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Moldova looks towards Europe but integration will be impossible without giving Transdniester its freedom, says an MFA official

CHISINAU (Tiraspol Times) - As Moldova inches closer to European Union membership, realists in Chisinau are increasingly understanding that EU integration is impossible without first reaching a final status settlement over Moldova's territorial claim to the 'de facto' independent republic of Transdniester.

" - We need to let go of the dead weight that our claim to Transnistria represents," said an official with the Moldovan Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration who spoke on the condition of anonymity and used the Romanian name for Transdniester (or Pridnestrovie, as per its own constitution).

The mid-level official of the Chisinau based ministry requested anonymity because of the sensitive subject matter. In Moldova, hard-liners have control of all the major branches and institutions of government.

Even so, a re-assessment is underway [1], coming in the wake of recent developments over Kosovo. There, the lack of a similar status settlement is holding back Serbia's integration into the European structures, according to U.S. State Department official Daniel Fried.

Fried spoke on the margins of a summit of southern European countries held in the southern Croatian resort of Dubrovnik, according to AFP. He said that the Balkan countries could be successful in their Euro-Atlantic integration if they manage to overcome the obstacle posed by the problem of Kosovo's future status.

"I am Richard Holbrooke, I am God"

Daniel Fried, an American, forced a sly smile as he welcomed Serbia to Europe, saying: "The answer from us is: you are welcome, we want you." As a U.S. State Department official, Mr Fried is not entitled to make policy on behalf of the European Union, but this minor detail did not seem to prevent him from rolling out the EU welcome mat to the Serbs.

" - The irony is that ... the only way for all Serbs to live in one political entity was [the former] Yugoslavia, and then Serbian nationalists destroyed it during the 1990s wars," Fried said.

Historians and commentators immediately called Fried to task for what in the best light could only be considered a rewriting of recent Balkan history.

" - Total nonsense," was what commentator Philip Davies called Fried's remarks, explaining that "Slovenia and Croatia declared independence before any fighting took place. Serbs were in favor of retaining Yugoslavia, but the it was destroyed by the likes of the US and Germany supporting the republics' violent secession."

Others termed the State Department position "sheer arrogance" and one American commentator carried by the B52 news agency mentioned that "apparently the "I am Richard Holbrooke. I am God" identity complex is still alive and well with US officials in the Balkans."

Fried on Transdniester

Fried has also been actively commenting on Transdniester, where a similar situation developed in the early 1990s. Hardline nationalists in Moldova changed the alphabet, the language and the flag of the Moldavian SSR before it had declared independence, and later waged war on a portion of the population when it refused to accept the arbitrary changes. None of the changes had ever been agreed upon in any referendum, and there is ample evidence to suggest that only a minority of the voters supported them.

Transdniester, which had never been a historical part of Moldova and never had an ethnic Moldovan majority, declared independence in 1990 as a result of nationalist excesses. Not a historical or ethnic part of Moldova, it had only been joined to Moldova in 1940 by Stalin in an act which Moldova itself later repudiated and decreed to be "null and void from the outset."

For Fried, however, there is no such thing as a right to a democratic and peaceful conflict resolution process for the more than half million pro-independence inhabitants of Transdniester. A democratic referendum last year on independence was dismissed by the United States as irrelevant. And although a spokesman for the OSCE has offered to organize free and fair elections in the region, the American-led OSCE Mission to Moldova has not been willing to move forward on the issue. It has also consistently refused to send observers to monitor elections organized in Transdniester, despite repeated invitations from the unrecognized country's election authorities.

See also:
» Independent Transdniestria good for Moldova [2]
» Kosovo independence gives equal rights to Pridnestrovie; other unrecognized countries [3]
» Observer from Kosovo wants separate statehood for Pridnestrovie [4]
» Kosovo double standards lead to criticism; new Transdniestria comparisons [5]