Women's groups join hands, urge democratic crisis solution

On 3 September, women from 3 post-Soviet conflict areas met to discuss a common conflict resolution agenda

BENDER (Tiraspol Times) - Women from three conflict areas came together today in Bender, Pridnestrovie's second-largest city, to discuss the role of women in conflict situations and to emphasize the importance of democratic conflict resolution and crisis solutions.

Members of NGOs and womens' groups from three so-called "frozen conflicts" - Pridnestrovie, South Ossetia and Abkhazia - held their meeting to decide on a joint action plan aimed at easing the tensions and exploring new ways for conflict resolution. The meeting, titled "Human fates in the flash points: The female view" consisted of daylong sessions focusing on giving a voice to some of the weakest groups in society.

The women of the conflict areas joined hands in a mutually supportive effort aimed at ensuring a peaceful co-existence and a future without war for their children. Their meeting urged politicians and civic leaders to not follow the desires of politicians of what was referred to in the final statement as "unfriendly disposed countries." Two states, Moldova and Georgia, still aspire to govern the new de facto states and have previously engaged in war to enforce these territorial claims. International peacekeepers troops are currently monitoring a ceasefire, preventing further loss of lives and armed agression.

" - Pridnestrovie, South Ossetia and Abkhazia have a shared fate and shared concerns," said Dorma Khubayeva, leader of a civic group called Women of Ossetia for Homeland Rescue.
" - Now we signed a joint statement and we will work together on the issues."

First up, plans include youth exchange programs among the three conflict areas and development of wide collaboration and support in other nongovernmental areas.

Correspondent Natalia Kozhukhar from Pridnestrovie's state news agency Olvia Press was one of the journalists invited to the meeting:
" - Women are among the weakest in society and they are the victims in any kind of conflict. Along with children, women are the first to suffer when politicians who are more concerned with geopolitics play a cruel game with their lives. The current deadlock helps nobody and must be resolved, taking into account the will of the people to freely and democratically decide their own future."

Post-Soviet frozen conflicts are situations of geopolitical stalemate created during the process of collapse of the Soviet Union and transformation of the old Soviet Socialist Republic into new countries in the early 1990's.

Of the conflicts, Abkhazia wishes to be recognized as an independent state inside the Commonwealth of Independent States. South Ossetia has expressed its wish to establish an informal union with Russian-governed North Ossetia. Both reject attempts by Georgia to incorporate these areas into Georgia against their will. Pridnestrovie, also known as Transnistria, will vote in a referendum on 17 September on whether to continue its de facto independence and seek free association with Russia, or whether to abandon its independent course and accept Moldova's territorial cliam, leading to formal incorporation into Moldova. (With information from Olvia Press)