Multinational mission needed for breakaway region in Moldova, official tells UN

A multinational civil mission with an international mandate is needed to resolve the separatist conflict in Moldova’s Transdniestrian region, the country’s Foreign Minister told the General Assembly today.

Speaking at the annual high-level debate, Andrei Stratan said the “conflict remains a continuous obstacle in promoting reforms and ensuring social and economic development of our country.”

Transdniestria has been a breakaway region on Moldova’s eastern flank following fighting between Moldovan and separatist forces in the early 1990s, when the country gained its independence.

Mr. Stratan said the negotiation process has remained stalled since April last year “because of the rigid and non-constructive position of the separatist leaders supported from outside of Moldova,” adding that “this is serving as a screen for promoting some political and mafia interests foreign to the people of this region.”

He said “continuous violation of the fundamental human rights in the Transdniestrian region and the inefficiency of the existing peacekeeping mechanism” meant a multinational civil mission with an international mandate was necessary.

Mr. Stratan also reiterated Moldova’s view that the Russian troops remaining on Moldovan territory must withdraw, according to obligations assumed in a 1999 agreement, to “create the necessary premises for ratifying and applying the Adapted Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) Treaty.”