTimes.com (Apr9,2k9), Daniel McLaughlin updates our post yesterday

MOLDOVAN AUTHORITIES cracked down on anti-government demonstrators yesterday, arresting some 200 people, threatening to use guns to quell unrest and accusing neighbouring Romania of orchestrating the protests.

Police retook control of parliament and the president’s office and arrested 193 people who had allegedly been involved in storming the buildings on Tuesday in protest at an election victory by the ruling Communist Party which they claimed was riddled with vote-rigging and fraud.

Communist president Vladimir Voronin accused his critics of staging a coup and said Romania was behind the unrest, prompting the expulsion of the Romanian ambassador to Moldova and the recall of Moldova’s envoy in Bucharest.

While Mr Voronin and his communist allies have sought to balance relations between Russia and the EU, and enjoy the support of many older Moldovans, the younger generation looks solely to the EU for its future and is deeply suspicious of the local communist elite and of Moscow.

How the younger generation registered its conflict with the Communist puppet regime (after all Moldova needs oil from Russia, but shares no border with it; Moldova shares borders with Romania, an EU and NATO member, and Ukraine--which was itself blackmailed by Russia over oil supply in the winter) has been attributed to Twitter, computers, and handhelds among the youth. Apparently they don't trust the official newspapers, radio and TV; whereas their "grandmothers" do. For one thing, the youth are concerned that Romania will have to close the border with Moldova, becoming an EU border; the door will be closed to European jobs for Moldovan youth. So, the Moldovan Communist govt is itself preparing to close the border with Romania.