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Transnistrian Conflict on February 23 – March 14, 2004
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e-journal #26 |
Mediators meeting in Belgrade
On 24 and 25 February the mediators from the OSCE, the Russian Federation and Ukraine met in Belgrade to discuss the comments of the Moldovan and Transnistrian sides on the settlement plan prepared by the mediators last autumn. The mediators agreed to request the Transnistrian side to submit more detailed proposals on the plan and to hold separate talks with the two sides in the next few weeks. During a series of consequent separate consultations with the Moldovan and Transnistrian sides, the mediators agreed to hold a new round of three-sided talks on 24 and 25 March. By that time it is expected that the Transnistria side will present its detailed written proposals on the plan developed under the OSCE aegis last autumn. The Transnistrian earlier said they would do this after the presidential elections in Russian on 14 March.
Commemoration
A series of commemoration events of the victims of the spring-summer 1992 Transnistria war took place in Moldova starting 2 March, the day which marked the 12th anniversary of the start of the military hostilities on the Nistru River. The official message of commemoration released by the Prime Minister Vasile Tarlev read: “Let the patriotism and heroism of those who fought for the independence and integrity of our motherland inspire us in our daily efforts at reintegration … and let the tragic events of the spring 1992 never repeat”. Other commemoration events included church services, deposition of flowers to war monuments and meetings of the veterans of the 1992 war.
Local commentators have noted the duplicity of the position of the ruling party with regard to the events of 1992. While traditionally they account for the 1992 military clash as one driven by “extremist” motives, they still have to put up with calling the combatants “defenders of the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Moldova”.
During the commemoration week, the latter, in the person of Ilie Ilascu, former Moldovan detainee in Tiraspol, and currently senator in the Parliament of Romania, put forward an ultimatum to the Transnistrian authorities to free the rest of Moldovan detainees by 1 May, or they will use all means to free the imprisoned themselves. According to a series of unprecedented revelations made by Ilascu, he and his colleagues should be regarded as prisoners of war as during the 1992 events they were recruited by the Moldovan secret services and given orders to “eliminate the enemy.” A trial is under way at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, which is to pronounce by the end of April a verdict on the “Ilascu versus Moldova and Russia” case, whereby among other things Ilascu accuses Russia of aggression on Moldova in 1992.
Russian weapons
During a visit to Moscow and Chisinau on 3–4 March, the assistant of the US State Secretary for Arms Control, Stephen G. Rademaker, said that the US will not ratify the Treaty on Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) unless Russia fulfils its commitments to withdraw its weapons from Georgia and Moldova.
“If CFE is indeed as important to Russia as it says it is, then Moscow need to find the ways to cancel the Transnistrian debt and to get to an agreement with Georgia”, Rademaker was quoted by Basa-press as saying. He also mentioned that the withdrawal of Russian troops from Georgia and Moldova is of special importance to the US.
These statements followed a series of statements by Russian officials that Russia might request the re-negotiations of the CFE treaty in light of the recent transformations in the politico-military situation in Europe.
On the other hand, the ad interim Russia Defence Minister Serghei Ivanov said on 5 March in Paris during the Russia-France Council on Cooperation and Security that Russia makes all efforts to honour its commitments to withdraw its troops from Georgia and Moldova. “Often the fate of CFE is related to the Istanbul agreements. Russia does everything to keep to those agreements, in the way they have been articulated”, Ivanov was quoted as saying by Russian media.
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