Degrading situation in Security Zone in focus of Joint Control Commission

Chisinau, 16 July /MOLDPRES/ - The illegal posts which appeared in the Security Zone on the period of the emergency state are set with the infringement of the provisions of the Moldovan-Russian 1992 ceasefire agreement and in this respect, they jeopardize more and more the balance of forces in the Security Zone. At the same time, these posts seriously hit the free movement of citizens and eventually compromise the peacekeeping operation among the residents from both banks of Dniester. Chisinau will maintain its trenchant position on the illegal posts till the moment when they are removed, reads a declaration by Moldova’ Delegation, spread at a today’s meeting of the Joint Control Commission , the Reintegration Policies Bureau has reported.    

An essential element for de-tensioning the situation in the Security Zone is the de-blocking of the work of the military observers. In this respect, Tiraspol’s representatives demand the inspection of the penitentiaries subordinated to the National Administration of Penitentiaries, placed for tens of years in Bender, but they categorically reject the documentation of the illegal posts through the provisions of the basic documents of the peacekeeping operation.      

The defiance by Tiraspol of these documents, which put an end to the combat actions on the banks of Dniester, is boundless. To preserve the illegal posts, the Transnistrian representatives in the Commission do not agree either with the carrying out of a complex analysis of the current situation in the Security Zone, as a result of the setting of the so-called ‘’border guards,’’ or with proposal to consider the work of the Joint Military Command starting from 12 March 2020.  

We remind that, given that the military observers are hindered from exercising their powers, Moldova’s Delegation has earlier proposed a more intense involvement of representatives of the OSCE Mission in Moldova in the monitoring of the Security Zone, just as the principles of cooperation between the OSCE Mission in Moldova and the Joint Control Commission establish.  

At the meeting, the OSCE Mission’s representatives informed about the fixing of ‘’border guards’’ posts between the villages Roghi and Cocieri, as well as at the outskirts of the Bender city, nearby the railway station. The information unveiled hugely bothered the Transnistrian representatives, who tried to deny the mandate of this organization.    

The participants in the meeting also discussed the conditions of carrying out the service at the post No 9 of the Peacekeeping Forces, placed nearby the Vadul lui Voda town. Moldova’s delegation speaks out for the improvement of these conditions and asked to take over the administrative powers over the post, so that the authorities can finance the works necessary. The Transnistrian side further politicizes the issue and sees the need to strengthen the post, in order to resist the ‘’pressure of fighters.’’ The decision on the subject was postponed.  

At the same time, the Commission members approved a career military, Defence Ministry’s representative Iurie Briceag as expert with permanent status within Moldova’s Delegation.