Joint Control Commission rules to facilitate movement of residents from two banks of Dniester on Easter holidays

Chisinau, 6 April /MOLDPRES/ - An ordinary meeting of the Joint Control Commission (JCC), chaired by Moldova’s delegation, took place in the Bender city on 5 April, the Reintegration Policies Bureau has reported.    

At a proposal by the Russian delegation, the participants in the meeting confirmed lieutenant-colonel Yury Grushkevych and major Rinat Sadriev as military observers. 

The OSCE Mission in Moldova introduced its representative in JCC, adviser in human rights sector Ruslan Abdulayev.

Representatives of the OSCE Mission in Moldova informed the JCC components about the intention to pay a fact-collecting visit to the posts of the Joint Peacekeeping Forces placed in the Security Zone, Joint Military Command and General Staff of the joint peacekeeping formations on 1-30 April 2018, as well as to organize a training for peacekeepers on the use of earlier provided technical means.  

The Joint Military Command presented the weekly report on the situation in the Security Zone and a report on the state of the peacekeeping posts in the Security Zone on the first quarter of this year.    

In the context of the Holy Easter Holidays and commemorating the dead, Moldova’s Delegation submitted a petition to all JCC components to facilitate, on 6-17 April 2018, the free movement of residents from the two banks of Dniester and contribute, on the concerned period, to ensuring public order in the Security Zone jointly with the peacekeeping forces.   

On the same day, Russia’s delegation to JCC initiated an unordinary meeting of the Commission to continue discussions on issues of the reopening of the movement on the bridge across the Dniester nearby the villages Gura Bacului and Bacioc.  

Moldova’s delegation came up with an appeal on ensuring free movement on this bridge.

Thus, in the interest of strengthening the trust measures, the Moldovan side suggests that the mechanism of free and safe movement on this bridge be ensured exclusively by the servicemen of the Joint Peacekeeping Forces and the joint strengths of the road traffic militia and National Patrol Inspectorate. The implementation of this mechanism will mean removal of the so-called “border guards, customs and migration posts”, abusively established by the Transnistrian bodies.   

For the time being, the other components avoided giving their opinions on the proposal by the Moldovan delegation.

The next JCC meeting will be held on 12 April 2018.