[0]

Vladimir Voronin, President of Moldova, now backtracking on weapons allegations

MOSCOW (Tiraspol Times) - Eager to get undocumented weapons accusations against Pridnestrovie behind him, the president of Moldova on Saturday referred to these claims using the past tense. In an interview given to the Echo Moskvi radio station during a non-formal summit of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), held in Moscow on 21-22 July, Vladimir Voronin stood by his previous claims that Pridnestrovie produced weapons. This time, however, he emphasized that the problem had been stopped or minimized thanks to European Union border monitors, and by consistently using verbs in past tense, signalled to journalists that official Moldova no longer finds it useful to insist that Pridnestrovie is a weapons-producing "black hole".

Voronin's statements followed remarks by outgoing OSCE Ambassador William Hill in Chisinau in June who categorically stated that there is no evidence of any weapons manufacture or weapons export from Pridnestrovie, or the Pridnestrovskaia Moldavskaia Respublica (PMR) to use its full name. In his press conference, the American head of the Moldovan OSCE mission clearly refuted any claims of weapons smuggling from Pridnestrovie. In six months of EUBAM missions, performing European Union border assistance monitoring, no shipments of weapons have been intercepted. William Hill highlighted that the biggest smuggling load was an unusually high amount of frozen chicken legs.

Unnamed sources put weapons income at $2 billion

In his interview with the Echo Moskvi radio station, the Moldovan president emphasized that the European monitoring on the border between Pridnestrovie and Ukraine border "hindered the activity" of enterprises from Pridnestrovie which - according to his claims - "were non-stop producing weaponry" in the past. Voronin also said that, according to specialists, the annual income obtained from the contraband with armament in Pridnestrovie were estimated at about two billion dollars. He did not name these supposed specialists or indicate their nationality, but journalists in the Moldovan capital frequently ascribe such unsubstantiated claims to Moldovan spin-doctor and former presidential advisor Oazu Nantoi.

Voronin did not offer any proof of his claims, nor did he provide any documents of Pridnestrovie's alleged two billion dollar income from weapons, or indicate who the buyer or buyers of two million dollars worth of weaponry might have been.

Pridnestrovie, better known in English as Transnistria, has consistently denied these charges, calling them irresponsible and baseless. Since it is landlocked, all its exports must by necessity pass through either Moldova or Ukraine. In February 2006, international inspectors toured factories in Tiraspol and Bender which Moldova claimed were producing weapons. In their report to the international community these observers reported that no evidence of any arms production had been found. The inspection visit followed a report by U.S.-funded Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty on 11 October 2005, attributing the unsubstantiated claims of weapons smuggling to destabilizing efforts by the Moldovan government to increase pressure on Pridnestrovie.

In the report, Western diplomats said that reports of smuggling from Pridnestrovie were wildly exaggerated. EU and OSCE officials have never seen any evidence of Pridnestrovie's involvement in smuggling and stated that there was "not a shred of evidence" to back up the allegations.

Pridnestrovie declared independence in 1990 and is engaged in what has been described as an "information war" with Moldova. Both sides accuse the other of numerous irregularities in an attempt to win the upper hand in Western public opinion. Moldova never recognized Pridnestrovie's declaration of independence and has, since 1990, sought to impose its sovereignty over the unrecognized country.