Tiraspol unilaterally sets up new checkpoints in Security Zone

The Moldovan delegation to the Joint Control Commission (JCC) has warned that in the course of June the Transnistrian administration unilaterally established several new checkpoints in the Security Zone in breach of an earlier JCC ban. The delegation calls on all the mediating countries and the OSCE to take joint steps and prevent an escalation that could compromise the peacekeeping operations, it said in a statement. The first checkpoints, according to the Moldovan delegation, were installed on June 14 in the villages of Speia, Grigoriopol district, and Chircaiesti, Causeni district. Moreover, on June 22 a Moldovan police officer and his son were briefly detained at a checkpoint near Chircaiesti-Copanca, Causeni, on accusations of having crossed the “border” illegally. On June 27, a judge was arrested at the same checkpoint on the same charges. Though being freed shortly with the warning “not to violate the border again”, it was claimed that they had been insulted and humiliated.