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Peacekeeping force warns Moldova and prohibits new illegal roadblocks
Moldovan troops seriously breached the ceasefire agreement and future provocations will not be allowed. That is the conclusion of joint findings by the multinational body supervising the peacekeeping effort in the buffer zone between the two. In January, Moldova unsuccessfully attempted to set up an unauthorized roadblock inside Transdniester territory.
A member of the multilateral peacekeeping force stands guard in the buffer zone on the border with Moldova (file photo: OSCE)BENDER (Tiraspol Times) - Peacekeepers upholding the 1992 ceasefire between Moldova and Pridnestrovie reprimanded Moldova for setting up an illegal roadblock inside PMR territory in January. The provocation led to an armed standoff before the illegal roadblock was dismantled by the arrival of a contingent of international peacekeepers.
On the Moldovan side of the security zone, Moldova already operates 19 permanent checkpoints. On its own side, Pridnestrovie's police operates 22. The number of checkpoints and their locations have been agreed upon between the sides in the Joint Control Commission which oversees the peacekeeping efforts in the buffer zone. The Joint Control Commissions operates by consensus, and no decision is taken which the sides do not agree upon.
" - That's why it took us completely by surprise when Moldova all of a sudden started to establish a brand new peacekeeping post, provocatively placed inside Pridnestrovie's territory," says a representative to the commission. "It was done without any prior notice, no advance agreement of any kind, and of course absent our consensus."
This week, however, the multilateral commission criticized Moldova for its actions and ruled that no new roadblocks will be allowed unless approved in advance by the parties to the ceasefire agreement. A statement to this effect was made by the Joint Control Commission after hearing a 15 February report on the activity of task force created to consider the matter.
Moldova's representative in the JCC, Ion Leahu, said that the commission approved a decision under which the sides should refrain from increasing the number of fixed posts. Moldova was reprimanded for its unilateral action in January, and no future roadblocks will be allowed unless the sides agree in advance and agree to staff them with representatives from Pridnestrovie. "If it is necessary to set up a mobile post, it should be a joint one including Moldovan and Transnistrian traffic police," he told Moldova's official state news agency 'Moldpres'.
The commission also decided that the task force should continue its activity towards reducing the number of roadblocks and checkpoints from the security bufer zone. Pridnestrovie, also known as Transnistria or Trans-Dniester, seeks demilitarization on a mutual basis. Pridnestrovie's government has urged Moldova to withdraw its armed forces from its border, pledging to do the same if Moldova shows that it is serious about peace in the region "and not just committed to the rhetoric", as a foreign ministry spokesman put it earlier this month.
- Provocative actions
On 12 January 2007, disregarding the rules of the ceasefire agreement and Joint Control Commission regulations, Moldovan troops unilaterally attempted to set up an illegal roadblock and checkpoint in Pridnestrovian territory on the highway connecting Dubossary with Rybnitsa, two of the major cities in the north of the country. The illegal checkpoint aimed to halt all traffic, in effect attempting to cut the unrecognized country - which is also known as Trans-Dniester or Transnistria - in two.
Pridnestrovie saw this as the last event in a series of provocative actions carried out by Moldova and destabilizing the fragile peace. A tense standoff followed and Pridnestrovie's president Igor Smirnov called it an attempt at territorial annexation. Intervention by peacekeeping troops defused the situation and prevented fatalities.
The largely Russian-speaking Pridnestrovie - which unlike Moldova is populated by two-thirds Slavs - broke away from Moldova in 1990, a move which was followed by a failed Moldovan invasion and bloody military conflict in 1992. The truce has been maintained by a multilateral team of peacekeepers and international mediators. Moldova has never recognized the right of Pridnestrovie to self-determination and still pursues an old territorial claim on the territory. By invading in 1992, Moldova unsuccessfully attempted to impose its sovereignty. Historically, Pridnestrovie has never been part of Moldova.
In an independence referendum held 17 September, more than 97% of PMR's electorate voted in favor of independence and rejected a union state with Moldova. The international community, however, did not recognize the referendum results, prompting Smirnov to state that "democracy does not require the approval of anyone. It is the will of the people."
The Pridnestrovskaia Moldavskaia Respublica (PMR) meets all the requirements for statehood under international law. It has a permanent population equivalent to Montenegro's, the world's newest U.N. member. For the past sixteen years, the PMR has had sovereign control of a territory which is larger than 10% of other countries in the world. It has a democratically elected government with a parliament which is currently led by an opposition party. It also has more than a dozen government ministries, including a Ministry of Foreign Affairs which is currently in the process of expanding the new and emerging country's integration ties to the international community.
Pridnestrovie has its own flag, national anthem, coat of arms, postage stamps, passports, car plates, border control and police force. It also has a Supreme Court and a Central Bank which issues its own currency, the PMR Ruble. (With information from Moldpres)
See also:
» Illegal Moldova roadblock is annexation attempt, says Igor Smirnov
» Questions raised in Moldova roadblock stand-off: “Who lied?”
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Moldova has passed a national security concept in which Transdniestria is defined as Moldova's main threat. The new law comes a month after Transdniestria proposed a treaty of friendship and co-operation, which Moldova ignored. Moldova already failed in an earlier 1992 attempt to invade and conquer the 'de facto' independent state. . . 
