{"id":100106,"date":"2006-02-02T17:09:00","date_gmt":"2006-02-02T17:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/new.moldova.org\/2006\/02\/02\/former-u-s-diplomat-criticizes-moldovan-officials-secret-trial-9074-eng\/"},"modified":"2006-02-02T17:09:00","modified_gmt":"2006-02-02T17:09:00","slug":"former-u-s-diplomat-criticizes-moldovan-officials-secret-trial-9074-eng","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.moldova.org\/en\/former-u-s-diplomat-criticizes-moldovan-officials-secret-trial-9074-eng\/","title":{"rendered":"Former U.S. Diplomat Criticizes Moldovan Official&#8217;s Secret Trial"},"content":{"rendered":"<span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Reading Time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> 4<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minutes<\/span><\/span><p><img decoding=\"async\" height=\"140\" src=\"http:\/\/upload.moldova.org\/politicom\/2006\/feb\/Vince_Crawley.jpg\" width=\"140\" align=\"left\" alt=\"\" \/>By Vince Crawley <br \/>\nWashington File Staff Writer <\/p>\n<p>Washington &#8212; A former U.S. diplomat is speaking out against the secret trial of a former Moldovan defense minister who has been sentenced to 10 years hard labor for selling MiG-29 fighter jets to the United States in 1997. <\/p>\n<p>E. Wayne Merry, a former State Department official who helped negotiate the 1997 sale, says he publicly is describing the U.S. government&rsquo;s version of events to help show there was no pricing conspiracy involved in the sale of the 21 jets. <\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;The trial is not just about a Moldovan politician,&rdquo; Merry said in a January 31 discussion sponsored by Radio Free Europe\/Radio Liberty (RFE\/RL) in Washington. &ldquo;This is about the relationship between the United States and Moldova and the accusation that the United States took advantage of a small, weak country.&rdquo; <\/p>\n<p>Rather than taking advantage of Moldova, Merry said, the sale gave the struggling Central European republic an infusion of cash and access to excess U.S. military supplies in Europe, military exchanges and other benefits. The sale also kept the aircraft off the international black market &ndash; the primary U.S. goal in the deal, he said. <\/p>\n<p>In his remarks, Merry said he and John Todd Stewart, who was U.S. ambassador to Moldova at the time of the MiG sale, both have written legal depositions describing the circumstances of the sale. However, the Moldovan court system did not allow their statements to be admitted as evidence in the trial, which was closed to the public. Merry said the State Department and Defense Department have authorized Stewart and himto discuss the U.S. government&rsquo;s role in the 1997 sale. <\/p>\n<p>The MiG-29 Fulcrum is among the most advanced fighter aircraft in the world. Moldova possessed 32 of the jets after the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991, former Moldovan President Petru Lucinschi said in an interview with a Moldovan news agency in 2005. He said one aircraft went to Romania, four were sold to South Yemen, and 21 were sold to the United States. The Moldovan government has been unable to sell the remaining six, which no longer are flown. <\/p>\n<p>This January, former Moldovan Defense Minister Valeriu Pasat was sentenced to 10 years hard labor for his alleged role in the U.S. sale. According to news reports, the United States paid about $40 million for 21 aircraft and several hundred surface-to-air missiles. Pasat was convicted of charges related to overstepping his authority and an alleged conspiracy between him and the U.S. government to defraud Moldova of an additional $55 million that the aircraft might have fetched on the international market. But such a sale also would have resulted in international trade sanctions if the aircraft fell into the wrong hands, Merry said. <\/p>\n<p>When former Defense Secretary William Cohen announced the sale in November 1997, he said that &ldquo;a number of rogue states, including Iran&rdquo; had expressed interest in the fighters. &ldquo;These MiG aircraft were on their shopping list,&rdquo; Cohen told a news conference. <\/p>\n<p>The trial of Pasat appears to have been politically motivated, Merry said. According to news reports, Pasat&rsquo;s lawyer said he would appeal the verdict to the European Court of Human Rights. <\/p>\n<p>Merry, a career Foreign Service officer, was assigned to the Defense Department in the mid-1990s as director for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia, where he played a role in helping former Soviet republics draw down their weapons stockpiles. He said the Moldovan aircraft sale was largely his initiative and was intended to keep these advanced nuclear-capable jets away from potential customers who might use them against the United States or its allies. <\/p>\n<p>Merry told the RFE\/RL briefing that &ldquo;when we sought to acquire the airplanes, it was not to add them to our combat inventory&rdquo; but to keep them out of unfriendly hands. <\/p>\n<p>He said his office initially sought an allied nation willing to buy the aircraft. But with the dissolution of the Soviet Union, there was little interest in MiG aircraft, which require an extensive ground crew of well-trained mechanics and costly equipment. &ldquo;There was no legitimate market for these planes. The only market for these planes was the black market,&rdquo; he said. <\/p>\n<p>When the United States could not find a legitimate buyer, Merry proposed a plan for the U.S. government to buy the aircraft as part of the Cooperative Threat Reduction Initiative, known as the