New abuses of Tiraspol representatives discussed at Joint Control Commission

Chisinau, 24 May /MOLDPRES/- During the yesterday meeting of the Joint Control Commission (JCC), the Moldovan delegation found other serious violations committed by alleged Transnistrian armed formations in the Security Zone contrary to the existing protocols and those agreed between heads of delegations, the Bureau for Reintegration has reported.

A first case concerns the unilateral installation of a Transnistrian border post in the perimeter of Pohrebea, instead of the "police”.

In the past, such a border guard post was in that location. However, following the efforts of our delegation, the issue was resolved on 16 February 2012, when the JCC decided to exclude the "border guard post”, and the control being under the responsibility of police and militia structures. Although the Transnistrian side claims that the changes were made in the context of reforms to transfer additional competencies to alleged border guards, the actions are contradictory to the acts in force.

Although both the Transnistrian delegation and the Russian Federation admitted that the issue should be discussed, at the current meeting they refused to include it in the agenda. Thus, this issue will be repeatedly proposed for consideration by the Moldovan delegation at the next meetings.

Another case of a violation of the Security Zone regime concerns the presence of military equipment and representatives of various military formations at the Tiras-2019 forum organized on the territory of the Dnestrovskie Zori camp on 16-18 May in Merenesti (locality with increased security regime).

Although Transnistrian media covered largely the event organized by “defense ministry”, including “military town” arranged, exhibition of weapons etc, Tiraspol delegation did not submit relevant information to the Commission, and not informed in advance about the intentions to carry out such an activity.

The issue was addressed by the members of the Moldovan delegation at the 14 May meeting of the working group at the OSCE headquarters in Bender. Therefore, the Transnistrian delegation was obliged to present at the next meeting the information on the incident in question.

An appeal was also made to the representatives of the OSCE, the Russian Federation and Ukraine, calling for intervention to ensure free movement in the Security Zone.

The request was made as a result of an abuse committed by the unconstitutional structures on the left bank of the Dniester River regarding the representatives of the Reintegration Policy Bureau. Thus, the officials of the institution, paying a working visit to the schools with teaching in Romanian from the Transnistrian region on 14 May, were stopped by the Transnistrian border guards at Dubasari post, making it similar procedures as applied to foreign citizens with limited “period of stay”.

During the meeting, the Joint Military Command reports were approved for 24-30 April, 1-7 May and 8-14 May, and candidacy of a military observer from the Russian Federation was approved.