Helsinki Committee says Tiraspol re-ignited tension in conflict zone

The Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Moldova (HCHRM) censures the actions undertaken by the Tiraspol separatist regime, which triggered a new tense situation in the conflict zone, as well as the over-indulgence of the Joint Control Commission (JCC) with regards to these actions. A communiqué by the Committee reads that, on August 11, Tiraspol representatives seized a lorry transporting construction materials to the building site of a church in Corjova village, which is under the jurisdiction of Moldova’s constitutional authorities. The efforts made by the locality’s mayor and representatives of the rural religious community to peacefully settle the situation were baffled, especially that JCC didn’t react. HCHRM qualifies the incident as violation of human rights and of the provisions of the “Agreement on the principles of peaceful settlement of the conflict in the Transnistrian region of Moldova”, signed on July 21, 1992 by Moldova and the Russian Federation. According to the Committee, the right to free movement of goods and people; the right to property and the right to freely avail of property; the right to religious freedom, etc. were encroached upon. The committee states on this occasion, too, that the present format of the peace-keeping troops is inefficient and reckons that this is the perfect time to either abolish it altogether or to replace it by another format, by attracting the EU member states into the peace-keeping mechanism. HCHRM calls on the JCC, as well as the signatories to the 1992 Agreement, to bring guarantees for safeguarding the human rights and fundamental freedoms in the security zone, and for observing Moldova’s Constitution and laws in operation.