Nunn-Lugar Program, which has used U.S. funds to help eliminate the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction from former Soviet stockpiles. (See related article.) <\/p>\n<p>Merry said Pasat rejected his initial offer and would not budge during follow-up negotiations. Merry recommended that the United States rely on sanctions or the threat of sanctions to keep the aircraft off the black market. <\/p>\n<p>Merry switched to a new assignment, and a few months later, the United States reached a deal to buy 21 of the 27 aircraft that Moldova wanted to sell. <\/p>\n<p>MOLDOVAN POLITICAL SITUATION CHANGES IN 2001 <\/p>\n<p>The Communist Party of Moldova was elected to power in 2001, and Pasat became part of the country&rsquo;s political opposition. He was taken into custody in March 2005 at an airport in Moldova when he returned from Moscow on business for his employer &#8212; Russia&rsquo;s Unified Energy Systems (UES). Pasat&rsquo;s political opposition and his business connections with UES could have provided political motivation for his being taken into custody, Merry said. <\/p>\n<p>Merry described the allegations against Pasat as &ldquo;bogus.&rdquo; The sale of the MiGs was approved by Lucinschi, the former Moldovan president, possibly over Pasat&rsquo;s objections, according to Merry. Pasat&rsquo;s exact role in the MiG sale remains unclear, he said. <\/p>\n<p>Merry told RFE\/RL that he has seen no evidence that any conspiracy to defraud Moldova took place. Pasat was, if anything, &ldquo;excessively zealous to try to protect his country&rsquo;s interests,&rdquo; Merry said, describing the former defense minister&rsquo;s repeated refusal to negotiate a lower selling price. <\/p>\n<p>During his negotiations with Pasat and others, Merry said he emphasized that a deal with the United States would be legal and result in swift payment. Lucinschi, the former president, has said in interviews that the funds from the MiG sale were in his nation&rsquo;s treasury within weeks. <\/p>\n<p>A fact sheet on U.S. assistance to Moldova in 2005 is available on the State Department Web site. A transcript of then Defense Secretary Cohen&rsquo;s news conference from November 4, 1997, in which he announced the purchase of the MiG-29 aircraft, is available on the Defense Department Web site. \/\/ U.S. Department of State<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Reading Time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> 4<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minutes<\/span><\/span>By Vince Crawley<br \/>\nWashington File Staff Writer<\/p>\n<p>Washington &#8212; A former U.S. diplomat is speaking out against the secret trial of a former Moldovan defense minister who has been sentenced to 10 years<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-100106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"content_social_share":"<span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Reading Time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> 4<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minutes<\/span><\/span><p><img decoding=\"async\" height=\"140\" src=\"http:\/\/upload.moldova.org\/politicom\/2006\/feb\/Vince_Crawley.jpg\" width=\"140\" align=\"left\" alt=\"\" \/>By Vince Crawley <br \/>\nWashington File Staff Writer <\/p>\n<p>Washington &#8212; A former U.S. diplomat is speaking out against the secret trial of a former Moldovan defense minister who has been sentenced to 10 years hard labor for selling MiG-29 fighter jets to the United States in 1997. <\/p>\n<p>E. Wayne Merry, a former State Department official who helped negotiate the 1997 sale, says he publicly is describing the U.S. government&rsquo;s version of events to help show there was no pricing conspiracy involved in the sale of the 21 jets. <\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;The trial is not just about a Moldovan politician,&rdquo; Merry said in a January 31 discussion sponsored by Radio Free Europe\/Radio Liberty (RFE\/RL) in Washington. &ldquo;This is about the relationship between the United States and Moldova and the accusation that the United States took advantage of a small, weak country.&rdquo; <\/p>\n<p>Rather than taking advantage of Moldova, Merry said, the sale gave the struggling Central European republic an infusion of cash and access to excess U.S. military supplies in Europe, military exchanges and other benefits. The sale also kept the aircraft off the international black market &ndash; the primary U.S. goal in the deal, he said. <\/p>\n<p>In his remarks, Merry said he and John Todd Stewart, who was U.S. ambassador to Moldova at the time of the MiG sale, both have written legal depositions describing the circumstances of the sale. However, the Moldovan court system did not allow their statements to be admitted as evidence in the trial, which was closed to the public. Merry said the State Department and Defense Department have authorized Stewart and himto discuss the U.S. government&rsquo;s role in the 1997 sale. <\/p>\n<p>The MiG-29 Fulcrum is among the most advanced fighter aircraft in the world. Moldova possessed 32 of the jets after the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991, former Moldovan President Petru Lucinschi said in an interview with a Moldovan news agency in 2005. He said one aircraft went to Romania, four were sold to South Yemen, and 21 were sold to the United States. The Moldovan government has been unable to sell the remaining six, which no longer are flown. <\/p>\n<p>This January, former Moldovan Defense Minister Valeriu Pasat was sentenced to 10 years hard labor for his alleged role in the U.S. sale. According to news