Moldova approval not needed for Transdniester independence

Dr. Paul Williams: "At least 26 countries declared independence without any agreement with the country they lived under"

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Tiraspol Times) - Good news for Transdniestria: You don't need Moldova's prior OK in order to be independent. Other countries or would-be countries who aspire to full statehood also don't need to ask anyone's permission first.

That is the verdict of a recent conference of international lawyers held in Washington D.C. which analyzed the issue of Kosovo and came to the conclusion that even if Serbia is against independence for Kosovo, it doesn't matter because no one's prior permission is required in order for a people to declare its independence.

" - In the last 15 years we have encountered at least 26 cases of countries that declared independence and became sovereign countries without any agreement with the country they lived under, and the Republic of Kosovo is among them," says Paul William, a former U.S. State Department official and currently professor of international law at the American University in Washington, D.C.

Paul Williams was quoted by the Albanian language version of Voice of America, a state-run news agency belonging to the United States government. He made his comments at a conference organized by The American Society of International Law in Washington, D.C., where a number of international law experts and State Department officials came together to discuss issues pertaining to self-determination.

Supporter of Nagorno-Karabakh and Kosovo

Paul Williams supports the statehood of Kosovo, which unilaterally declared independence from Serbia in February of this year. On the post-Soviet space, Paul Williams has actively supported the independence of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic and he is said to be sympathetic to the cause of the Transdniestrian people as well. A report on Transdniestria's statehood which was issued in 2006 was based in part on Paul Williams' previous findings for Nagorno-Karabakh.

Not everyone agrees with Paul Williams, however. One of the experts with a different view is James Crawford, author of The Creation of States in International Law.

UN adviser James Crawford, author of the book "The Creation of States in International Law."

" - State practice since 1945 shows the extreme reluctance of States to recognize or accept unilateral secession outside of the colonial context," Crawford believes. "That practice has not changed since 1989, despite the emergence during that period of twenty-three new States."

Moldova was itself a state which declared independence without asking permission from the country from which it seceded. In August 1991, the then-Soviet Union still existed as a sovereign country and signatory to the Helsinki Final Act of 1975 which was supposed to guarantee its territorial integrity. Earlier that same year, voters had decided in a so-called "All Union Referendum" that the majority of them wanted the Soviet Union to remain intact. Moldova did not allow the referendum to go ahead, but it was held in Transdniestria which was outside of Chisinau's control starting with a formal declaration on 2 September 1990.

Moldova ignored both the country's territorial integrity, the Helsinki Act and the referendum, and instead went ahead with a unilateral proclamation of independence anyway.

" - But what Paul Williams is saying doesn't really have a relevance to Transdniestria," believes Michael Garner, an American analyst consulted by The Tiraspol Times.

" - Because he is specifically referring to new states that, in his words, "became sovereign countries without any agreement with the country they lived under," and that is not the case of Transdniestria. In fact, Transdniestria has never lived under Moldovan rule. Not even for a single day. Transdniestria declared independence in 1990, and Moldova only did so a year later, in 1991. When Moldova was created, Transdniestria was already running its own affairs and it has never lived under Moldova at any time in history. Not in the past 18 years and not in the more distant past either. They were only together in the Soviet Union, and that country no longer exists." (With information from Voice of America)

See also:
» Pridnestrovie has better grounds for independence than Kosovo, says analyst
» "Transnistria independence before Kosovo" says top Washington expert

Opinion and commentary:
» Lessons from Kosovo