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Transdniester claims jurisdiction over Varnitsa but Russia and Moldova don't agree. (Photo: Pridnestrovie.net)BENDER (Tiraspol Times) - Ending a five-month standoff over a village river port on the Dniester, guards have withdrawn from the Varnitsa area near Bender; returning the area to civilian control in a property dispute which will now be settled by a court of law in Chisinau, the capital of Moldova.
Varnitsa, a Moldovan-controlled township on the outskirts of Bender, is the subject of a territorial dispute. The small river port is located in a suburb of Bender, part of Pridnestrovskaia Moldavskaia Respublica and the country's second largest city after the capital, Tiraspol. Both Moldova and Pridnestrovie (also known as Transnistria) lay claim to the area. Chisinau says that it is formal part of the Republic of Moldova, while Tiraspol points to the fact that it is included in the PMR Constitution as an official part of Pridnestrovie.
The peacekeeping authority in the buffer zone, known as the Joint Control Commission or JCC, decided on Thursday, September 29, to disengage peacekeeping patrols from Varnitsa's port. Hence, local enterprises were allowed to resume their activity. Ion Leahu, Chisinau’s representative at JCC, told the Moldovan news service Info-Prim Neo that this decision came after a long debate in the JCC where the peacekeeping representatives of Russia sided with Moldova.
According to Leahu, Russia showed interest in solving this issue, and its representatives insisted on finding ways to evacuate peacekeepers and let civilian workers back into the port. The Transnistrian representatives, in favor of maintaining forces in Varnitsa, found itself in a minority when Russia and Moldova were in agreement on the need for withdrawal. Unofficial sources close to the peacekeeping operation report that Russia's position is guided by the will of the local inhabitants. Unlike Bender, where the majority of inhabitants are solidly in favor of independent statehood for Pridnestrovie, the local inhabitants of small Varnitsa prefer Moldova and have elected as their township mayor a unionist Moldovan.
- Disputed territory
On April 21, Pridnestrovie's police intervened in a property dispute between the owner and the leaseholder of the Varnitsa river port, justifying their actions because Varnitsa is legally PMR territory under Article 14 of its Constitution. Much of the international community, which unconditionally sides with Moldova in all matters, criticized these actions. However, the authorities of Pridnestrovie pointed out that Varnitsa has traditionally been a subsidiary of the river port of Bender, which falls under Tiraspol's jurisdiction.
When Moldovan forces arrived, a tense stand-off between the two sides presented the risk of renewed armed fighting. This, in turn, led to the intervention of the peacekeeping forces under the Joint Control Commission, a trilateral mission whose task is precisely to prevent such situations from spiralling out of control. By taking authority of Varnitsa, the JCC sent Moldovan forces back to Moldova and PMR forces back to Pridnestrovie. In the weeks and months following the incident, peacekeepers maintained control of the area while diplomatic and political talks were held to determine the outcome of the status by negotiation instead of by the use of armed force.
With the Russian vote supporting Moldova's position, the matter has now been resolved and the peacekeepers have left. The dispute between the port's owner and its leaseholder will now be settled by a Moldovan court as a civil matter.
In a referendum in 1990, the city Bender (or Tighina, as it is known in Romanian) voted overwhelmingly to support the declaration of independence of Pridnestrovie. The suburb of Varnitsa voted to remain under Chisinau jurisdiction and today represents the far extent of Moldovan sovereignty on this stretch of the Dniester river bank.
