Monitoring→Politics→Transnistrian Conflict

The Joint Constitutional Committee

During the period covered here, the Joint Constitutional Commission (JCC) met twice and continued to work on the chapter on citizens’ rights and freedoms. Although the JCC members did not reach a compromise on issues such as citizenship, education and social insurance, the JCC co-chair from the Transnistrian side Evgheni Shevciuk said those divergences were not essential and expressed his hope that at the next JCC meeting the chapter would be adopted entirely. The sole essential divergence, according to Shevciuk, is the one on the article proposed by the Transnistrian side on the right of the citizen to resistance. The article was rejected by the Moldova side which found it likely to encourage extremism and arbitrary opposition to decisions by state institutions.

At the same time, Igor Smirnov, the leader of the Transnistrian administration, said within a meeting of the Supreme Soviet, Transnistria’s legislative body, that the Transnistrian side should in no case block the negotiations with Moldova in order not to loose for all the status of equal partner in the political dialogue with Chisinau. During the same meeting, Evgheni Shevciuk, reiterated the position of the Transnistrians to create a contractual federation (i.e. a confederation) and mentioned that the divergence between the two sides on the format of the future federation might seriously complicate the activity of the JCC.

Telecommunications war

A real telecommunications war started on 9 September between the two sides of Nistru River. At first, the mobile telephone communications in Transnistria, run by the sole GSM provider in the region, Interdnestrcom, was blocked after an enterprise of the Moldovan Ministry of Transports and Communications had installed a transmitter for digital television in Causeni, a town close to the right bank of Nistru River. The transmitter jammed the mobile communications network in Transnistria, which uses illicitly frequencies allocated for digital television. Interdnestrcom called the incident an attempt by the Moldovan authorities to stop its activity and accused Chisinau of “launching an information war against all users in Moldova and Transnistria”. In response, as of 9 September, Interdnestrcom has blocked the telephone entries from Moldova to Transnistria.

The Deputy Director of the National Agency for Regulations in Telecommunications and Informatics Stanislav Gordea stated that, in fact, the jamming on 9 September of the Transnistrian mobile telephone network was caused by the Company Moldtelecom, the provider of fixed telephony in Moldova, which blocked the international traffic terminal to prevent further financial losses that it has been incurring as a result of the illicit use of its network by Interdnestrcom. The latter has declined repeatedly the offers of Moldtelecom to conclude agreements on interconnection under non-discriminatory and mutually advantageous conditions. The Agency declared its availability to find a compromise on the issue provided that the Transnistrian businesses register in Chisinau and get licences for fixed telephony. Then, the Agency will grant them licences for both international and mobile telephony.

At the same time, the Transnistrian Minister of Telecommunications Vladimir Beleaev called upon the Moldovan authorities to avoid further confrontation with Transnistria on telecommunications and expressed the availability of the Transnistrian side to start negotiations on the issue on the condition that both sides stop jamming each other. At the same time, it seems that Transnistria does not accept the justifications of the Moldovan side and continue to regard the installation of the transmitter in Causeni as an intended action of the Moldovan authorities to jam the mobile telephony in Transnistria.

At present, between Moldova and Transnistria there is no telephone connection since on 13 September the Transnistrians have blocked completely the telephone traffic from the left to the right bank of Nistru River in an action of “legitimate defence” against the intimidation by the Moldovan side.

Withdrawal of Russian troops and ammunition

On his return from Vienna, where the Head of the OSCE Mission to Moldova presented a report to the Permanent Council of the OSCE on the process of evacuation of Russian weaponry from Transnistria, Hill said in a press conference in Chisinau that the technical conditions for Russia to withdraw its weaponry by the end of 2003, according to the deadline set at the OSCE Ministerial Council in Porto, still exist. However, Russia needs to resume as soon as possible the process of withdrawal, which was blocked by the Transnistrian authorities more than one month ago.

Russian President sends official on mission to Transnistria

The Deputy Head of the Russian President Administration, Dmitri Kozak, met on 14 September with Igor Smirnov and other Transnistrian officials, with whom he discussed “the role of Russia as guarantor state” in the resolution of the Transnistrian conflict. It appears that the visit by the Russian official to Transnistria has not been incidental, as he proved to be tasked by President Putin with a special mission of mediator in the Transnistrian conflict. Kozak made this public during the CIS Summit in Ialta, following the meeting between the Moldovan and Russian presidents there. In an interview with the Russian electronic newsline Gazeta, Kozac stated that his mission will be “to assist Moldova and Transnistria in the process of developing the system of federal relations between the two”, and that Russia’s interest in the conflict is determined by its concern for the ethnic Russian who live in the region and who are affected by the conflict.

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