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Moldova Orders Russia To Withdraw Troops From Transdniester

June 24, 2010

Moldova has ordered Russia to withdraw 1,500 troops stationed in a separatist eastern region for the past two decades.

Interim President Mihai Ghimpu today issued a decree telling Moscow to "unconditionally, urgently, and transparently" take the troops out of Transdniester. It is the first time a Moldovan leader has directly urged Russia to remove its troops.

Russia had pledged to withdraw its troops -- who have been stationed in Transdniester since Soviet times -- by 2002 under an OSCE-brokered 1999 agreement, but failed to fulfill its promise.

Transdniester -- which declared independence from Moldova in 1990 over fears it would reunite with neighboring Romania -- fought a war with Moldovan forces in 1992 that left 1,500 people dead.

The conflict was quelled by Russian forces stationed there, which intervened on the separatists' side.

Ghimpu's decree also establishes June 28 as an official Soviet Occupation Day.

On June 28, 1940, the Soviet Union annexed part of eastern Romania and turned it into the Soviet Republic of Moldova.

Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/Moldova_Orders_Russia_To_Withdraw_Its_Troops/2081571.html

Copyright (c) 2010. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.