Military actions in Tighina could have had a different ending, veteran says

{Originally published 19 June 2006} The military actions in Tighina, instigated on 19 June 1992, could have had a different ending if the General Staff and the government of Moldova had veridical operational information and firm decisions, says Gheorghe Pistol, ex-combatant and knight of the Stefan cel Mare medal. Pistol was the commandant of the companionship which held one of the main positions in the city for more than a month and the only one to have no dead soldiers. Interviewed by Info-Prim Neo, Pistol retold the events that happened 14 years ago in Tighina. His companionship, part of the Patrol and Sentinel Department of the General Police Station, approached Tighina on June 19. Not far away from the city, an officer of the General Staff commanded the advance of the soldiers on the Nistru Bridge. “We would have been dead if we hadn’t been stopped by an officer of the special operations Brigade Fulger, who said that the city and the immediate neighborhood was full of soldiers and armed Cossacks. We then understood that the General Staff didn’t have true information and wasn’t controlling the situation”, said Gheorghe Pistol. Because of this lack of truthful information, the Moldovan combatants lost the opportunity to enter an unoccupied Tighina overnight into June 23, when the Transnistrian troops retreated to the other side of the river Nistru. Pistol's companionship was stationed in the cinema Drujba, situated nearby an important road – the only road to the Police Station of Tighina. More than once the enemy tried to take control over this strategic place, but failed. Under his commandment, the policemen were able to capture armored vehicles, Russian officers who came from Ussuriysk to fight together with the separatists, soldiers who checked the Moldovan troops’ position. When captured, all of them had new passports, all indicating the same domicile – Kommunisticeskaia, 65. According to Pistol, in the afternoon of June 22, in the whole city sirens were launched, this being an attack sign for the separatist troops to conquer Tighina. A massive attack with tanks advanced to the position of the companionship. Shortly, several MIG-29 jets of the Moldovan army engaged in low-altitude maneuvers, intimidating the attackers. “Overnight into June 23, there was a terrible silence, only a couple of shootings were heard at the bridge; two Transnistrian regiments were shooting at each other, thinking one was Moldovan”, says Pistol. The separatist troops left the city the same night. Pistol thinks that the General Staff, despite having an intelligence service, didn’t know that Tighina was free that night and didn’t use the chance. This fact was foreseen by the separatists, who came back on June 23 and occupied the city. “The Moldovan troops had entered Tighina several times, but retreated each time. Last time, it was overnight into June 23. If we knew, it would have been a different situation today. The separatist troops saw the hesitation of the General Staff and occupied the city”, noted Gheroghe Pistol.