Tiraspol's illegal "border guards' posts" continue blocking free movement in Security Zone

Chisinau, 19 July /MOLDPRES/ - The Transnistrian delegation blocked the consideration of a petition on the tense situation, emerged in the wake of the setting of additional “border guards posts” in the Security Zone, at a meeting of the Joint Control Commission (JCC) on 18 July, the Reintegration Policies Bureau has reported.   

It is relevant that the repeated constructive proposal by Russia’s delegation to start an analysis on this subject, backed, as a matter of fact, by the delegations of Moldova, OSCE Mission and Ukraine, was groundlessly turned down by the Transnistrian delegation.   

The Moldovan delegation warned that a risk of escalation of the situation was persisting during three months already, for reason of the refusal to examine the issue, through the light of the existing decisions.

The participants in the meeting also tackled the topic on the Transnistrian border guard structures, the presence of which in the Security Zone is contrary to the provisions of the basic acts, with the subject expressed by the Russian delegation too.  

The double standards used by the Transnistrian delegation at the enforcement of protocols became obvious at the hearing of the report of the Joint Military Command for 10-16 July 2019 on the situation in the Security Zone, where the fact of abusive placement of a mobile patrol of Transnistrian “border guards” in the Bender city was covered. Thus, in certain cases, the superior military chief on behalf of this patrol accepts the carrying out of the work of military observers under the protocol No 828 and if the resorting to this protocol led to the showing of the infringements consciously committed by the Transnistrian side, the concerned delegation categorically refuses the act’s enforcement. The report’s approval was postponed given the opposing by Tiraspol representatives.    

In the context of the systematic abuses committed by the Transnistrian border guards troops in relation to Moldova’s citizens, the Moldovan delegation made an appeal to all components of JCC to boost efforts, in order to remove any restrictions of the right to movement.   

In terms of organization, it is worth mentioning that Antti Karttunen was confirmed member of the representation of the OSCE Mission in the Commission.