Joint Control Commission holds weekly meeting in Bender

Chisinau, 14 April /MOLDPRES/ - The 14 April meeting of the Joint Control Commission started in Bender with a delay of about two hours, the Reintegration Policies Bureau has reported.  

The reason for the delay was triggered by the so-called ‘’border guards’’ subordinated to Tiraspol, who groundlessly stopped the vehicle of Moldova’s delegation at the entrance in Bender, abusively claimed that the delegation member present their papers and the car for ‘’control’’, intending to carry out a verification of the vehicle. The ‘’border guards’’ refused to present themselves.  

Moldova’s delegation demanded the urgent coming on the spot of the  group of military observers of the Joint Peacekeeping Forces, who documented the incident and Chisinau’s representatives were able to move to the place where the meeting was held.  

The Moldovan delegation condemns the abuses committed by the Tiraspol power-wielding forces, illegally deployed in the Bender district with enhanced security regime, which will be discussed at the meeting due next week.  

As for the JCC meeting, it has a simple agenda, without new subjects, and the participants approved the report of the Joint Military Command on the situation in the Security Zone for 6-12 April 2022 and two military observers on behalf of Russia were confirmed in office.       

At the same time, Moldova’s delegation asked for explanations from the Transnistrian representatives in JCC about the situation of journalist Vladimir Soloviov, correspondent of the Russian publication Kommersant and editor-in-chief of NewsMaker.md, whom several unidentified persons today morning, till the arrival of the Moldovan delegation, took out of the building where the JCC meetings take place and carried him in an unknown direction. As it is known, the journalist was to make interviews with the JCC members. The Transnistrian delegation answered defiantly that it knew nothing and it must gather evidence.      

Moldova’s delegation is deeply concerned about these illegal actions of the Tiraspol power-wielding forces against media representatives, with the case due to be investigated by law-enforcers, in line with the national legislation.

At the meeting, the Moldovan delegation spread to the JCC participants an addressing signed on the eve, thereby elucidating a string of destructive actions of Tiraspol representatives in JCC. The addressing reads about the latter’s insistences to distort the Commission’s work, imposing a political agenda and ignoring the basic acts of the peacekeeping operation at Dniester.  

Moldova’s delegation called on the representatives of Russia, Ukraine, OSCE Mission, delegated to the Joint Control Commission, to contribute to the orientation of efforts of the participants in the peacekeeping mechanism towards constructive measures, due to strengthen the trust between the sides within the dialogue established.