Transnistrian Conflict on November 1–14, 2004

On 8–9 November, the Bulgarian town of Varna hosted a round of consultations between the Moldovan Reintegration Minister, Vasile Sova, and the head of the Transnistrian “foreign ministry”, Valeri Litkai, which was also attended by representatives of the mediators — OSCE, Russia and Ukraine. The consultations were convoked almost three months on since the official Chisinau suspended its participation in the five-sided negotiations mechanism by the OSCE CiO, Solomon Passy, Bulgarian Foreign Minister.

After the consultations, Minister Sova said it was premature to talk of the resumption of the negotiations, but reckoned the possibility of holding further consultations with Tiraspol. According to Sova, the Moldovan side put forward within the talks a series of proposals that would detention relations between Chisinau and Tiraspol, such as identifying mechanisms that would allow for a long-term functioning of the Moldovan Latin script schools, restoring the telephone connection between the two banks of Nistru River and removing all check points from the security zone that are not under the control of the Joint Control Commission.

At the same time, Sova showed disappointed by the results of consultations and accused the representatives of the mediators of passivity and lack of a consensus, which prevented the capitalisation of Chisinau’s “serious intentions” within the consultations. “We felt that the mediators lacked consensus and a shared position on promoting certain proposals with regard to the negotiations process”, Moldavskie Vedomosti quoted Sova as telling a press-conference on 12 November in Chisinau. On the same day he convoked a meeting with the EU and US ambassadors whom he told that the Varna talks had demonstrated the inefficiency of the five-sided format and the need to change it. Sova called upon the EU and the US to get more involved in the Transnistrian crisis settlement and encouraged the US, EU, Russia, Ukraine and Romania to support the Declaration on the Stability and Security of the Republic of Moldova so that it can be sighed at the OSCE Ministerial Summit to be held in December in Sofia.

The Tiraspol “foreign department”, on the other hand, published on 13 November a press statement on the Varna consultations on the web site of the official news agency Olvia-press, in which Tiraspol expressed its openness to “constructive cooperation on the principles of equality” with all participants in the five-sided negotiations mechanism. The statement said “the Varna consultations were not sufficient for reviving the Moldovan/Transnistrian dialogue … due to the unwillingness of the Moldovan side to resume the negotiations”. “Transnistria is alarmed, in the first place, at the fact that the frequent changes in the Moldovan politics have led to the situation where the position of the Republic of Moldova in Varna was totally confuse”, the statement read.

At the same time, the Russian Ambassador with Special Missions, Valeri Nesteruskin, was quoted by the Chisinau press as assessing as positive the fact that the Varna consultations were held, as they allowed the two parties to talk directly to each other. Nesteruskin expressed Moscow’s hope that new such talks will be held soon.

Meanwhile, the Tiraspol “supreme soviet” adopted on 3 November in the first reading the concept paper on the foreign policy of Transnistria, according to which Transnistria aspires to become a full fledged subject of international law and build its relations with other international law subjects on principles of equality. According to the concept paper, Transnistria’s position in the talks with Chisinau will be based on the principle of equality between the two parties and the agreements signed to date. One realistic method of overcoming misunderstandings with Chisinau could be setting up an “interstate association” with the Republic of Moldova that would not affect the sovereignty and independence of the two states and would presuppose a number of models, ranging from contractual federation to common state to unionist state.

In parallel, on 11 November the Tiraspol administration started the population census. The official news agency Olvia-press has informed that the census is being held without any outside financial help, and the obtained data will only be used in Transnistria. The census papers were prepared by the Kiev based branch of the German UBM Solutions Gmbh, experienced in holding censuses on Ukraine and Georgia. According to Basa-press, many Transnistrian residents who have already been questioned said that the census questionnaire contains questions related to the nationality, citizenship, spoken languages, etc., which makes analysts in Chisinau believe that the Transnistrian authorities will could use the results of the census to demonstrate the existence of a “Transnistrian people”, distinct from that of the Republic of Moldova.

The preliminary data of the census will be published in December 2004, and the final ones in approximately six months. The data will not be officially recognised by Chisinau because the Transnistrians have reused to allow international experts monitor the census. Earlier, the Tiraspol administration failed to come to an agreement with Chisinau to organise the census in Transnistria along with the census held in the Republic of Moldova on 5–12 October 2004. According to the last census, held in 1989, about 700,000 inhabitants lived in Transnistria.

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Transnistrian Conflict on November 1–14, 2004

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