Government allots MDL 300,000 to commemorate Nistru War 15th anniversary

The Government allocated MDL 300,000 for the commemoration of the 15th anniversary of the beginning of the armed conflict on the Nistru River. Several days ago, Speaker of Parliament Marian Lupu said that authorities should focus their attention on all the problems which trouble the participants in the War on Nistru and which “have to result in practical actions in law-making and the implementation of the legislation”. At the same time, combatants say the authorities ignore their problems, including the lack of dwelling, Info-Prim Neo reports. Chairman of the National Union of the Independence War Veterans (UNVRI) Eduard Maican told Info-Prim Neo that the war, which took place between March 2 and July 31, 1992, launched as a reaction of the Russia-leaning conservators from Transnistria against the process of revitalisation of the Romanian spirit in Moldova, started with the attack against a police post operated by insurgent paramilitary forces, supported by the Russian 14th Army, equipped with tanks and other munitions, by Don Cossacks, volunteers’ troops from Moscow and Saint Petersburg, local guardians, as well as felons freed from prison. After the fight ended, and presidents Boris Eltin and Mircea Snegur signed the peace treaty, the combatants resumed their service in the National Police, but in some years were sacked. Veterans claim that during all these years they have been treated as the society’s step children, being forced to beg for facilities as participants in the war. In 2000, the Government annulled a decision which granted indemnities for veterans and combatants’ widows. 15 years after the beginning of the conflict the only privilege combatants benefited from was the disability allowance. Those 114 families of the persons that joined the Transnistrian Refugees Movement live in miserable conditions – 4 or 6 persons in rooms of about 10 square meters. The chairman of the Movement, Anatol Bazgu told Info-Prim Neo that the money allotted from the municipal budget for building the living block destined to refugees have been re-directed via a decision of the former interim mayor Vasile Ursu for the renovation of the monument of Stefan cel Mare and the National Opera square. Accorded to statistics, 364 persons lost their lives in the war on the Nistru River. Since 1992 till present, 250 veterans died because of wounds. Other 300 are disabled. At present, UNVRI counts more than 20,000 veterans, of those 32,000 registered at the Military Commissariat.