CHISINAU, October 29./TASS/. The government of Moldova and the OSCE Mission to Moldova will coordinate their activity to ensure security during the voting of residents of the unrecognized republic of Transnistria at the upcoming presidential election, says a report circulated after a meeting of Moldovan Deputy Prime Minister for Reintegration Cristina Lesnik and the head of the OSCE Mission to Moldova, Claus Neukirch.
The sides also discussed priorities for a possible meeting in the 5+2 format (Moldova, Transnistria, the OSCE, Russia, Ukraine and observers from the US and the European Union) before the yearend, the situation in the Security Zone and at ammunition depots in Cobasna.
Earlier, the Transnistrian delegation in the Joint Control Commission made a statement about a possible destabilization in the Security Zone on the day of the presidential election. It was noted that unidentified people were spreading leaflets with an appeal to prevent Transnistria’s residents with Moldovan passports from voting in the Moldovan presidential election.
Moldova’s Transnistrian quagmire
The Transnistrian conflict erupted in March 1992, when initial clashes occurred between Moldovan police and Transnistrian militia near the city of Dubossary. They were followed by an outbreak of armed hostilities. By the summer, it had morphed into a large-scale conflict in Bendery, where about 1,000 people were killed and tens of thousands were wounded and ended up as refugees.
The civil war was brought to an end following a peace agreement signed in Moscow in July 1992 and Russian peacekeepers were brought into the conflict zone. Negotiations on peacefully settling the conflict known as the 5+2 format talks had started after that.