I want to put a face behind the name of this very important person.

(photo 2005) (OSCE/Victor Munteanu)

Related link, to the Biography of William Hill:

During the height of the school crisis in summer 2004, Transdniestrian militia stormed the Evrica lyceum and evicted the pupils, teachers and parents from their premises. Since October 2004 the school has been forced to operate 'in exile', renting the premises of a kindergarten from a local factory.

"The local authorities in Ribnita have de facto stolen this building. They must give the building back to the school without any further delay and without any conditions".

8 November 2005 -- Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov today said Russia's military presence in Moldova's separatist province of Transdniester is essential to the region's stability.

Personal note:
I find it appaling that governments are able to dig themselves so deep into the political mud, because of the profit of illegal trade amongst other issues in this geographically far away, but still, very tense hotspot.
I guess this area is a victim of bureaucracy and personal prestige, not only poverty and corruption. Not to mention, using this area as a vent for covert activities/terrorism and other tabus, stated in earlier postings, first and foremost by Hellmutt!

Moldova is being used, and they know it. -And 'nobody' listens.

Xinhua: Moscow to purge the CFE treaty

2005-12-08


A historic arms control agreement could be purged by Moscow if NATO members continue to drag their feet on ratifying the deal, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanovsaid on Wednesday. The Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) Treaty was signed in Paris in 1990 between NATO and Warsaw Treaty Organization in a bid to promote peace and security across Europe and the world. But Ivanov said: "If the treaty is not ratified by other signatories, Moscow will raise the issue if whether or not this mechanism ... is needed at all."

To date, only four countries -- Russia, Belarus, the Ukraine and Kazakhstan -- have signed the agreement, while most NATO countries have refused to ratify it amid allegations that Russia has failed to meet commitment on withdrawing its military presence from Georgia and Moldova.

Ivanov, who is also deputy prime minister of Russia, told the Itar-Tass news agency, "The issue of the CFE Treaty's fate is being raised in connection with the expansion of NATO and US infrastructures to Russian borders. Everybody has signed it, but just four states have ratified the document, including Russia."

Please visit the link provided for the complete story.

Soj: Fall-out from Romania's Base Deal

I wrote a full-length piece on the CFE and it's importance back in June, which you can find here. In short, the CFE is one of the least glamorous but most important treaties for world security. While many people focus on chemical or nuclear weapons, the CFE deals with conventional weaponry likes tanks and helicopters. And despite the "showbiz" quality of nerve agents etc., it's tanks and helicopters which have killed millions of people in Europe's bloody past.

While the treaty has been signed by a number of western countries, it has not been ratified, which means it is not actually in effect, although many countries have acted more or less like it is.

If there's one thing the European continent does not need, it's for Russia and her allies to feel threatened by a build-up of conventional forces.


Click the link for the complete post by Soj.

Stratan expressed regret that the Ljubljana forum failed to adopt final document and a declaration on Moldova. “At the same time, I believe it is useless to strive for sterile and in fact formal documents for the only sake of proving the presence of a consensus in the OSCE on essential issues”, the minister said.

In his words, in Ljubljana the Moldovan delegation was ready to negotiations on some issues, “but there exist certain principles, such as the observance of Moldova’s sovereignty and territorial integrity that cannot be a subject of negotiations. At the same time, there can be no doubt that Transnistria has to be provided with a special legal status within the Republic of Moldova”.

He thinks that democratization and demilitarization of the left Dniester bank is an indispensable condition for solving the Transnistria problem, and that “the current Tiraspol regime is not able to ensure genuine democratization of the region. On the contrary, the regime uses intimidation methods to keep the population in awe”.

Related link:
Moldova.org Politicom

“Chisinau had repeatedly stated that the Dniester theme actually remains the only problematic one in our relations with Russia,” Stratan noted. In his opinion, “Russia should withdraw its troops from the region in order to get the Dniester problem finally settled”.

