CHISINAU, February 7, 2012 — “The National Army has become a more transparent institution and the growth of the number of crimes recorded in the military area does not prove criminality level has increased in the military units. On the contrary, it denotes an improvement of the investigation process carried out by the Ministry’s of Defense specialized staff”, Brigadier Gen. Igor Cutie, Commander of the Land Force Command, stated today, at the meeting of military attorneys and commanders of National Army military units.

The discussions focused on the cooperation between the Military Prosecutor’s Office and the Ministry of Defense, causes of crimes committed by the National Army members and some solutions to countering and avoiding crimes in the army.

“Society should have a wrong opinion about the current military discipline in the military units. Last year, we worked a lot to discover all the crimes committed inside the army and improve transparency in our activity. In 2011, the number of investigations carried out by the Ministry’s of Defense legal branches doubled”, Gen. Cutie stated. Cutie also pledged for a further stronger cooperation between the Military Prosecutor’s Office and the Ministry of Defense.

Eugen Manolachi, Deputy Military Prosecutor of Chisinau, listed a few factors to cause crimes in the military area such as: young conscripts’ level of education, commanders keeping casualties in secret, as well as the bad quality selection of recruits by the Military Territorial Centers. “We discovered a few cases of enlistment of young men that had been previously convicted. To avoid such cases and counter criminality in the army, we should strengthen cooperation between the military command and military attorneys and carry out discussions with the enlisted soldiers about this issue”, Manolachi said.

The participants at the meeting decided to assign military attorneys to take part in quarterly meetings on military discipline within the National Army.