Dumitru Garnet, owner of the Ştefan cel Mare medal, was convicted to 21 years’ imprisonment. Four years ago whilst in Chişinău, he had a confrontation with two young people. Garnet went home, put on his best suit, took a grenade and went to defend himself. One of the two young men died; Garnet lost both arms and was convicted, however his fellow combatants say the investigation was superficial, as they said the effects of his injuries from Afghanistan and Nistru wars were not taken into account. “War has deep consequences, no matter if you come back home injured or healthy. When coming back from Afghanistan I thought I was a normal person… after the war, we are not normal anymore,” Garnet declared in a 2006 interview with Ziarul de Gardă.

One of  his compatriots, Mihai Balan, a disabled man who also had the Ştefan cel Mare medal was taken to Moscow by traffickers and forced to beg; soon afterwards he died. His family were helpless. “We paid for the funeral. No one from the authorities came to say a good word, even if he had been awarded the Ştefan cel Mare medal,” Balan said.

Seven of the bravest heroes of Moldova live on a building site

The Ştefan cel Mare medal is the highest military distinction in the Republic of Moldova. For having sacrificed their life and health, the disabled and retired people who have this medal get a sum of 500 lei each month. This income for supreme heroism is supplemented by another several hundreds of lei as a monthly pension. Disabled soldiers also receive a few hundred lei in addition to their pension. The owners of the Ştefan cel Mare medal who were fortunate enough not to be disabled, and who haven’t yet reached retirement age do not receive even the 500 lei in a country with European prices, which they fought for.

What are the brave owners of the Ştefan cel Mare medal doing now, on King’s Day? What do they have today? “Those against whom we fought are ruling Moldova and they pay us a few hundred lei” – this is their reply after 16 years since the conflict with Transdniestr. Fifty-nine families managed to find a place to live in a building ‘for deputies’, which was also occupied by the combatants since the beginning of 2000 and which is still a building site.

Seven of the best men remain on the building site

On the ‘building site’ seven owners of the Ştefan cel Mare medal live in unfinished apartments, without telephones and with only a few hundred lei to live on – this is all what those families of seven combatants awarded with the highest military distinction now have.

“If we hadn’t of occupied this building in 2000, we would be left with four children in a 18 metre squared hostel room,” Victor Patrascu told us, scanning the apartment in which he settled eight years ago, but which he doesn’t have a residency visa for yet. He lives on the fifth floor of this building. His fellow compatriots made a small sign on which is written “here Victor Patrascu lives – the owner of the Ştefan cel Mare medal. The state? No help from the state. In fact, we are thankful for the 500 lei offered for the Ştefan cel Mare medal. Money begged from the government.” He confessed that he has been waiting for an apartment since 1992, but he didn’t dare to put the state to trial, as the ex-Interim Mayor Veaceslav Iordan did.

The chance to be independent is offered only once in a lifetime

Aside from the 500 lei, Patrascu receives 987 lei as pension and 450 lei for his disability. “I woke up in the morning and my first thought was how will I pay the bills for June,” the man who risked his life for the independence of the Republic of Moldova many times said, when asked how he survives on less than 2,000 lei per month with four children, two of whom will start school in autumn. I also asked him what this distinction means for him today: “While going to fight I was not thinking about distinctions,” Patrascu replied. “Then, in 1992, we were defending something which belongs to us! The chance to be independent is offered only once in a lifetime and we insisted on it,” the man continued after a pause. “Today we are independent, and the leaders of our country are the thieves against whom we fought.”

Going to fight with only one gun

“Then, in 1992, being a member of the special ‘Lightening Brigade’, I was supporting the police station from Tighina,” the combatant remembered, staring at photos from the war. “At the end of February, I left my weapon and went home. I was in the village, at my mother’s, together with my son. While eating, I turned on the television, the news about the occupation of the police station at Dubasari convinced me that the situation was not good at all. I kissed my mother and my son and went to do my duty,” Patrascu described.

