Military men of peacekeeping post No. 9 will be unarmed

Fewer military men will serve at the peacekeeping post No. 9 situated near Vadul lui Voda and they will not carry guns, Info-Prim Neo reports. After the January 4 meeting of the Government, Deputy Prime Minister for Reintegration Eugen Karpov told the press that the number of peacekeepers at the post will be reduced from seven to four from today. They will be unarmed and will only monitor the situation around the post. “Such a mechanism can be later applied to all the existing peacekeeping posts,” he stated. The decision was reached in a meeting of the Unified Military Command. It was also decided to remove the reinforced concrete blocks used as obstacles on the roadway. “There will be identified efficient methods for controlling traffic in this perimeter without hindering free access. They also discussed the placement of speed limit signs on the roadside,” said the Deputy Prime Minister. As to the replacement of the military peacekeeping forces with internationally-mandated civil forces, Eugen Karpov said that Moldova is not the only one that sees such a necessity. “An official communiqué stressing the necessity of this transformation came yesterday from the Foreign Ministry of Ukraine, which acts as a mediator in the Transnistrian conflict settlement talks in the 5+2 format. Ukraine expressed its readiness to take an active part in the discussions on the transformation of the current peacekeeping mission into a civil one involving a number of states,” he said. The military peacekeeping troops were dispatched to the Security Zone in Transnistria after Moldova and Russia signed an agreement on the principles of peacefully settling the conflict of the spring-summer of 1992.