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Alexander Caraman is an ethnic Moldovan and former Vice President of Pridnestrovie. He fully supports independent statehood

TIRASPOL (Atac / Tiraspol Times) - Former Vice President Alexander Caraman is an ethnic Moldovan who was born in Pridnestrovie. Along with Grigory Marakutsa (or Grigore Mărăcuţă, in the Romanian language), a fellow ethnic Moldovan, he is considered one of the founding fathers of PMR, the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic.

As Pridnestrovie first-ever Vice President, Alexander Caraman represented the ethnic Moldovan community. Somewhat surprisingly, the local Moldovans were - and still are - equally supportive of Pridnestrovie's independence struggle alongside the majority Slavic population of Pridnestrovie.

Moldovans in Pridnestrovie make up 32% of the population. Most of them support independence and have no wish to join their ethnic brothers on the other side of the Dniester river in a common state. Of the first three people who were shot by Moldova while fighting for independence, two of them were ethnic Moldovans who had joined the struggle on Pridnestrovie's side. The last was a Ukrainian.

Compared to last year, how would you qualify the economy of Pridnestrovie and the development of the region?

" - Progress in the social and cultural development of any society is connected with its economic situation. Until last year, we were advancing. The output level grew and we achieved positive results in the economy. Each year, we managed to increase wages and pensions. We took a big step and privatized several companies, and investors were satisfied by the condition of the companies which we had tried to preserve as working, functioning businesses, knowing that they would serve us and the whole society.

All of this changed onl 3 March 2006, when the Prime Ministers of Moldova and Ukraine, Vasile Tarlev and Yuri Yerukhanov, agreed with a special task force from the European Union to carry out controls on the border with Pridnestrovie, allegedly for the purpose of limiting smuggling in drugs, weapons, ammunition and human trafficking. Any goods that we exported now had to first be certified by the Republic of Molodva, for them to verify everything, and then only from there we would get the right to export. Moldova collected all the export taxes and as a result, nothing found its way into the budget of PMR. When these new controls were put in place, every company that wanted to import or export anything had to first be registered in the Republic of Moldova and had to pay all the necessary taxes and duties there.

But in fact, Moldova and Pridnestrovie had an agreement, signed in Moscow in 1997 and known as the Primakov Memorandum. It is still in force, but on paper only. In reality, it lasted until 1 March 2006 when Moldova broke it. According to the terms of this agreement, each of the two sides - Pridnestrovie and Moldova - were treated as separate economic entities. But in 2006, Moldova blocked our railroad transportation, which had a disastrous economic impact on Pridnestrovie. Then they began the economic and customs blockade, whose consequences, from a humanitarian point of view, can be termed catastrophic, because we lack medicine and food. The level of both imports and exports dropped sharply. In the time that the embargo has been in place, Pridnestrovie lost 565 million dollars. Social programs had to be stopped and we were forced to reduce our state's budget expenditures on pensions, healthcare and the education system. Meanwhile, Ukraine brought in excavators and dug up a ditch on the entire length of their border with Pridnestrovie (405 km / 253 miles, ed).

Importantly, the head of the EU Border Assistance Monitoring group, a Hungarian General by the name of Ferenc Banfi, has stated that since the embargo was put in place, there hasn't been a single case of weapons smuggling or drug trafficking. In fact, it was always like that - even before they decided to claim down on our borders. The accusations of trafficking was always just a myth that was invented against us from the side of the Republic of Moldova. But they forget that Pridnestrovie is landlocked, with no access to the sea, and that we don't have an airport either. So there is no way to carry out any of this alleged smuggling."

But I know that Tiraspol had an airport...

" - The military airfield, which the peacekeepers control."

You can't use it?

" - No. The airspace is under the control of Moldova, Ukraine and Russia. If it was used for smuggling, it would mean that we had first paid off Moldova and Ukraine, and that Russia was in on it too. So you have to be very naive to believe in this. And if Moldova's claims were true, that we sell weapons to Afghanistan, Chechnya and Iraq, then they would by now have been able to prove it. In fact, any weapon can be traced from the place it was produced to the place it is sold. With quite precise accuracy it is possible to determine the entire route of origin. Now, you must understand that if Moldova actually had any proof, if even one single pistol or package of drugs had been sold from Pridnestrovie, then Moldova would write about it and show it to the whole world: 'Here is the proof of Transnistria's weapons smuggling'. Where is the proof? It isn't there. However, we constantly find proof during our border checks that drugs enter both in Dubossary (from Moldova) and Pervomayske (from Ukraine). Hundreds of grams, sometimes kilos, of marijuana and other narcotic drugs, and even weapon. And as far as the EU is concerned, we ourselves proposed this monitoring program for two years before they arrived. Now there is an embargo which is imposed on us by Moldova. It is a political embargo, an economic embargo and an information embargo. This is something that the entire population of Pridnestrovie suffers under. People live here today. They need medicines, clothing, food, the necessities of life. They need these things now, since they live in the present time. I know that people of are tired of poverty and deprivations, they are tired of the embargo and the overall situation imposed on us."

So what solution do you see for the conflict?

" - We see ourselves in a partnership with Ukraine, Russia and Belarus."

That sounds good, but Ukraine does not want this partnership with Russia...

