Military actions in Tighina could have had another ending – combatant

The military actions in Tighina, instigated on 19th of June 1992, could have had another ending if the General Staff and the government of Moldova would have veridical operational information and firm decisions, says Gheorghe Pistol, ex-combatant and knight of the Stefan cel Mare medal. Pistol was the commandant of the companionship which held one of the main positions in the city for more than a month and the only one to have no dead soldiers. Interviewed by Info-Prim Neo Agency, Pistol has retold the events happened 14 years ago in Tighina. His companionship, part of the Patrol and Sentinel Department of the General Police Station, approached Tighina on 19th of June. Not far away from the city, an officer of the General Staff commanded the advance of the soldiers on the Nistru Bridge. “We would have been dead if we weren’t stopped by an officer of Brigade with special destination ’Fulger’ (Lightning), who said that the city and the immediate neighborhood is full of soldiers and armed Cossacks. We then understood that the General Staff didn’t have true information and wasn’t controlling the situation”, said Gheorghe Pistol. As a result, the chance to enter Tighina in the night of 22nd June, when the troupes of Transnistrian soldiers were regressing to river Nistru, was lost. Not even the combatant knew this fact, and finding out the truth only after several days from the local people. According to Pistol, his companionship stopped in the cinema “Drujba”, situated nearby an important road – the only road to the Police Station of Tighina. More than once the enemy tried to take control upon this strategic place, but failed. Under his commandment, the policemen were able to capture armored technique, Russian officers who came from Usuriisk to fight with the separatists, soldiers who checked the Moldovan troupes’ position. When captured, all of them had very new passport, all with one address – Kommunisticeskaia, 65. According to Pistol, in the afternoon of 22nd of June, in the whole city sirens were launched, this being an attack sign for the separatis troupes to conquer Tighina. A massive attack with tanks advanced to the position of the companionship. After a while, a couple of MIG-29 of the Moldovan army had flown, intimidating the separatists. “During the night of 22nd of June, there was a terrible silence, only a couple of shootings were heard at the bridge; two Transnistrian regiments shot each other, thinking one was Moldovan”, says Pistol. The separatist troupes left the city in that same night. Pistol thinks that the General Staff, even if having an intelligence service, didn’t know that Tighina was free in that night and didn’t use the chance. This fact was foreseen by the separatists, who came back on 23rd of June and occupied the city. “The troupes from Chisinau have entered several times Tighina, but regressed each time, at the order of the commandants. The last time - on the night of 22nd. If we knew, it would have been a different situation today. The separatist troupes have foreseen the hesitation of the General Staff and occupied the city”, says Gheroghe Pistol. On Monday, June 19, the participant organizations at the war for independency and integrity of Moldova have organized at the central cemetery, an event for the memory of the dead combatants at Tighina. According to the published facts, 28000 combatants participated in the war on the river Nistru.