Transdniester opens its doors to OSCE team for weapons inspection

Col. Jan Nadolski, OSCE military mission member, on the Dniester river between Moldova and PMR (File photo: Neil Brennan, OSCE)

KOLBASNA (Tiraspol Times) - A group of high-ranking diplomats from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, OSCE, will be inspecting weapons facilities in Pridnestrovie (informally known as Transdniester) as part of a four day visit from 10 to 13 November.

The group comprises more than 30 Heads of Delegations to the OSCE, including the Ambassadors of the Belgian OSCE Chairmanship, the Finnish European Union Presidency, the Russian Federation and the United States.

The OSCE Ambassadors and international diplomats will meet with cabinet ministers and elected officials from Pridnestrovie and will stay in the region for four days. A key part of the agenda involves an inspection of the Russian weapons and ammunition depots in the Kolbasna village in northern Pridnestrovie. In addition, the multinational Joint Control Commission (JCC) peacekeeping force accepted a request by OSCE to let the delegation inspect all areas of the Security Zone buffer area.

On Sunday, 12 November, a briefing will be organized at the Bendery headquarters of the joint peacekeeping force for the OSCE diplomats on the composition of the joint force and currently stable and peaceful situation in the Security Zone. The Joint Military Command will brief the OSCE Ambassadors on the work of the trilateral Peacekeeping Forces in the buffer zone between Moldova and Pridnestrovie. A fact-finding tour through the security zone. A meeting with the Head of the EU Border Assistance Mission, General Ferenc Banfi, will also take place, in order to inform the OSCE team on the lack of weapons smuggling after nearly a year of EUBAM supervision of the border.

Officials from Pridnestrovie welcome the latest international inspection visit as a way to show the openness and transparency of the new and emerging country, and as a way to let the OSCE team see, first-hand, that the never-substantiated claims of weapons smuggling backed by Tiraspol have no basis in reality.

International inspectors confirm lack of arms production

Earlier this year, a report from an international round of arms inspection visits by foreign government officials produced a clean bill of health for Pridnestrovie: No evidence of weapons manufacture or other arms involvement was found in any of the inspected factories.

After freely touring factories and industrial facilities in Pridnestrovie in early February, 2006, the international governmental inspection team produced its first public report and submitted it to the international community on February 9. It could not be more clear in its praise of Pridnestrovie's openness: Nowhere, in any single instance, did the team find any trace of anything that could be indicative of any arms or military equipment manufacture whatsoever.

The visit followed a standing invitation by Pridnestrovie's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which has consistently shown its willingness to allow foreign delegations to inspect the country's facilities and draw their own conclusions as a result. In the words of the country's foreign minister, Valeri Litskai:
" - We openly invite foreign inspectors to come to Pridnestrovie for the monitoring of the companies which supposedly manufacture weapons. We have been accused of this by Moldova, but such accusations are easily put to rest by just checking the facts."

Openness and full collaboration on arms control

In their latest survey, British weapons inspectors and arms experts working on behalf of the United Nations confirm that there is currently transparency and good levels of co-operation with the government of the Pridnestrovskaia Moldavskaia Respublica (PMR) in the field of weapons control.

The report, which was published by the United Nations, refutes earlier claims by Moldova that the country is a "black hole" or haven for arms production and illegal trafficking. It states that evidence for the illicit production and trafficking of weapons into and from Transdniester has in the past been exaggerated, and explains that the accusations were politically motivated rather than based in any factual reality.

" - Several analysts have charged Moldova with using accusations of SALW production and trafficking in Transdniestria for political leverage in attracting the interest of the international community to the Transdniestrian conflict and in an attempt to ensure a positive outcome for the Moldovan Government in the conflict settlement process," states the UN report, quoting Moldovan political expert Andrei Popov, of the Foreign Policy Association, and regional specialist Damien Helly, of the International Crisis Group.

For its part, PMR's elected officials have consistently maintained that the unrecognized country is not involved in weapons exports, be they licit or illicit, of any kind whatsoever. They promote openness and full international collaboration on all arms control issues, to make it clear that the Moldovan claims are baseless. As Yevgeny Shevchuk, speaker of parliament, asks: If any arms trade or smuggling was really going on, then where's the evidence? (With information from OSCE and Infotag)

See also:
» UN Report clears Transdniester of weapons smuggling; Praises transparency and co-operation