" - It will soon become known what the people of Ukrainie really want. We are joined in the Russian Orthodox Church, and from an historical and cultural point of view, and also based on economic relationships, we are already partners with Ukraine. Indeed, with all the countries of the former USSR. We don't agree with NATO's plans since they are directed against Russia politically. But if we change our political orientation tomorrow, and we say that we are in favor of NATO and the European Union, they will kiss us on both cheeks, hug us and say: We'll give you the right to self-determination and everything else that you want. Like how Kosovo was promised independence for being a NATO ally. But Russia is a country which respects international law."

What about the old weapons stockpiles from the Soviet days?

" - Russia already removed all the large-caliber weapons from here, and now the only things that remain are small arms like pistols and machine guns."

Are there any nuclear weapons in Pridnestrovie?

" - Modern technology is capable of determining the brandname of your shoes through detailed satellite photos. If we had any nukes they could find out from space. No, there never were any such weapons in Pridnestrovie, nor will there ever be any on our territory in the future. They had some of those weapons in Ukraine but in the past. And here in Pridnestrovie we even buried the tunnels were there used to be Soviet rockets. In Pridnestrovie, our most effective weapons of mass-destruction are the cognacs which are produced in Tiraspol. Whoever tastes them once will be addicted to them for the rest of his life."

Be that as it may, how do you see the outcome of status settlement talks on Pridnestrovie?

" - President Putin repeatedly said that a solution of the Kosovo situation sets a precedent for Pridnestrovie, Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Now, it is true that we did not join Moldova thanks to the way that they treated us. They heckled our legislators, they beat us up, many people from PMR were killed, burnt, and slaughtered. On the body of these murdered victims they carved a pentagonal star and also the hammer and sickle.

But the head of the OSCE has said that Russia can recognize the independence of Pridnestrovie, Abkhazia and South Ossetia if the West recognizes the independence of Kosovo.
We won't exclude that in the future, it might be necessary to reduce our independence a little, but Moldova will also have to forego unilateral statements of the type that in the future, Pridnestrovie will merely be a district inside the Republic of Moldova with some cultural autonomy. If federalization is discussed, then the discussion can only deal with talks between two equal subjects: Moldova and Pridnestrovie. And if at some time in the future Bessarabia decides to become part of Romania again, then we will painlessly separate and each side will go its own way."

How do you view the federalization proposal that Moldova's President Voronin wants?

" - The only concrete federalization proposal was the Kozak Memorandum of 2003. We agreed to it, and Voronin supposedly did too, so Putin was on his way for the signing ceremony. But then Voronin, at the last moment, refused to sign it. No one else ever treated Putin this way. Of course, something like that simply can't be forgiven. Now, the new plan that Voronin proposes, that just doesn't make sense. Pridnestrovie would get 19 seats in parliament and a vice prime minister. We weren't sold on this proposal back in 1989, and we aren't biting now either. There are absolutely no guarantees that our 19 legislators would be able to change anything. There are 101 members in the parliament of the Republic of Moldova. That, and the Constitution of Moldova will stay the same. Federalization can only happen between states that have equal rights (like states rights guaranteed in the United States by the U.S. Constitution, ed). And this is also the solution for Nagorno Karabakh, Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Kosovo. There is no possible way that we can be part of a single state with Moldova."

You said that no one ever behaved the way that Voronin did with Putin. So how is it possible to believe in a country that shows this sort of contradictory behavior?

" - This is a problem for the voters of Moldova and for Voronin himself. However, as far as the progress in the relations between Pridnestrovie and Moldova are concerned, it is necessary to take concrete steps to improve the situation. Voronin himself doesn't matter a bit to the Americans, but they want to position their military bases near Russia so they can renew the Cold War. Voroning gets money from the United States, from George Soros and from the IMF. The Americans want control over this part of Europe. But Russia can take the same steps. All of these small countries are under the sway of a large power. No one ever asks us what we want, and no one ever asked the people of Yugoslavia either. We are just a small screw in the entire international system. Our opinion about our own future is of no interest to any of the large powers."

To what extent is the situation stable in Tiraspol? Recently a political leader was killed...

" - Yes, you are referring to Vladimir Neumon, the chairman of the Tiraspol branch of the Patriotic Party of Pridnestrovie. The investigation is underway."

So what do you know about this, and what is the outcome?

" - Several motives are being considered, linked to both business- and political activities."

He was from a party which is headed by the younger son of President Smirnov. It is possible to consider the murder a threat to the life of President Smirnov?

" - On TV you see that in all the former Soviet republics, even in Russia itself, high ranking officials are sometimes targeted by killers. Every time this happens, people always search for answers, and sometimes it turns out that they were involved in illegal acts, or had debts and so forth. In Tiraspol so far, we even had two explosions. In one of them, the perpetrator pled guilty and was sentenced to 25 years in prison. He had unresolved problems with his boss who owed him money, and the bomb was supposed to be planted in the company where he worked. Because of carelessness it exploded on the way over, inside the trolley bus. That was that."

How can you kill someone just because he owes you money? Try to collect, but once you kill him you'll have no chance of ever getting paid back the money again.

" - It is certainly very strange. But who knows what went on inside the killer's head? It is the same thing with the suicide bombers. They will load themselves up with explosives, and then they will go out into a crowd and kill women and children. When they die, they think that they are on their way to paradise..."

And some people even say that the Arab terrorists received training from the KGB.

" - What a fairy tale... Everyone says so much about KGB and GRU too. Like so much else, it is just speculation and talk."

See also:
» Grigore Mărăcuţă: "I'm a Moldovan, and proud that my people voted for freedom" [1]
» Andrei Tarna: "As a Moldovan, I want Moldova to respect Transnistria's wish for independence" [2]