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Transnistrian Conflict on January 26 – February 8, 2004

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Mediators meeting in Sofia

The Bulgarian OSCE Chairmanship organised on 26–27 January in Sofia a meeting of the mediators to discuss the issue of resuming the negotiations as well as that of the contents and periodicity of talks. Since the failure by the Moldovan authorities to sign the Russian proposed plan of resolving the Transnistrian conflict in November 2003, the negotiators have not met either in the three-sided format or in the five-sided one, although they have continued to hold bilateral talks. Due to the persisting differences among the mediators on the role of the Russian settlement plan in future talks, the mediators reached the compromise agreement to meet again on 24 February to discuss the comments by the Moldovan and Transnistrian sides on a settlement plan prepared by the mediators and the OSCE last autumn.

William Hill, the Head of the OSCE Mission to Moldova told a press conference upon his return from Sofia that significant progress in the conflict resolution process is not to be expected soon. Therefore the mediators have agreed upon a strategy that presupposes a series of step-by-step actions. The first step was taken by the OSCE who handed in to the Moldovan and Transnistrian sides the draft proposal developed by the mediators and the OSCE last autumn. The parties are to submit amendments to the draft by 17 February. Then, on 24 February the mediators will meet again to examine the amendments made by the parties and eventually adopt a join position on the contents of talks. The date for holding the five-sided meeting will be determined thereafter.

However, the compromise that was reached in Sofia seems to be a fragile one. Both the parties and the mediators have already made a number of contradictory statements that reveal that differences persist on the document to be accepted as the basis for future talks. Thus, when President Voronin met with William Hill to discuss the results of the Sofia meeting, he did not hesitate to raise a number of aspects of an eventually new settlement plan that would incorporate bits of agreements already discussed. On the other hand, Veaceslav Trubnikov, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister said in interview with the Moscow press that because when drafting the Russian settlement plan of last November the parties reached important and real compromises on a number of juridical issues, the plan has to be taken into consideration in future talks.

Transnistria Supreme Soviet rules to close down the Romanian language schools

On 28 January the Supreme Soviet of the self-styled Transnistrian republic ruled that by the start of the next academic year on 1 September 2004 all pre-university institutions teaching in the Romanian language will be closed down. The Transnistrian “education minister” said the move was necessary because none of the schools concerned abides by the Transnistrian education law, none has a licence for activity and “the ideology and contents of the humanities subjects taught in these schools do not fit the Transnistrian education policy.” Since the said schools are under the jurisdiction of the Moldovan Education Ministry, the latter has obtained a one month moratorium for legalising the status of these schools before the breakaway authorities proceed with closing them down.

At the same time, the Moldovan Ministry of Education called illegal the decision of the Transnistrian authorities, as the said schools have taught according to the Moldovan curriculum and have used the Latin alphabet since before the outbreak of the Transnistrian conflict. The Moldovan Ministry said the initiative of closing the schools is a flagrant violation of the rights of children and parents to an education in their native language.

Russian Consulate in Tiraspol

The Russian Ambassador to Moldova Yuri Zubakov reiterated during a meeting with representatives of the Russian community in Tiraspol Moscow’s readiness to open a Russian Consulate in Transnistria. According to Zubakov, Russia will not make such a move unless approved by the Moldovan authorities, who, he said, do not really have any political argument to oppose such a development.

We would like to remind our readers that in 2002 the Russian State Duma voted a decision instructing the Russian Government to consider opening a Russian consular body in Tiraspol. The Moscow diplomats still think the issue topical, given that about 60,000 Russian citizens currently live in Transnistria. The Chisinau authorities have opposed Moscow’s intentions, as they did any diplomatic contacts whatsoever with the secessionist authorities in Transnistria.

January 12–25, 2004 February 9–22, 2004