[0]

Gene Cohen: "Coercion to force people to become citizens of another country has nothing to with democracy or human rights"

MOSCOW (Tiraspol Times / Utro) - A leading foreign policy expert on Eastern European issues believes that Transdniester's future is directly tied to the level of respect that the United States, Russia, and the European Union has for human rights and democratic values. Eugene "Gene" Cohen is director at Russia's Institute for Strategic Studies. In this original interview by utro.ru, he explains that it is now the time for the West to stand tall and stand firm, and be consistent in its defense of democracy and human rights at all times and in all countries.

Based on your organization's study of the issue, why can't PMR just join Moldova?

" - The breakup of the old MSSR into two separate parts, Transdniester and Moldova, was not something that happened artifically. It is a natural historical development which was quite easy to predict. These two component parts of the Moldavian SSR have for centuries taken very different historical paths. Transdniester joined the Russian empire before Bessarabia did, and Transdniester - unlike Moldova - was never part of Romania. Transdniester has no historical or cultural Romanian/Moldovan heritage, and has always been majority Slav. There is a short part of history, from 1919 to 1940, when Transdniester was a separate republic - an autonomous republic called the MASSR, which was part of the Soviet Union under the Ukrainian SSR. The capital was Tiraspol. Moldova was not part of that, since it belonged to Romania at the time."

" - Transdniester wants first of all to ensure that its future does not depend on the whims of Moldova or Romania, two states that it does not feel part of and that it really has no historical bonds with. This is their right. If independence and self-determination was recognized and respected in the case of Moldova, then the people in Transdniester have the same human right to choose their own form of government. Without a doubt, this is a conflict that can not be solved with violence or any kind of use of force. A solution must be arrived in a civilized manner, without blackmail, threats or economic pressure. It should be based on the concept of human rights and on recognizing that Transdniestrians have the right of free choice. But is that how Moldova sees it? In 1992 Moldova sent troops to enforce a territorial claim that it had already lost in practice. Today, Moldova's troops are gone, but instead there are economic measures in place which serve the same purpose: Seeking to compel Transdniester to become part of Moldova, to abandon its historical and spiritual identity, and to close its well-established government institutions, some of whom provide Transdniester with security and democratic rights, despite Moldova's claims to the contrary. The Republic of Moldova wants to force the citizens of Transdniester to recognize the authority of a state with whom they have never had a relationship. Remember that the people of Transdniester declared independence while the territory was still part of the Soviet Union, and they have never been citizens of an independent Republic of Moldova. Nor do they want to become citizens of that state. Coercion to force people to become citizens of the Republic of Moldova has nothing to with democracy or with any normal understanding of the concept of human rights."

Some in the West criticize the participation of Russian troops. Do you?

" - There is now a very insignificant number of Russian troops left in Transdniester. They are there legally, as part of the peacekeeping force alongside troops from Moldova and Transdniester. Ukraine and the OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe) also form part of this. It is truly a multilateral undertaking, and most people don't know this, but the Russians are outnumbered by the Moldovans when it comes to the number of troops participating in the peacekeeping force. In addition to peacekeeping duties, another limited contingent of troops watch guard over an old Russian ammunitions dump in Kolbasna, in the north of Transdniester."

Which was considered one of the largest in Europe, right?

" - Yes, but not anymore. That was back in Soviet times. By now, most of the ammunition has already been removed with OSCE supervision. And some of it was so old that it couldn't be removed, so it was simply destroyed."

What can be done to settle the territorial issue between Transdniester and Moldova?

" - The West must base its policy on Transdniester and Moldova on a set of clear principles that are consistent with history, with Western values and with the Western tradition. What is at stake here are fundamental principles of democracy and human rights, which are shared today by the European Union, Russia, and even the United States. Now, it is up to each country to make a crucial choice: Do we view these principles as real guidelines? Or do we merely consider them props for a propaganda game? Propaganda props are used whenever you need something from a public diplomacy "grab-bag", for example, human rights. You trot out the rhetoric, for instance for Kosovo or Montenegro, and when you don't need it anymore, you ignore the principle in other cases. But do this too often, and you undermine the values that you claim to share. That will ruin society at home, and also the self-image that a country has of its own commitment to democracy around the world. In contrast, you can instead decide to stand tall and stand firm, and take the unnegotiable stand that there are simply some principles which must never be toyed with because doing so would simply be too dangerous for the values of a country, and its consequences of society and the state."

Other analysts have long pointed out that legally and historically, both Transdniester and Abkhazia have better claims to sovereign statehood than Kosovo. And while the issue of territorial integrity is debatable in the case of Abkhazia/Georgia, there is no such question when it comes to Transdniester/Moldova: Transdniester declared independence before Moldova became a sovereign state, and in Moldova's own 1991 declaration of independence it specifically renounced the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact which originally had brought the two sides together within the Soviet MSSR.