“OLVIA-PRESS”

INCIDENTS ON THE PEACEKEEPERS’ CHECKPOINT ARE PROVOKED BY THE POLICE OF MOLDOVA

As the press agency “Olvia-press” has already informed, at the last sitting of the Joint control commission, there was an especially acute discussion of the problem of incident at the peacekeeping forces checkpoint, dislocated on the right bank of the Dniester near the living area Vadul-luy-Vode. The press agency correspondent addressed the JCC Chairman from Dniestria Oleg Gudymo with request to relate about the process and investigation results of that case.

- Mr. Gudymo, the JCC member from the RM Ministry of internal affairs, police colonel Silvio Organa, and the JCC member from the DMR Ministry of internal affairs, militia colonel Vasily Kalko have been given a message to investigate that fact, so what is the end?

- Unlike the previous sitting, the given incident has found its reflection in the Joint military command report. Maybe that’s why its discussion was under rather constructive way. The JCC member from the RM MIA, police colonel Silvio Organa reported the representatives of all the JCC parties that the car, which had hit down two militaries of the peacekeeping forces at the PF checkpoint #9 (the right one) at night of August 18^th to 19^th, and escaped the incident place, has been identified. As the Joint peacekeeping forces militaries have informed (they had been on post at that time), its driver had turned out to be a policemen of Moldova as well as the retained-during-the-incident passenger of the escaped car. By declaration of the Moldavian side, the prosecutor’s office of Kishinev had brought a penal case by that fact; by results of its investigation the Joint control commission would be informed. Simultaneously, by the JCC decision, at all posts and checkpoints of the joint peacekeeping forces, the Joint military command will take measures for providing security of the PF militaries dislocated there. If these measures are also insufficient, the Dniestrian side will insist on reinstalling ‘chains’ from Ferro-concrete blocks and other engineer constructions.

- And how do the injured militaries – the peacekeepers from the checkpoint #9 – feel?

- Fortunately, wounds and leg injures of the hit Dniestrian peacekeeper appeared not to be dangerous, and he had already been discharged from hospital. As for the Russian peacekeeper, his armored waistcoat and good physical shape saved him from serious traumas. The car of law-breaker has dragged him on asphalt for over a hundred meters; as the Russian peacekeeping contingent commander colonel A.Zverev said, the armored waistcoat had been torn into pieces, and the fighter escaped with few scratches.

- Which questions caused acute discussions at the latest JCC sitting on August 28^th?

- That time we managed to avoid disputes. Acute questions just were not included into the agenda. It was also connected with the fact that all co-chairmen were absent. Oleg Astakhov, the representative of Russia, that day was involved into the next round of the quanta-lateral negotiations. Vladimir Bodnar, from the Dniestrian side, finishes its vacations, and Gheorghe Roman, from the Moldavian side, resigned from office because of health conditions. At the same time, the Joint military command when reporting draw the parties’ attention at the new incident, which had taken place in the evening of August 23^rd again at the checkpoint #9, on the right side of the bridge over the Dniester. And again the drunk policemen from Kishinev provoked. They committed a car accident in the checkpoint territory, made a conflict with an employee of the Moldavian road police arrived for investigation, they threatened both the road policemen and peacekeepers with reprisal. The outraged Kishinev policemen called the same drunk persons for help. These persons had soon arrived in two cars, and also represented themselves as policemen. In order to prevent escalation of the conflict between them and the arrived staff of the road police, the senior of the peacekeepers’ post had to order ‘To fight!’, by which the personnel stood in defensive, and called military observers. The road policemen also called a group of the non-departmental guards. Only after that, the ‘friends’ of the law-breakers arrived in two cars hurried up to leave the post territory, and the car accident makers were taken to the police commissariat of the living area Vadul-luy-Vode for further investigation.

- But it can be also called an incident, which may have ended unpredictably …

- The Dniestrian side has appreciated that event this very way. But we did not draw the JCC attention at discussion of that fact, because the Moldavian side in face of the RM MIA representative in the JCC, police colonel Silvio Organa, has assured us that at the next sitting it would inform the Joint control commission about results of the investigation with participants of that incident. At the same time, we have ground to suppose that incidents at the PF checkpoint #9 situated on the Right Bank maybe a goal of preliminarily provocation directed at liquidation of that post. I’ll remind you that in summer 2001, the Moldavian side insisted in its liquidation, and later having failed its aspiration, in unilateral way, having roughly violated the JCC decisions, took its peacekeepers away (there were two of them). It disbalanced the existed regime of holding service and might have caused negative consequences. To avoid it, the Dniestrian side reestablished the normal number of the militaries by sending of two more Dniestrian peacekeepers. In fact, that post thus turned from a trilateral (as fixed by the JCC decision) into a bilateral – Russian-Dniestrian – one. Then the Moldavian side, unwilling to return its peacekeepers to the post, insisted on removal of the Ferro-concrete blocks, which consisted the so-called ‘chain’ and efficiently provided security of the peacekeepers controlling car traffic over the bridge. Absence of the blocks on the road immediately caused drivers’ mass violations of the traffic rules, and for several times increased the risk for health and life of the peacekeepers on the post. For numerous times we have raised the question of reinstalling the ‘chains’ or of taking other measures for providing security of the PF militaries, however the Moldavian side was constantly pedaling our proposals. And I have already told you what it had caused at the checkpoint #9 (the right one) at night of August 18^th to 19^th and in the evening of August 23^rd 2002. I’d like to remind you that this spring, in the widely known case with the deputy of the Parliament of Moldova Vlad Cubreacov, the organizers of that mysteriuos kidnapping and not less mysterious release had also chosen namely that bridge over the Dniester, which was as well controlled by the PF checkpoint #9! As if he had been brought through that bridge from Koshnitsa enclave, which was situated on the Left Bank but under jurisdiction of Moldova. Why ‘as if’? Because the personnel of the post did not fix the transportation of Cubreacov! That time the Dniestrian side offered creation of the working group consisting of the law-keeping bodies’ representatives in the JCC for investigation of that case because Cubreacov had appeared in the security zone, and had been withdrawn by the police from there. But the Moldavian side percept this rather logical supposition very negatively. Evidently they had what to conceal from the JCC. The situation around the peacekeeping forces checkpoint #9 on the right bank of the Dniester concerns us much. But we’ll hope that the Moldavian side would take proper measures for preventing such incidents in perspective.

August 30^th 2002.