Second victim, girl of 6, dies from injuries following bus explosion

Evidence of the use of fragmentary grenades found at the scene of Sunday's bus explosion in Tiraspol

TIRASPOL (Tiraspol Times) - Sunday's bus explosion in Tiraspol claimed a second victim, with a 6 year old girl dying in hospital from injuries sustained in the blast.

Earlier, a 50-year-old man travelling in the bus died instantly on the scene at the time of the explosion, 13:55 p.m. Sunday afternoon (local Tiraspol time).

According to investigators, “the explosion occurred at rush-hour right in front of a big shopping mall, so it can be supposed that masterminds of the blast counted for maximal destruction effect.”

Ala Ivancenco, the head of the Press Center of Pridnestrovie's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, informed the press that the blast happened in a trolleybus circulating on the route no. 2, near the capital's large “Pricernomornoie” shopping mall. The explosion tore off doors and windows in the back of the trolleybus, where 5-6 persons of those 30-35 persons were traveling. Evidence found on the scene point to the use of two, possibly three, RGD-5 fragmentary grenades.

The driver of the trolleybus, Oleg Baharev, states that the blast happened several meters from the trolleybus stop, when it was in motion:
“ - About 3 meters before the station, I heard three blasts, one very strong and two reminding of petards. Afterwards I saw black smoke”, he said.

At 10:00 a.m. on Monday, August 14, a grenade similar to the ones used in the bus explosion was found in the territory of a campus in Tiraspol. The RGD-5 fragmentation grenade was found in a waste basket by campus watchman Ivan Kosmina.
Two arrests have been made.

Government helps victims and the families of victims

President Igor Smirnov declared Tuesday, August 15, to be a mourning throughout Pridnestrovie. Following a meeting with the country's Council of Ministers he also announced that the government would help victims and the families of the victims with a monetary contribution of 20,000 PMR Rubles, equivalent to approximately $2,400 dollars per person.

In a statement issued Monday, the American head of the OSCE (Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe) Mission, Ambassador Louis O'Neill, expressed his and his organization's condolences over the explosion. At the same time, media report, the Transnistrian authorities make no connection between the yesterday's blast and the one that took place on 6 July 2006.

On 6 July, seven people died and more than 20 were seriously injured, as a microbus blew out in downtown Tiraspol. During the explosion, near the microbus, there was a trolley bus, which passengers were injured too. According to then preliminary data, the blast was caused by an electromagnetic bomb.

Terror scare may be linked to "psy-ops" techniques

Andrey Dolt, a spokesman for Pridnestrovie's prosecutor, told Tiraspol Times that the government shortly after the blast began receiving several telephone calls about other explosions that had allegedly taken place in other parts of Tiraspol. Since no such explosions actually took place, Dolt attributes these calls to a campaign of psychological terror intended to sow fear and confusion among government personnel. Such techniques, known as "psy-ops" or psychological operations, are common as lead-ups to the initial stages of military conflict.

The chairman of Pridnestrovie's parliament, Speaker Yevgeny Shevchuk, is not ruling out that the yesterday's explosion here might be connected with the forthcoming independence referendum on the future status of Pridnestrovie, scheduled for September 17, and with the presidential election due in early December.

In statements made to journalists, Shevchuk pointed out that this is the second explosion in the Tiraspol public transport system in less than 5 weeks, and that such attacks are aimed at destabilizing society:
" - Fourteen years have passed since the armed conflict between Moldova and Pridnestrovie, and now all of a sudden people are beginning to die in our streets in peace time", he said.

The speaker, who is the head of Pridnestrovie's largest opposition party, is not ruling out that the explosions could well have been made-to-order and that the order could have come both from inside the republic as well as from outside it.
" - Evidently, somebody is interested in destabilizing the situation in Pridnestrovie," he said.

Pridnestrovie - also known as Transnistria - has achieved no international recognition as a country due to an unresolved territorial claim by nearby Moldova. Since declaring independence in 1990, one year prior to the independence declaration of Moldova, the two countries have not been able to settle the border. Pridnestrovie insists that its independence declaration was as legitimate as Moldova's own, something which Moldova disputes, insisting instead that Pridnestrovie is a part of Moldova and must be subjected to Moldovan laws. To enforce its claim of sovereignty over the region, Moldova invaded Pridnestrovie in 1992 and lost a brief but bloody war before retreating. The two countries have historically been separate, with the Dniester river forming an international border for most of the past 2,500 years.