"They are criminals who do not care about human life", states Maxim Belinski from the Helsinki Committee. When he tried to supervise a trial in Transnistria, three men kidnapped him at gunpoint. He was badly beaten and narrowly escaped being killed. "If they would do things like that to a member of the Helsinki Committee, what would they do to an ordinary citizen?" Dissidents describe how they were forced into exile. "It was said quite clearly; 'if you stay here, you will properly be dead by tomorrow'", recalls Sergei Ostaf. The police are believed to be involved in trafficking and Transnistira gives sanctuary to known criminals.