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For the past 15 years, native-born citizens have joined together in their own army to defend their homeland's borders

TIRASPOL (Tiraspol Times) - This week, the people in Pridnestrovie are celebrating the fifteen year birthday of the army that they themselves created to defend their borders. The event takes place as tensions are growing and the arrival of a NATO-led force could spark instability in the region. Large-scale NATO Longbow/Lancer-2006 military exercises are to be held in Moldova between September 11-29, with NATO troops getting as close as twenty kilometers to the border with Pridnestrovie during the same time that the unrecognized country is holding its 17 September independence referendum. Until now, a cease-fire brokered in 1992 has succesfully held for more than fourteen years with no loss of lives.

When Pridnestrovie originally proclaimed its independence, on 2 September 1990, it did not think that it needed an army. Instead, the small country - not even twice the size of Luxembourg - envisioned merely the need for a civil defense force mostly made up of citizen volunteers, along the lines of similar small states like Liechtenstein, Andorra and Monaco.

" - We also looked towards Costa Rica," says Grigori Maracutsa, an ethnic Moldovan and one of the founding fathers of the republic. Costa Rica was the first country in the world to constitutionally abolish its army. Since then, a total of 25 countries [1] in the world have either disbanded their armies or - upon independence - decided to not create them at all. Most of them are small states with no apparent foreign aggressor.

PMR army created in response to Moldovan saber-rattling

The decision to not have an army was changed one year after independence, on 3 September 1991. On that date, neighboring Moldova decided to create its own army. The "saber-rattling" words of Ion Costas, Minister of Defense, made it clear to all that the creation of Moldova's army was not in response to any outside threat of foreign aggression but had one single purpose: To annihilate the statehood aspirations of the people of Pridnestrovie through the use of military force. Despite invoking the right to self-determination for its own declaration of independence, Moldova never acknowledged this same principle to be legitimate when applied to Pridnestrovie.

With the creation of Moldova's army on 3 September 1991, Chisinau forced the hand of the government of Pridnestrovie. As a result, three days later, on 6 September 1991, Tiraspol announced the formation of the national defense forces of the Pridnestrovskaia Moldavskaia Respublica. Initially made up solely of amateurs, today it is a mix of professional soldiers - all of them native-born in the region - and citizen volunteers, including special civic defense troops of women and the elderly.

" - In the beginning, we were reluctant to take up arms because we were idealists," remembers one of the first volunteers. "Emerging from freedom after Soviet rule, we just wanted everyone to be free on their own terms. We wanted Moldova to have their freedom, the same as here. And we thought that they would of course let us have the same rights to freely choose our own future in peace. We were wrong."

On 6 September 1991, a mere three days after Moldova decided to create its own army, the army of Pridnestrovie was officially founded.

Months later, Moldovan forces invaded Pridnestrovie, or Transnistria as it is called in Romanian. They were held back by the newly created PMR defense forces, along with a mixed band of patriots which included cossack volunteers and defecting units from the CIS 14th army. After the loss of an estimated 1,000 lives, the Moldovan military withdrew and brokered a cease-fire agreement which is still succesfully in force and which has prevented further bloodshed.

International convention forms legal basis for PMR's armed forces

The armed forces of the Pridnestrovskaia Moldavskaia Respublica was created on the legal basis of an international convention; a treaty which governs international law. Montevideo Convention on the Rights and Duties of States, signed by the United States and a number of UN members, grants statehood to any country which meets four requirements: (a) a permanent population; (b) a defined territory; (c) government; and (d) capacity to enter into relations with the other states.

International law specifically states that even unrecognized states, such as Pridnestrovie, are covered by the treaty. It sets forth that "The political existence of the state is independent of recognition by the other states. (Art. 3, Montevideo Convention).

Even in the early years of statehood, before any formal recognition, a new country has the right to create an army and defend the borders which it claims as its own. This principle, codified in international law, is also sets forth in the treaty to which the United States is a founding signatory and ratified party:

"Even before recognition the state has the right to defend its integrity and independence, to provide for its conservation and prosperity, and consequently to organize itself as it sees fit, to legislate upon its interests, administer its services, and to define the jurisdiction and competence of its courts."

" - What this means," says civil society activist Petru Glachi, "is that anyone who calls our laws ‘illegal’ or use words like ‘illegitimate’ to describe our defense forces merely displays a complete ignorance and misconception of one of the most basic principles of international law."

Basing their right to statehood on claims of legitimacy under international law, inhabitants in Pridnestrovie stand up for their right to self-defense and see the current NATO moves as a provocation.

In Chisinau, Moldovan political expert Yevgeny Solar agrees and explains that this is precisely the reason for NATO's arrival:
" - It’s not a secret that during these ‘peacemaking’ events foreign and Moldovan forces are exercising scenarios of joint military actions against Pridnestrovie. Obviously, Chisinau hopes to thereby pressure Tiraspol into agreeing to ‘wide autonomy within Moldova.’ However, such actions are only increasing the resistance of people in Pridnestrovie."

Pridnestrovie's armed forces, today fifteen years old, were created strictly for defensive purposes. At no time in history have they ever invaded the territory controlled by the Republic of Moldova. In contrast, the Moldovan army - claiming Pridnestrovie as its own - initiated a war in 1992, invaded Pridnestrovie and left 1,000 dead before it was forced to retreat from the unrecognized republic's territory.