Weekly meeting of the Joint Control Commission

A working meeting of the members of the Joint Control Commission took place on  May,26th 2022 in the city of Bender.

The Commission managed to overcome, in part, the dissensions related to the position regarding the incident of April 14, when the delegation of the Republic of Moldova was abusively stopped by the so-called "border guards" at the illegal post installed at the entrance to Bender.

Thus, the sides took a decision in a compromise formula, through which the Commission expressed its concern about the incident which showed that Tiraspol's enforcing structures undermine the right to free movement in the Security Zone.

During the hearing of the Joint Military Command reports on the situation in the Security Zone, which reflected the presence of installed posts without the approval of the Commission, the delegation of the Republic of Moldova requested to remove obstacles and armament that hinder the free movement of citizens.

In an address to all members of the Commission, the delegation of the Republic of Moldova drew attention to the series of provocative actions documented by military observers that have started on April 26 by the Tiraspol force structures in the area of responsibility of the Joint Peacekeeping Forces.

It’s about reinforcement of the illegal posts by fixing concrete installations thus blocking access roads, but also introducing armed patrols in localities in the region, placing sandbags and concrete blocks around certain premises, digging trenches, etc. At these "consolidated posts", the representatives of the enforcing structures carry out without any reason the control of the identification documents, belongings and vehicles of the citizens. It is worrying that in the town of Bender - a district with increased security regime, „собр” special forces with firearms have been abusively introduced. As a result, the population was alarmed, for a week there was an increased flow of people moving to the right bank.

The delegation of the Republic of Moldova stated that the above mentioned actions of the enforcing structures subordinated to Tiraspol were in direct violation of the Moldovan-Russian Agreement of July, 21, 1992, as well as the documents of the Joint Control Commission and the Joint Military Command, which describe the control and ensuring the Security Zone regime mechanisms.

In this context, the delegation of Chisinau proposed to examine within the Commission the detected violations and to take effective measures to eliminate the illegalities and not to admit them in the future.

On another train of thoughts, the topic of the road infrastructure modernization project of the “Bender-Varnita-Severnyi” road section was tackled, the implementation of which is expected in the Security Zone within the “Confidence Building Measures” Program (CBM 5), funded by the EU and implemented by the UNDP. The delegation of the Republic of Moldova stated that it supports the implementation of the project, emphasizing the need to ensure free movement and the removal of illegal checkpoints on this route.

The delegation of the Republic of Moldova to the Joint Control Commission