A war cannot be a solution to any conflict, and the 1992 Nistru war could have been prevented had the Moldovan security and law enforcement services exerted a stricter control, thinks Sergiu Caracai, the leader of the National Military Volunteers' Union. “The conflict that occurred in Moldova at that time could have not existed had the Moldovan authorities done their job right. The intelligence and the police should have acted more effectively, especially since the national army wasn't formed yet. From the very beginning, they should have controlled the KGB's actions that aimed at separating Moldova”, says Sergiu Caracai. “The Nistru conflict is not an issue with Transnistria, but with Russia. The conflict should not be settled with those bandits from the eastern side of the Nistru. In Transnistria, it is actually Russia that is in command, it has the 14th army stationed there, and the local authorities are just marionettes. Smirnov is a nobody, and if the Kremlin so wishes, it can remove him immediately and put somebody else in his stead. There can be no democracy there, or anything of the sort, or fair elections”. Being born on the eastern side of the Nistru, Sergiu Caracai felt it was his obligation to volunteer into the Moldovan troops when the conflict erupted. “My heart told me the country was in danger, that it needed us to save it from the, largely foreign, enemy”. According to him, today, almost two decades after the Nistru war, the military volunteers live with memories, regrets and very little support from the state. “Now we have come to understand that we were used by the state authorities. Not until the present day are we formally recognized as military volunteers. We have requested the recognition of this status for years, but when the authorities refuse us, we understand that we were used. We replaced then the yet-to-be-formed National Army, volunteering at the call of the government to defend our country.” “All we want now is a formal recognition, we don't want to continue being 'bandits', as some like to call us. Earlier, we received a reply to our request from the Moldovan Academy of Sciences, which said that we the volunteers were 'alien persons' in our own country. This is how our scholars interpreted the concept of 'volunteer', equating it with that of a 'foreign mercenary'. This is why we want a Law that recognizes us, that recognizes our deeds. We also want June 19 to be proclaimed Memorial Day for all those who suffered in the war, because eight in ten men who fought in the 1992 war (on the Moldovan side) were volunteers. Many of them lost their lives and everything in that war, and now they don't even get the deserved acknowledgment”, complained Sergiu Caracai. On Sunday, June 19, military volunteers and other Nistru war veterans will hold wreath laying ceremonies to mark the battle for Tighina, which started today nineteen years ago.