[Info-Prim Neo article from the Series “Moldova-20! Whereto?”] [Each of the 20 years of independence in Moldova has its meaning and role in what happened in the period and, undoubtedly, in what is going to happen in the country and the people’s lives in the future. Info-Prim Neo asked politicians, analysts, experts and personalities from different areas to pronounce on the main events that took place during a certain year and assess their impact on the country.] [The year 1992 as seen by Oazu Nantoi, political analyst, program director at the Public Policy Institute] • [January 30] – Moldova became an OSCE member. • [February 15] – The Christian Democratic People’s Front was created. • [March 2] – Moldova joined the UN. • [March 2] – Moldovan police forces clashed with the Transnistrian militia in Dubasari and Cocieri. The beginning of the military conflict on the Nistru River. • [March 20]– The heads of states from CIS approved in Kiev the Declaration regarding the situation in Moldova’s districts on the left bank of the Nistru River. • [April 1] – Russian President Boris Yeltsin signed Decree No. 320, according to which the units of the former 14th Army stationed in Moldova come under the jurisdiction of the Russian Federation. • [May 5] – Moldova became a member of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. • [May 26] – The referendum law was adopted. • [June 19-22] – Troops of the Ministry of the Interior clashed with the separatist militia supported by the 14th Russian Army in Tighina (Bender). • [July 1] – The ceasefire agreement on the Nistru conflict was signed. • [July 21] – Presidents of Moldova and Russia, Mircea Snegur and Boris Yeltsin, signed the Treaty on the Principles of the Peaceful Settlement of the Transnistrian Conflict. • [July 28] – Moldova joined the World Bank. • [July 29– August 3] – Peacemaking troops were introduced in the Transnistrian conflict area. • [August 1] – The Moldovan troops and Transnistrian separatist militia withdraw from Tighina (Bender); • [August 12] – Moldova became a member of the International Monetary Fund. • [September 14] – The Metropolitan Church of Bessarabia was founded, but will be registered only on July 30, 2002. • [October 5] – The Metropolitan Church of Moldova obtained large autonomy within the Russian Orthodox Church. • [December 8] – The law regarding the rehabilitation of the victims of political repression (November 7, 1917- June 23, 1990). [According to the political analyst and program director of the Institute of Public Policies, Oazu Nantoi,] the Moscow Putsch on August 1991 was the final blow to the idea of maintaining the USSR, even as an independent community as Gorbaciov proposed. However, the collapse of USSR aggravated the situation in Moldova’s eastern districts. The regime on the left bank of the Nistru was created to maintain Moldova in the USSR, but as the latter collapsed, it decided to take a more radical path and was backed by Russia. “In this regard we should keep in mind a few events. On April 1, 1992, the Russian president, Boris Eltin, signs the decree 320, which brought the former 14th Army, stationed in Moldova, under Russian jurisdiction. This conflicted with the Moldova president Mircea Snegur’s military decree. Between April 6 and 17, the foreign ministers of Russia, Ukraine, Romania and Moldova met in Chisinau. The results of these meetings were a series of documents regulating the peaceful settlement of the Transnistrian conflict according to international law and respecting Moldova’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. In June 1992, the Moldovan Parliament, with the participation of MPs elected on the left bank of the Nistru, approved in July the documents creating the juridical framework for the peaceful settlement of the conflict”, recalls the political analyst. “This positive evolution of the situation, including the internalization of the conflict and Romania’s involvement wasn’t to Russia’s liking, so the Russian secret services organized a provocation on June 19, 1992, and the Moldovan authorities took the bait. I mean the clashes in Bender, when Moldova tried to defend its territorial integrity through armed forces. The Russian Federation engaged in the conflict and committed an act of aggression against Moldova. Thos who don’t believe me should read the definition of “aggression” approved on December 14, 1974, by the UN General Assembly. There is such a document that available until today”, explained Oazu Nantoi. According to him, Moldova’s government failed to evaluate the situation after the Russian military aggression and was drawn into the provocation on June 19, which lead to a political and military defeat by the Russian Federation and the regime created by Moscow on the left bank of the Nistru. The document signed on July 21 by Boris Eltin and Mircea Snegur put Moldova in a disadvantageous position from the very beginning. Oazu Nantoi says that document validated the presence of Russian troops in Transnistria and imposed the current format of peacekeeping, which is unfavorable for Moldova. The Joint Control Commission was created, but Moldova is always in minority, added the expert. “Moldova’s defeat led to a change of government as Andrei Sangheli returned as Prime Minister. The national patriotic wing suffered a defeat and the agrarian wing of the Communists came into power through the Democratic Agrarian Party”, said Nantoi. The expert regrets that the Moldovan political class can’t have a common, coherent and responsible attitude and isn’t able to come up with a realistic solution for the conflict in the eastern districts because they are afraid to make the diagnosis of the Transnistrian problem. “We aren’t citizens of this country if we are to judge by common visions, patriotism or national ideas. Moldova remains a territory artificially divided by political parties that maintain the scissions in order to keep their positions on the political arena. If we look back on all these years, we see that there are many criteria of evaluation. Some try to measure these years in money, in pensions, salaries or by the amount of reckless theft that takes place in Moldova”, says Oazu Nantoi. Oazu Nantoi is confident that those truly strong, with character and intellectual potential, can assert themselves in Moldova, because today they don’t need the party stamp to travel, study or reach professional fulfillment. “It’s another issue that our freedoms are so fragile. As a result of our incapacity to follow the examples of other countries that joined the EU, we need visas wherever we go. Our very pro-European governing alliance fails to keep up the necessary pace for obtaining the visa regime liberalization for Moldovans. We have never had a government to understand Moldova’s problems as a whole, to regard them as steps for building a functional and democratic state where people would feel comfortable. Nothing changes overnight. The most difficult is to change the mentality. But there are some changes and the strongest can assert themselves. I’m happy for them”, said Oazu Nantoi. {Oazu Nantoi is a program director at the Institute of Public Policies and expert in the Transnistrian problem. Since 1990, he has been deputy leader of the Social-Democratic Party until 1998, when he was elected party leader. In 2000 he was PSDM’s presidential candidate. In 2004, he withdrew for a couple of years in 2004, before joining the Democratic Party in 2007. The same year, he became a municipal councilor in Chisinau. He has been head of the Inter-department Commission for Coordinating State Policies in localities on the left bank of the Nistru. In 1991-1991, he was head of the Political Analysis Division of the President’s Office. In 1990-1991, he was deputy director general of the official press agency Moldova-Press.} [Dumitrita Ciuvaga, Info-Prim Neo]