World Peace News: Top Stories

Peacekeepers on alert in Moldovan region
by Steve Gutterman

The Associated Press Translate This Article
5 March 2005

MOSCOW (AP)- Russia has placed its troops on alert in Moldova's separatist Trans-Dniester region, a news agency reported Saturday, as tensions increased between the two countries ahead of Sunday's parliamentary elections in the former Soviet republic.

About 100 Russians heading for Moldova by train to observe the elections were stopped at the border and expected to be sent away, the Interfax news agency reported.

Ties between the two countries have soured over the Russian-speaking region, which effectively broke away from Moldova after a 1992 war that left 1,500 people dead. Its separatist government is not recognized internationally, but receives support from Russia, whose troops give Moscow a foothold in the region.

The tensions come as Moscow fears it is losing influence in the former Soviet Union after the election of pro-Western leaders in Georgia and Ukraine last year.

On Friday, Russian lawmakers urged the Cabinet to impose economic sanctions on Moldova in response to what they described as its efforts to blockade Trans-Dniester, a sliver of land on Moldova's eastern border.

A Russian military official at the headquarters in Trans-Dniester who spoke to Interfax on condition of anonymity, said the Russian force would not interfere in Moldova's internal political situation.

Interfax also quoted the head of the temporary Moldovan mission of a Russian-based nongovernment organization that monitors elections in former Soviet republics as saying about 100 Russians had been halted at the border while traveling to Moldova by train.

Their train cars were shunted to a siding near the border, Alexei Kochetkov said. He said the Russians were not allowed off the train, their documents were taken and they were told they would be deported.

The Russian Embassy asked Moldovan officials for an explanation and sent two staffers to the station where the Russians were held up, Interfax reported.

A leader of observers from Belarus said 50 Belarusian observers were forced to leave Moldova late Friday, the same day they arrived by train.

About 1,800 Russian troops remain in Trans-Dniester in what Russia calls a peacekeeping operation and to guard stockpiles of weapons and ammunition left by the Soviet army. Moldova's communist government, which is expected to remain in power following the election, has called them ``an illegal occupation force'' and demanded their withdrawal.

Moldovan officials have accused the enclave of harboring international criminal groups. Residents of the separatist region will not vote Sunday.

Last month, Moldova's secret service claimed that 21 Russians expelled or detained in the previous weeks had traveled there to spy on President Vladimir Voronin and politicians ahead of the elections. It said they had posed falsely as rights activists, electoral consultants and political observers.

Since coming to power as a pro-Russian force, the governing Party of the Communists has made a complete turnaround and now supports closer ties to the European Union.

Copyright &ccopy, 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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