“I reached the brigade,” he continues. “Our chiefs were not sure if they should give us the weapons or not. Finally, they sent us to fight with guns. Can you imagine? The Lightening Brigade was sent to fight with only a few guns!” On March 1 1992, to reach the left bank of the river Nistru, Patrascu together with other combatants, decided to cross the river on ice. “Everyone weighed about 100kg with a bulletproof jacket. The risk to fall down under the march ice was very high.” I will never forget the first steps I took on it, the ice broke, but fortunately it happened near the bank of the river.”

Shot by Russians, building for Russians

This memory, but also others, makes him flinch in his sleep. “It is the stress. It has been a harsh war. I saw how my fellow countrymen were dying. Sixteen years have passed since then, but what I saw can’t be neither forgotten, nor treated,” Patrascu said. Even if he still has health problems, he hasn’t been to an MIA medical centre since 1992. His children are the main priority for him.

How is the day of a man with the Ştefan cel Mare medal? ”Sweat and worn shoes,” this is how Patrascu’s describes it. Not long ago, he became the head of the Association of War Veterans and signed a contract with a construction firm in Moscow. “A large number of veterans are unemployed and they are unable to find jobs; they could work in Moscow for two months, and after that come back home,” Patrascu said.

“Dad, were you a bandit?”

Today, combatants do not have money for medicine, they don’t even have enough money for raising their children, and are treated like criminals. These problems convinced a lot of veterans to leave the country for which they fought for in 1992. “We made the state for those who have the country’s economy in their hands, but we live in poverty. In fact, where communism is, there are lice. They suck our blood,” Balan, senior officer in reserve and Patrascu’s neighbour, stated.

“For example, in the textbook of integrated history it is written that bands of voluntaries and policemen attacked Transdniestr,” Balan said. “My child is told about this at school, and after class he could ask me “dad, were you a bandit?” he continued. He considered that nowadays, the government can be compared with that from the Brezhnev years.

The child of Ion Ciubotaru, who was also awarded the Ştefan cel Mare medal, has already asked him such questions. “The best explanation was to take him to combatants’ manifestations,” Ciubotaru explained. “Only there, he can understand who I am and who my fellows are.”

What does the medal Ştefan cel Mare mean for Ciubotaru? “The memory of those who are not among us anymore”, he replied after a pause. In fact, today, as he is not retired yet, he doesn’t receive anything for any distinction or for the fact he fought for the independence of the country. The combatant doesn’t know who to ask for this money.

Thrown away by Rosca from the “elite place”

“We are not indifferent because we are a force which doesn’t believe in the lies about the policy of European integration, equitable justice and freedom of speech,” Balan affirmed. “They hide themselves behind all these populist declarations. Moldova is a debtor in all these matters, and we are under occupation by a regime,” the combatant thought.

“Any idea of the combatants to form a political group has been destroyed from the very beginning. Both MIA and Security agents are infiltrating groups when it appears that the combatants are unifying. They know very well that we are a force. A force destroyed by the state.” For example, at the meeting on February 23 2008, Balan was been attacked by two policemen. “They punched me in the face,” the veteran remembered. “I went to the police, but what for?”

According to Balan, at the meeting with the other combatants, the head of Parliament, Marian Lupu, said that war veterans don’t deserve to live in the centre of the city. Iurie Rosca, Deputy President of Parliament, was angry because “Moldovan police do not dare to send us away from here. Will Lupu and Rosca solve our problems?” the officer wondered.

Near the combatants’ ‘site’ the building where Vladimir Voronin and other representatives of the political elite live is situated. Also nearby is the building where Eugenia Ostapciuc and other top communists live. To avoid contact with the veterans a high fence between these two buildings was built. “The servants of the people don’t want our children to play with their children,” Patrascu commented. “They are protecting themselves from us, as they are protecting their millions,” he thought.

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