10 June 2004 16:41
Moldovan opposition calls on NATO to discuss Russian arms pullout
Chisinau, 10 June: The Moldovan opposition [right-wing] Christian Democratic Popular Party (PPCD) has called on NATO
member states "to take a clear stance towards the state of military occupation in Moldova now" at the NATO
summit scheduled for 28-29 June in Istanbul.
The Christian Democrats said in their appeal that the "Russian Federation, the successor to the former Soviet
Union, has organized subversive military actions on Moldovan territory aimed at splitting the country's territory
and reinforcing a separatist puppet regime in the occupation zone in order to preserve Moscow's control over
Moldova".
"The Russian military presence in Moldova is a challenge to international legal standards and to Moldova's
declaration of independence and constitution, and it is in breach of agreements adopted at the 1999 OSCE summit in
Istanbul [under which Russia was to withdraw its arms and troops from Moldova by December 2002]," the document
said.
The PPCD said the Dniester region "which is under no legal control, is dominated by criminal networks for money
laundering, smuggling, and trafficking in weapons and human beings".
"The recent statement by separatist leader Igor Smirnov, who announced his readiness to provide military
assistance to the separatist rebels in South Ossetia against the legal authorities of Georgia, is a clear proof that the
Dniester region is a hotbed of international terrorism," the PPCD said in its appeal.
The PPCD believes that NATO enlargement is "a positive, cardinal phenomenon aimed at ensuring peace and
stability in the region and the entire world".
[Passage omitted: NATO praised]
The PPCD says Russia has no right to remain a mediator and guarantor in the Dniester settlement conflict [along with
Ukraine and the OSCE], a conflict which it has provoked and supported.
The Christian Democrats believe that "a direct engagement by NATO, the United States, the European Union,
Romania and Ukraine would allow us to unblock the process of solving the conflict and achieve a long-lasting solution to
it".
The PPCD also asked NATO member states to raise the question of the pullout of Russian troops from Georgia and
Moldova.
[Infotag news agency] |
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