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26 August 2004
U.S. Announces Visa Restrictions on More Transnistrian Authorities
Separatist regime said to foment school crisis, block political settlement
The United States has joined the European Union (EU) in restricting the issuance of visas to ten more members of the secessionist Transnistrian regime in Moldova.
The State Department says the ten are among those responsible for an ongoing campaign to close the region's Moldovan language schools and of impeding international assistance to a local orphanage.
Deputy spokesman Adam Ereli said these actions "are part of a wider pattern of Transnistrian intransigence in both the political settlement talks and in steps to complete Russia's military withdrawal from Moldova."
Following is his statement:
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U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Office of the Spokesman
August 26, 2004
Statement by Adam Ereli, Deputy Spokesman
EXPANDED VISA RESTRICTIONS ON TRANSNISTRIAN AUTHORITIES
The United States, together with the EU, is restricting issuance of visas for ten officials of the Transnistria separatist regime in Moldova. These individuals are among those responsible for an ongoing campaign to force the closure of Moldovan language schools in the separatist Transnistrian region of Moldova, a campaign that has recently included the harassment and isolation of children in an orphanage, and steps to impede delivery of food and water for their relief by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and UNICEF. We and our European partners have strongly condemned the Transnistrian leadership for its recent provocative actions.
Unfortunately, these actions are part of a wider pattern of Transnistrian intransigence in both the political settlement talks and in steps to complete Russia's military withdrawal from Moldova. U.S. and EU concern over this obstructionism led to the February 27, 2003 US/EU visa restrictions imposed on seventeen top members of the Transnistrian regime, which remain in effect. By helping foment the current school crisis, the ten additional members of the self-proclaimed Transnistrian leadership share direct responsibility for impeding progress in negotiations to solve the overall separatist dispute, and will, therefore, be subject to this same restrictive visa policy.
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(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
