Transnistrian Conflict on January 16–31, 2006

On 26–27 January 2006 in Tiraspol and Chisinau took place a new round of political negotiations on Transnistria in the “5+2” format, attended by representatives of the Moldovan and Transnistrian sides, the mediators on behalf of the OSCE, Russia and Ukraine, and observers on behalf of the US and the EU. The round ended on 27 January shortly before midnight with the signature of a joint protocol. The protocol stipulates among other things a series of temporary measures to be taken by the two sides in order to stabilise the situation near the Dorotcaia village in the security zone. These envisage that by 15 February the Transnistrian side will ensure the free access of Dorotcaia farmers to their land plots across the Grigoriopol — Camenca motorway, who will pay a tax worth 0.18 % of their production to the Transnistrian administration. In addition, the customs check point installed by the Transnistrian authorities near Dorotcaia village is to be replaced with a joint Moldovan-Transnistrian police check point. Other provisions of the final protocol welcome the proposals presented by the OSCE regarding the deployment of an international mission to assess the situation in Transnistria in view of the organisation of democratic elections in the region and state the readiness of the Transnistrian side to continue consultations with the mediators on passing data about its military and weapons to the Moldovan side as part of a package of confidence building measures proposed by the OSCE last summer. The protocol provides for the next round of negotiations to take place on 27–28 February.

One of the key subjects discussed during the negotiations round was the implementation of the joint Moldovan-Ukrainian statement of 30 December 2005 regarding the unification of customs procedures at the Moldovan-Ukrainian border. During the negotiations, the Ukrainian side presented its official decision to suspend the said measures, which were to enter into force from 25 January, and proposed to conduct on 31 January consultations with the Moldovan side, experts and representatives of the Transnistrian businesses on the practical implementation of agreed measures. We would like to remind that according to the reached agreement, the Ukrainian side engaged to allow through the Moldovan-Ukrainian border only those Transnistrian goods that would be accompanied by documents bearing Moldovan customs stamps and certificates of origin issued by the Moldovan authorities. In exchange, the Moldovan authorities engaged to facilitate the registration of Transnistrian businesses in Moldova. According to the Moldovan side, these measures were aimed at regulating the flow of goods over the Moldovan-Ukrainian border and preventing smuggling activities at the border. At the same time, the Transnistrian side qualified these measures as yet another economic blockade on behalf of Chisinau, and reserved the right to withdraw from the negotiations process should these be applied. The Russian Federation, in the person of its special representative at the negotiations process, Valeri Nesteruskin, showed concern as well regarding the Moldovan-Ukrainian statement and warned that the negotiations process may not proceed normally when economic, force and other pressure is applied. In the end, on 25 January, when the said measures were to enter into force, Ukraine declared that it postpones their fulfilment subject to clarification of their “practical impact”.

William Hill, Head of the OSCE Mission in Moldova, showed very sceptical regarding the results of the negotiations round. “The talks are proceeding slowly. On every subject, each party has its own view, which is radically different from the view of the other party,” Hill told journalists at the end of talks. According to him, one of the most difficult subjects has been that of organising democratic elections in Transnistria, as provided for in the Yushcenco plan, and foresaid “big difficulties” related to how this could happen in practice. In what regards the application of unified Moldovan-Ukrainian customs procedures, Hill said that these will not harm anybody as long as they correspond to existing international standards.

The Moldovan representative at negotiations, the Moldovan Reintegration Minister, Vasile Sova, showed unhappy with the results of the negotiations round and expressed concern that this third round of negotiations in extended format, like the two previous ones, “has failed to adopt any decision, all issues were postponed, committees and working groups that produce no results were created”.

On the other hand, the representative of Tiraspol, “foreign minister” Valeri Litcai, showed happy with the results of the talks, in particular Ukraine’s decision to postpone the application of joint Moldovan-Ukrainian customs procedures.

According to independent observers in Chisinau, this negotiations round, like the two previous rounds held in October and December 2005, basically concluded with no result. This has shown once more the inefficiency of the current negotiations format, and it seems that the presence of observers on behalf of the US and EU has not been of much help in circumstances where the two sides are on diametrically different positions and cannot reach compromise solutions not even on very practical issues, such as the resumption of the activity of the Joint Control Commission.

e-democracy.md

Transnistrian Conflict on January 16–31, 2006

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