reports, the United States paid about $40 million for 21 aircraft and several hundred surface-to-air missiles. Pasat was convicted of charges related to overstepping his authority and an alleged conspiracy between him and the U.S. government to defraud Moldova of an additional $55 million that the aircraft might have fetched on the international market. But such a sale also would have resulted in international trade sanctions if the aircraft fell into the wrong hands, Merry said. <\/p>\n<p>When former Defense Secretary William Cohen announced the sale in November 1997, he said that &ldquo;a number of rogue states, including Iran&rdquo; had expressed interest in the fighters. &ldquo;These MiG aircraft were on their shopping list,&rdquo; Cohen told a news conference. <\/p>\n<p>The trial of Pasat appears to have been politically motivated, Merry said. According to news reports, Pasat&rsquo;s lawyer said he would appeal the verdict to the European Court of Human Rights. <\/p>\n<p>Merry, a career Foreign Service officer, was assigned to the Defense Department in the mid-1990s as director for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia, where he played a role in helping former Soviet republics draw down their weapons stockpiles. He said the Moldovan aircraft sale was largely his initiative and was intended to keep these advanced nuclear-capable jets away from potential customers who might use them against the United States or its allies. <\/p>\n<p>Merry told the RFE\/RL briefing that &ldquo;when we sought to acquire the airplanes, it was not to add them to our combat inventory&rdquo; but to keep them out of unfriendly hands. <\/p>\n<p>He said his office initially sought an allied nation willing to buy the aircraft. But with the dissolution of the Soviet Union, there was little interest in MiG aircraft, which require an extensive ground crew of well-trained mechanics and costly equipment. &ldquo;There was no legitimate market for these planes. The only market for these planes was the black market,&rdquo; he said. <\/p>\n<p>When the United States could not find a legitimate buyer, Merry proposed a plan for the U.S. government to buy the aircraft as part of the Cooperative Threat Reduction Initiative, known as the Nunn-Lugar Program, which has used U.S. funds to help eliminate the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction from former Soviet stockpiles. (See related article.) <\/p>\n<p>Merry said Pasat rejected his initial offer and would not budge during follow-up negotiations. Merry recommended that the United States rely on sanctions or the threat of sanctions to keep the aircraft off the black market. <\/p>\n<p>Merry switched to a new assignment, and a few months later, the United States reached a deal to buy 21 of the 27 aircraft that Moldova wanted to sell. <\/p>\n<p>MOLDOVAN POLITICAL SITUATION CHANGES IN 2001 <\/p>\n<p>The Communist Party of Moldova was elected to power in 2001, and Pasat became part of the country&rsquo;s political opposition. He was taken into custody in March 2005 at an airport in Moldova when he returned from Moscow on business for his employer &#8212; Russia&rsquo;s Unified Energy Systems (UES). Pasat&rsquo;s political opposition and his business connections with UES could have provided political motivation for his being taken into custody, Merry said. <\/p>\n<p>Merry described the allegations against Pasat as &ldquo;bogus.&rdquo; The sale of the MiGs was approved by Lucinschi, the former Moldovan president, possibly over Pasat&rsquo;s objections, according to Merry. Pasat&rsquo;s exact role in the MiG sale remains unclear, he said. <\/p>\n<p>Merry told RFE\/RL that he has seen no evidence that any conspiracy to defraud Moldova took place. Pasat was, if anything, &ldquo;excessively zealous to try to protect his country&rsquo;s interests,&rdquo; Merry said, describing the former defense minister&rsquo;s repeated refusal to negotiate a lower selling price. <\/p>\n<p>During his negotiations with Pasat and others, Merry said he emphasized that a deal with the United States would be legal and result in swift payment. Lucinschi, the former president, has said in interviews that the funds from the MiG sale were in his nation&rsquo;s treasury within weeks. <\/p>\n<p>A fact sheet on U.S. assistance to Moldova in 2005 is available on the State Department Web site. A transcript of then Defense Secretary Cohen&rsquo;s news conference from November 4, 1997, in which he announced the purchase of the MiG-29 aircraft, is available on the Defense Department Web site. \/\/ U.S. Department of State<\/p>\n<div class='heateorSssClear'><\/div><div  class='heateor_sss_sharing_container heateor_sss_horizontal_sharing' data-heateor-sss-href='https:\/\/www.moldova.org\/en\/former-u-s-diplomat-criticizes-moldovan-officials-secret-trial-9074-eng\/' data-heateor-sss-no-counts=\"1\"><div class='heateor_sss_sharing_title' style=\"font-weight:bold\" ><\/div><div class=\"heateor_sss_sharing_ul\"><a aria-label=\"Facebook\" class=\"heateor_sss_facebook\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.moldova.org%2Fen%2Fformer-u-s-diplomat-criticizes-moldovan-officials-secret-trial-9074-eng%2F\" title=\"Facebook\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" 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Moldovan Official&#039;s Secret Trial - Moldova.org<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.moldova.org\/en\/former-u-s-diplomat-criticizes-moldovan-officials-secret-trial-9074-eng\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Autor invitat\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" 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