Moldovan delegation to JCC describes consensus reached after five years of talks as positive

The Joint Control Commission (JCC) did not manage to examine the draft appeal to the Moldovan and Transnistrian authorities to withdraw from the security zone all the law enforcement bodies’ posts set up without the Commission’s consent and decision, Info-Prim Neo reports, quoting the Ministry of Defense. This issue was a subject of considerable debate at the ordinary meeting of the JCC on March 13. The Transnistrian delegation to the JCC insistently avoided discussing this matter, saying that the problem will be solved only after the Police Commissariat and the Bender-based penitentiary which are subordinated to Chisinau are closed. According to the JCC co-president on behalf of Moldova, Ion Solonenco, the Transnistrian side proved once again that they torpedoed the withdrawal of the law enforcement bodies’ posts from the security zone. “Firstly, it is not within the competence of the Join Control Commission to solve such problems as the withdrawal of the Police Commissariat and the Bender-based penitentiary. Secondly, this runs counter to the 1992 agreement, which stipulates that these institutions will work in the security zone as long as the peacekeepers are in the region,” the JCC co-president on behalf of Moldova said. However, the Moldovan delegation considers that the decision to include the given issue in the next meeting’s agenda reached after five hours of talks is positive. In this situation, the stance of the JCC representatives on behalf of Russia, Ukraine and the OSCE was important because they backed Moldovan representatives’ initiative. Colonel Sergiu Gutu, consultant on political-military matters of the Ministry of Defense, said that among other items on the agenda were the appointment of a new military observer on behalf of Moldova that will work in the security zone and the hearing of the report on the situation in the security zone of the Military Command that had convened between March 5 and 11. The next ordinary meeting of the Joint Control Commission will be held in Bender on March 20.