In Moldova, memories persist of Transnistria’s secession
HISINAU: Flowers in their hands and military medals proudly pinned to their outfits, Moldovan veterans met Saturday to recall the Transnistria war of secession.
The yearly gathering in Moldova’s capital Chisinau has taken on a particular resonance this year after the separatist region called for Russian support.
Standing by a monument to those who died in the conflict, Boris Gavriluta, 56, insisted he did not want a new conflict.
Wednesday’s request by Transnistria’s putative capital Tiraspol for the Kremlin’s protection has revived fears of a new destabilisation campaign in Moldova, a mostly Romanian-speaking former Soviet Republic between Ukraine and Romania.
Moldova’s pro-European President Maia Sandu attended Saturday’s gathering and denounced forces that “continue to want to sow distrust and discord in our country.
“I say loud and clear, they will not manage, not today, not tomorrow,” she added, promising “to never allow this tragedy to repeat”.
In March 1992, Moldovan and Transnistrian separatist forces went to war, mobilising some 30,000 fighters.
Barely 200 kilometres long, and rarely more than 20 kilometres wide, Transnistria unilaterally proclaimed its independence en 1990, fearing a “Romanianisation” of Moldova as it exited the Soviet orbit.
Most of Transnistria’s now 465,000 inhabitants are Russian speakers.
Gavriluta was a doctor in one of those battalions. “We were young and beautiful,” he said with a smile. “We are still good looking, but we left our youth on the battlefields.”
The armed conflict ended in July 1992 after several hundred deaths with the intervention of the Russian army.
The situation has been frozen since then and negotiations continue to find a settlement.