Moldova: Eleven years toward re-integration

The United Control Commission issued a special statement in connection with the eleventh anniversary of the entry of the joint peacekeeping forces in the Transdniestrian district of Moldova (the territory on the left bank of the Dniester with primarily Russian-speaking population at the beginning of the 1990s unilaterally announced its secession from Moldova whose leadership at that time, headed by Mircha Snegur, proclaimed a policy towards close rapprochement with Romania).

The statement says in part that the peacekeeping operation which was conducted since July 1992 made it possible to overcome the consequences of the war between the two parts of Moldova and positively influenced the stabilisation of the situation.

"In the past period it has become possible not only to preserve peace and tranquillity but also to create real guarantees for economic activity, political measures and for negotiations between the sides at all levels," says the document.

The security zone along the Dniester is controlled today round the clock by peacekeeping units of Russia, Moldova and Transdniestria and also by military observers from Russia, Ukraine, Moldova and Transdniestria.

The number of the peacekeepers in the security zone has dropped from 5,000 in 1992 to one thousand at the present time.