[Info-Prim Neo article from the series “20 years of the start of the war. When should we expect peace?”] Repeat from February 20 The Truth and Justice are the values that the participants in the Transnistrian conflict are urged to use to identify solutions to the disagreements that mark the relations between different veterans’ organizations. Related suggestions were made in the public debates “Memory obliges. State of division between the participants in the armed conflict on the Nistru: causes and solutions 20 years of the start”, which were held in the conference hall of Info-Prim Neo News Agency. Sergiu Caracai, chairman of the National Council of the Volunteers Union, said they cannot reach an agreement with the authorities. He stated the volunteers who took part in the Nistru war have not been granted an official status even if they filed about 200 applications over 20 years. “We are being ignored. Following the President’s appeal, we left the house, families, jobs and went to war. About 80% of those who fought were volunteers. We consciously replaced the army that did not exist then,” said Sergiu Caracai. He and his colleagues consider that justice can triumph only if the status of volunteer is recognized by a special law. Victor Alergus, head of the National Veterans Union “Saint Gheorghe the Conqueror”, said the legislation concerning the veterans defines different categories of war veterans and the volunteers should not seek a special status. According to him, the national legislation meets the practices of other countries with similar experience. “We have 68,000 veterans with cards. We could conquer Kiev with so many veterans. Everybody wants combatant’s card, while the volunteers want one more special card, for volunteers,” said Victor Alergus. Former chief of the National Army General Staff Nicolae Petrica, who heads the League of Armed Forces Veterans, considers these disagreements are based on the wrong approach to organizing the fighting activity in the conflict 20 years ago. “On the Cocieri battlefield, all the participants in the war – volunteers, police officers, servicemen and other categories – had only one commander. In other places where fighting took place, every category of combatants acted as different commanders thought it was appropriate,” he stated. The general believes that all the combatants played an important role in the war for defending the country’s independence and integrity. That’s why the organizations that represent them now should consider themselves as component parts of a whole for better interaction with the authorities. “I would like the veterans of the Nistru war not to be treated as the veterans of World War II, who the authorities remember only on May 9,” said Nicolae Petrica. According to the participants in the debates, the division between the veterans’ organizations is also due to the moral dissatisfaction of the former combatants with the results of the conflict, the process of settling it and the involvement of organizations or their leaders in political activities. In this connection, Igor Botan, executive director of the Association for Participatory Democracy ADEPT, made a series of recommendations for overcoming the disagreements. He urged the veterans’ organizations to analyze things from the angle or Truth and Justice. “You say you do not experience conflicts, but they arise right here. The servicemen and police officers took part in the war because it was their duty. A large part of the volunteers became involved because of a feeling of adventurism. You must reach a compromise. I think you should set up a conciliation committee to bring the positions as closer as possible. It will be hard, but not impossible to find the common truth,” said Igor Botan. “As to Justice, you should together formulate your expectations of the authorities. You must learn lessons from the created situation. Moldova is a weak state, with few resources, but the people who took part and were injured in that conflict should be supported. A state does not have dignity, if it does not take care of the people who fought for it.” The public debates “Memory obliges. State of division between the participants in the armed conflict on the Nistru: causes and solutions 20 years of the start” form part of the project “Development of political culture through public debates” that includes a series of debates on political culture. It is supported by the German foundation Hanns Seidel. [Mariana Galben, Info-Prim Neo]