“Some contradictions in politics and diplomacy should remain on the agenda of diplomatic discussions and should not tell on the economic, cultural and personal relations between our two countries,” Stratan believes. “Moldova’s sovereignty and territorial integrity cannot be the subject of any negotiations,” he stressed, adding that “the Dniester Region should be doubtlessly given a special legal status within the bounds of Moldova”.

Related link:
News From Russia

Ho, ho, ho.
Up towards christmas holiday weekend, the parts finally found together in a merry meeting, contemplating how to live peacefully together. STOP! if I continue writing like this, The Disney Company will most likely sue my merry 'hind off for plagiarism of a movie. -Or something.

Participants of Tirapol, Chisinau, Russia, Ukraine, the OSCE and the United States gathered, and the meeting lasted to midnight friday the 16th.

The representative of the European Union left the talks earlier because he had some important meetings.

In a nutshell, the meeting were NOT a success.
Again the parts are bargaining , ending up in a continued deadlock with little, or no progress at all.

Again, I must take the liberty of describing what I read, as something that resemble nothing, but a feudal society. Where what is supposed to be the cooperative enactment of a global community and it's complex organizations, aren't even able to give the farmers their right, to do their own land. I thought the meaning of overnational entities as UN, NATO and OSCE where there to put pressure/convince/remove supressors?
Of course it makes the whole issue a bit more tricky, when both USA and Russia is involved in this. Both countries has got semi-professional (obviously) politicians playing poker in a cold war context.

Anyway, what they got out of this meeting was:

Farmers from the Chisinau-controlled villages on the left bank of the Dniester river will be able to harvest their crop in exchange for a tax of 0.18 percent of agricultural production transported on the other side of the Ribnita-Tiraspol highway.

Ooooh. Awesome d00dz! U got qwnd!

Also, the sides decided to replace the alleged Transnistrian customs stations with militia and police stations.

Intriguing. May I ask what is the difference? Does this mean that the transdniestiran custom personell, exchange the colours of their socks? That they can wear a helmet instead of a top-hat?

Another issue that challenged disputes at negotiation envisaged the organisation of democratic elections in the Transnistrian region. Finally, the sides decided to institute an "evaluation mission" to asses this situation.

Didn't I say it, didn't I? Well, didn't I?(In a previous post).

Asked to comment on reaction of Transnistrians to the idea of an evaluation mission, Hill said that "it would be an exaggeration to say that the sides accepted the conduct of some free and democratic elections in the Transnistrian region. Negotiations were very difficult. Tiraspol accepted some positions, but it gave up later some points that we already regarded as coordinated. We were so late from this reason. I hope that concrete steps forward settlement of the problem would be taken in future, including in connection with tensions in the Dubasari district. The situation was and is difficult. The outcome could be much better," Hill added.

*Yawn* Does this not just sound like a politician? Couldn't he just say "No comments". It sure takes less time!

Related link:

Gheorghe Susarenco, lawmaker of the Christian Democratic People’s Party (PPCD), demanded the government on Thursday, December 22, to declare William Hill, head of the OSCE Mission to Moldova as persona non grata and to expel him from country.

(...)asked Premier Vasile Tarlev to sack Reintegration Minister Vasile Sova for "being incompetent and for not speaking one of the three official languages of the Moldovan Transnistrian republic."

Gheorghe Susarenco,

man of bad temper.

Moldova Azi: Smirnovs “leashed” Entire Transnistrian Region, a Romanian Newspaper Claims

January 5 2006


The family of the separatist leader of the so-called Transnistrian republic, Igor Smirnov, has practically got under control this region, with family members seizing almost all economy sectors, and the political class is subdued 100%, Romanian newspaper Averea claims.

One of the two sons of Tiraspol’s leader has under his personal and exclusive control the customs, the other has control over the Sheriff group, monopolising the range of luxury markets and fuel stations in across the enclave.

Tiraspol separatist leaders and their families had been accused by the Moldovan and international media, and also by politicians, of dubious businesses and money laundering. Transnistria is considered by many persons as “Europe’s black hole”, where the regime is kept by drug-dealers, human and arms traffickers.