JCC delegations commit to present infos on two citizens disappeared in Security Zone

The Moldovan and Transnistrian delegations in the Joint Control Commission (JCC) commit to present, next week, information about the disappearance of two Moldovan citizens within the Security Zone. The matter was tackled the JCC's Thursday sitting and stirred hot debate, Info-Prim Neo has learnt from a communique by the Defense Ministry. The Transnistrians asked the Moldovans to explain why the Moldovan police arrested Nicolae Cuicioglo on May 31. The Moldvan delegation was not aware of the case and rejected the accusation as groundless. “The goal is to blame the Moldovan law-enforcement bodies of all the drawbacks in the Security Zone and to turn every event into a position pursuing to destroy the negotiations and the trust-building between the sides,” JCC Moldovan co-chairman Ion Solonenco stated. At the same sitting the Moldovan delegation asked to discuss the arrest, on May 21, of Stefan Berzan by the Transnistrian militsia. The request was backed by the Ukrainian delegation and by the OSCE representatives, too, reads the press-release. The parties agreed to approach the issue at the next sitting. Possible changes in the mechanism of settling the situation in the Security Zone were tackled following the visits of Russian Senate Speaker Sergei Mironov and of the Duma deputy Aleksei Ostrovski to Moldova. If Mironov's position was positively assessed by the Russian and Transnistrian delegations, then Ostrovski's position is not assessed favorably. After the Moldovans repeatedly referred to Ostrovski's statements, the JCC Russian co-chairman, Victor Shanin, quoted by the Defense Ministry's press unit, responded: “this Ostrovski of yours has been played down even by the Moldovan leadership.” Asked by journalists to comment on his statements, Shanin declined he said that, saying he was misunderstood, and all the explanations can be got form the MoldovanPresident's advisor, Marc Tkaciuk. However, the sides found common ground and decided to inspect the peace-keepers in the center of the Security Zone, on June 9. Asked by Info-Prim Neo to comment on the JCC's sitting, the president of the Promo-Lex Association, Ion Manole, says it is obvious the Russian delegation displays an inadmissible and inadequate behavior for its status of guarantor-state within the JCC . According to the Moldo-Russian agreement of 21 July, 1992, which created the JCC, Russia is a neuter actor observing the norms of the international law, Moldova's sovereignty and integrity. Or, Viktor Shanin's statements run counter those principles. Ion Manole says the Russian and Transnistrian delegations have had a common position for quite a long time concerning the JCC's sittings and decisions, what unveils once again the negative role played by Russia in supporting Igor Smirnov's regime.