Employees at Varnita harbor want peacekeepers out of facility’s territory

The employees of the “Moldeco-Nistru Fleet” Company, sited on the territory of the river port Varnita, intend to evacuate the representatives of the peacekeeping forces from the facility’s territory. The harbor’s staff held a protest manifestation on Friday, September 22, claiming nothing has been done to settle concerning the facility, despite the 5 month period since its appearance. The company’s director general, Vitali Rotundalov, told Info-Prim Neo that the staff decided to protest against the illicit actions of the Joint Control Commission (JCC) and peacekeeping forces. According to Rotundalov, the Transnistrian forces illegally seized the company’s estate and assets on April 21, fact witnessed and tacitly approved by the peacekeeping forces. Instead of taking attitude towards the abuse and bringing the ones responsible to account, JCC blocked the facility and placed peacekeepers on its territory. According to the director, the enterprise is registering huge financial loss, the staff is on a forced leave and deprived of wages. Rotundalov expects explanations from JCC officials and peacekeepers about the reasons of these abuses and actions undertaken in order to restart production. He required the peacekeepers’ withdrawal from the facility. Maxim Belinschi, representative of the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights (HCHR), who attended the manifestation, told Info-Prim Neo that protesters bore posters spelling “Peacekeepers, let us work!”, “Peacekeepers, don’t put your name to shame!”, “We are hungry!”, etc. By noon, the protesters were visited by military observers. Belinschi said that the company’s staff and administration are determined to ban the access to the next shift of peacekeepers and to evacuate the present ones from the facility. Neither Ion Solonenco, co-chairman at JCC, nor Ion Leahu member of the Commission were reachable on Friday. According to prior information, several dozens of armed Transnistrian militiamen and special forces seized the river port Varnita, claiming this is a subsidiary of river port Bender, which is under the separatist regime. The USA, the UE and GUAM criticized these actions.