Veterans: War of 1992 found us unprepared

Eighteen years after the Nistru war, veterans of the armed conflict recollect how they fought with few arms and in a small number and how poet Grigore Vieru and mothers with children visited them in the trenches, urging them to defend the country, Info-Prim Neo reports. “I will never forget how I dug a trench in the garden of an old woman who wanted to plant vine. She encouraged me to fight and said she will plant vine later,” said veteran Valeriu Troenco, Justice Major Genera, adding the war found the official Chisinau totally unprepared. Valeriu Troenko said the Nistru war revealed many 'truths'. “When we were attacked by the Transnistrian paramilitary forces, we did not receive support in time from the Supreme Command and the generals who continue to hold posts today. I mean Molojen, Misin, Dimitrov. Now I understand why they ordered us to fire, but we listened more to the women and children who asked us to protect them,” the veteran said. The former commander of the volunteers in Grigoriopol town Alexei Mocreac said though the town is located on the left bank of the Nistru, it was never inhabited by separatists. “The first independent elections in Moldova showed the people in Grigoripol supported President Snegur. We wanted to be independent and have never been separatists,”Alexei Mocreac said. He also said he does not understand why the Parliament considered so long how to name the day of March 2. “It is very painful for those who remained without homes and land to see that they have not yet realized that Smirnov was a criminal. If our MPs do not want to examine the situation on the spot, they should at least read the books written on this topic,” Mocreac said. “If we had been wiser, we would have seen there was no democracy, but stupidity in Tiraspol. Even those in Moscow realized they should keep this territory,” said Eleonora Cercavski, the head of Stefan cel Mare High School in Grigoriopol, which moved to Dubasari seven years ago and continues to work there. “There is no conflict between the people, between ethnic groups. Smirnov is the conflict,” she added. The veterans expressed their dissatisfaction with the fact that they continue to be in reserve, as the Communist regime ordered. Eleonora Cercavski proposed including candidates from the Transnistrian region in the electoral lists of the Moldovan parties that want to enter the Parliament. On March 2, it is 18 years of the start of the armed conflict on the Nistru. 29,000 people took part in the war, 3,402 of whom representing the Ministry of the Interior. 286 persons were killed, while 289 remained disabled.