Small news, big stories in Transnistria

Not much ever happens in August. News-wise, it is the slowest season of the year. August in western Europe is quiet almost by official decree, according to The Economist. In the eastern part of the continent people still work a bit harder, but the drip of drivel from second-rate politicians who should be off at the beach means that summer can feel stupefying. It is time to drink kvass (fermented breadcrumbs), to eat chilled cherry soup or iced yogurt, to swim in lakes and forget about politics.

But the summer is also a time when interesting news items pop up that are pointers to bigger stories around the corner. And one such story involves the arrest of a humble bicycle thief.

On the surface, the news article is merely about the local Mr Sticky Fingers from a small Moldovan village located near the border with Transnistria. Our hero thought that if he committed his crimes across the border in Transnistria then he'd run a lower risk of getting caught. After all, Transnistria is for all practical purposes a foreign country - a different jurisdiction - even though Moldova still clings to the legal fiction that it isn't.

Some two and a half years later, Transnistria was 16 bicycles poorer - not counting a baby pram which also found its way into Moldova on a slow night when no bikes were apparently available for the taking.

And this was when the Dubossary constables got their man. The bicycle-cum-baby-carriage heister is now in lock-up in Transnistria while awaiting trial and sentencing. He is reported to be cooperating with the local police and is pleading guilty. Having done the crime, he is now prepared to do the time.

End of story? Not quite. The case speaks volumes about sovereignty, independence and the future of Transnistria and Moldova.

In the real world, with real prisons and police, there is only one government and one set of laws which for seventeen years have exercised sovereignty over Transnistria. And, notwithstanding its rhetoric about territorial claims and "integrity" and whatnot, it ain't the one in Chisinau.

Bicycle thieves on crime sprees in Transnistria learn sooner or later that Moldova's claim to the territory holds no water in the real world. They discover - sometimes the hard way - that Transnistria is already independent and sovereign in its own land. It is incorrect to label the Transnistrians as separatists, since separatists merely aspire to become independent. Au contraire, the Transnistrians already achieved that goal nearly two decades ago. Today they possess a united community with social stability, a fully constituted government with home rule, a full set of laws, and effective authority over its territory.

The same conclusion was reached by Promo-Lex, a nationalist Moldovan pressure group with the Don Quixotic task of trying to increase Moldova's near-invisible influence over Transnistria. In its most recent report, the group bitterly complained that Moldova has already thrown in the towel because "there have been cases when Transnistrian residents addressed themselves to the Moldova General Prosecutor’s office. They were refused under the pretext that the region is not within the terms of reference of this office."
- No shit, Sherlock...

Moldova's understatement that "the region is not within the terms of reference" is correct in more ways than one.

Real proof from the real world exist in small, overlooked cases like that of the little bicycle thief and other day to day occurrences of what happens in the real world, far away from wishful thinking and daydreams of politicians who for their own reasons pursue unrealistic agendas. These actual real world cases serve as subtle but very consistent indicators of who is sovereign over Transnistria. No ifs, ands or buts.

It might be time to set aside outdated maps and highfalutin' rhetoric and look at reality on the ground. Law enforcement in Moldova knows the score. So does law enforcement in Transnistria. And even the bicycle thief.

Any lasting solution to comprehensive conflict settlement must, first of all, be firmly grounded in reality. There is a different, separate and wholly independent government on the other side of the Dniester river. As the case shows, away from the negotiating table, and in the real world where the rubber hits the road, Moldova accepts this. So does the bicycle thief. Negotiators, take note.

Also by John Moynihan:
» Memo to State: Face up to reality
» The Fourth World: Invisible countries
» Ending the Transdniester frozen conclict
» Double standards over Kosovo
» Why 1924-thinking for Transnistria - Moldova unification won't work