Joint Control Commission holds weekly meeting in Bender

Chisinau, 15 February /MOLDPRES/ - The participants in a 13 February meeting of the Joint Control Commission (JCC) continued discussions on taking attitude towards the illegal actions of the Transnistrian side to strengthen the presence of the ‘’border guards’’ in the Security Zone, the Reintegration Policies Bureau has reported.

Moldova’s delegation insisted on the settlement of the concerned problems with the identification of a viable and efficient mechanism of monitoring and improving the situation. Although Russia’s delegation repeatedly proposed to include the subject on the verification and comprehensive analysis of the state of things in the Security Zone, following the extension of the powers and number of the so-called ‘’mobile posts’ of the ‘’border guards’’ troops, a decision to this effect was not adopted and the initiative was repeatedly turned down only by the Tiraspol representatives.   

Yet, the problem grows and Moldova’s delegation gave example through the case which took place on the night to 2 February 2020, when a mobile post of armed ‘’border guards’’ pursued a truck loaded with scrap iron up to the entrance into the Chircaiesti village, which was moving on the route Copanca-Chisinau.   

The commission returned also the aforementioned issue in a 6 February petition of the Moldovan delegation. The petition brought to the knowledge of the sides the discontent of the citizens from the villages of Cosnita, Parata, Dorotcaia and Pohrebea with the way the posts of the Joint Peacekeeping Forces placed nearby the Vadul lui Voda settlement on the Dniester river bank work. Moldova’s delegation did not refer to an eventual ‘’elimination’’ of the peacekeepers from the Security Zone, with emphasis put on the carrying out of changes in the organization of these posts, which would optimize the free movement of the residents and would diminish the risk of escalation of the situation in the central segment of the Security Zone. 

The participants in the meeting decided that the issue would be considered in limited format by the co-heads of the Commission, representatives of the OSCE Mission and Ukraine in JCC on 18 February. 

Nevertheless, Tiraspol’s representatives started in the media a torrent of insinuations, in order to harm the image of the Moldovan side in the Commission, using this occasion to launch thoughtless urges to actions which could surely unbalance and destabilize the situation in the zone of competence of the Joint Peacekeeping Forces.  

The participants in the meeting approved the report of the Joint Military Command on the situation in the Security Zone on 5-11 February and managed to find a consensus formula on the report for the period 9-15 October 2019, which was in the focus of the Commission during almost 4 months.