PLDM: Communist government hinders settlement of Transnistrian conflict

The Liberal Democratic Party of Moldova (PLDM) says that the Communist government’s attempts to divide the society according to ethnic principles affects the process of settling the Transnistrian dispute and hinders its resolution, Info-Prim Neo reports. “The policy pursued by the Communist power with the aim of artificially dividing the society according to ethnic principles fuels the false arguments of the self-proclaimed Transnistrian administration,” the PLDM leader Vlad Filat said at a news conference on Tuesday. Filat said that since the conflict sparked in Transnistria, the Tiraspol administration insistently promoted the idea of a possible expansion of Romania, manipulating the population from the left bank of the Nistru. “The groundless attacks on the neighboring country by the Voronin regime (Moldova’s outgoing President Vladimir Voronin – e.n.), which treats it as a foreign enemy, strengthens the secessionist position of the Tiraspol administration,” the PLDM leader considers. In this connection, Vlad Filat said that his party has a clear strategy and a concrete plan of action for settling the Transnistrian dispute. “We insist on the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of the Russian troops and munitions from Moldova’s territory as a first condition for initiating a real process for solving the conflict,” Vlad Filat said. Another major action, according to the PLDM, is to transform the peacekeeping mission into an international civil mission under the aegis of the European Union. Asked if they will campaign in the Transnistrian region, Filat said that the PLDM has a local organization in Tiraspol, but he has not yet had meetings with the voters there. At another news conference, Promo-LEX Association said that a number of representatives of the Moldovan election runners, including one of the PLDM, were fined by the Transnistrian militia as they were placing election posters in Tiraspol. “This is not surprising as the Moldovan police are also actively involved in the electoral campaign,” the PLDM leader commented.