Monitoring→Politics→Transnistrian Conflict

The OSCE Chairman in Office will visit Moldova, Ukraine

On 24 May in Brussels took place a round of consultations of the representatives of mediators on behalf of the OSCE, Russia and Ukraine and the observers on behalf of the US on Transnistria, convoked at the initiative of the OSCE Chairman in Office, Belgium’s Foreign Minister, Carol de Gught, on the eve of his visit to Moldova and Ukraine this week.

According to a communique of the Russian Foreign Ministry, the participants in the consultations discussed the current situation and prospects of settling the Transnistrian conflict, the possibilities of resuming the negotiations process in the “5+2” format, and reaffirmed their readiness to restore trust between the two parties with a view to identifying a comprehensive and lasting solution to the Transnistrian problem.

De Gucht will visit Moldova on 31 May — 1 June, during which time he will also visit the military unit of the mixed peace keeping forces in Bender and will meet with the Commandment of the peacekeeping operation. On 1 June the OSCE official will meet with the Ukrainian and Moldovan Foreign Ministers at the border cross point Kuciurgan-Pervomaisk on the Transnistrian sector of the Moldovan-Ukrainian border. On 2 June, De Gught will meet with Ukraine’s President Viktor Yushcenko.

Chatham House hosts conference on Transnistria

On 24 May in London took place the international conference “Ways of solving the Moldovan-Transnistrian conflict: Views from the two Banks of Nistru River”, organised by the London based Royal Institute of international Affairs (Chatham House). The conference was attended by representatives of Moldova, mediators and observers in the Transnistrian settlement process. Among the invitees featured the Speaker of the Transnistrian “Parliament”, Evghenii Sevciuc, who could not travel to London because he is one of the 17 Transnistrian leaders banned to travel to the EU. To allow the Transnistrian official to express his views, the organisers tried to establish a video link with Tiraspol. Due to technical problems, the video link only lasted 20 minutes, following which Sevciuk organised a press conference.

“We are in principle ready to examine the proposals regarding the re-election of the Supreme Soviet if the international community would guarantee in the conditions of a certain procedure the organisation of a referendum in Transnistria…The problem is not in who governs, the problem is that the population does not reunification with Moldova. We have to look for other ways. One such way is to organise under international monitoring, preferably of the UN, a referendum in Transnistria”, Sevciuk said at the press conference on 24 May, quoted by Regnum.ru.

According to Sevciuk, “the two banks must come to an agreement, but without dictat, pressures or blackmail, which the official Chisinau is using today against Transnistria”. “The unification of the two banks cannot take place only on the basis of political efforts from outside, if the idea is not accepted by the people”, added Sevciuk.

The Russian News Agency published excerpts from the speech that Evghenii Sevciuk prepared for the London Conference. In his speech, Sevciuk, was to propose his own vision of taking the Yushcenko plan forward, a model that he called “through referendum to elections, through elections to stability”. The model envisages the creation of an international monitoring group under UN aegis, which would prepare and monitor a referendum that would determine if the Transnistrian inhabitants want to be part of Moldova as an autonomy. Depending on the results of the referendum, the sides would create either a union state or Transnistria will join Moldova as an autonomy. Whichever the scenario, during the implementation of the settlement roadmap the p[arties will abstain from any pressure and will ensure the free exercise of economic activity, including Transnistria’s right to establish direct economic ties with the EU, Ukraine and Russia.

On the other hand, on 24 May the “Supreme Soviet” from Tiraspol voted in the first reading a draft law regarding the annulment of the Decision “Regarding the creation of the Moldovan Confederation” adopted by the Transnistrian “parliament” in 1993. The draft law was passed at the initiative of the Transnistrian leader Igor Smirnov. The “Speaker” Sevciuk stated that the “Supreme Soviet” will soon annul a series of other acts adopted in 2003 with regard to the drafting and adoption of a joint federal constitution with the Moldovan side.

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