Sides Interpret Bendery Incident Differently

The Moldovan and Transnistrian authorities are offering different interpretations to the developments at and around the Bendery-2 railroad terminal, but nobody seems to be able to explain clearly what actually happened there yesterday.

On Tuesday night, the Regnum news agency of Moscow and some Tiraspol mass media reported - with reference to the Transnistrian law-enforcement organs - that about 30 Moldovan policemen made an attempt to seize the Bendery-2 railroad station that is under Transnistria's jurisdiction.

According to Radio Tiraspol, "The seizure attempt was opposed by 5 Transnistrian militiamen", and "the situation is close to using force by both sides".

This information failed to be confirmed from other sources. Some officials in Chisinau presume this might be a deliberate provocation staged on the eve of the visit by the OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Belgian Minister of Foreign Affairs Karel de Gucht, who has arrived in Chisinau today.

Moldovan Minister of Country Reintegration Vasile Sova stated to Infotag he had no idea about whatever incident in Bendery, "but I can state with confidence that nobody has seized anything. Anyway, we should not rule out possible provocative attempts by Tiraspol secret service units".

Infotag correspondent was told at the OSCE Mission to Moldova that Russian, Ukrainian, Moldovan and Transnistrian military observers rushed to the site. Mission's Press Secretary Klaus Neukirch said there had been no clashes, for the conflict had been prevented.

Klaus Neukirch is not ruling out the incident might be related to the intention by the National Railroad Company of Moldova (CFM) to organize daily train circulation between Bendery via Chisinau over to Kiev and further to Moscow. The company was going to start, from June 5, forming 2 sleeping cars at Bendery to be trafficked to Chisinau where the cars would be attached to the usual Chisinau-Moscow train, which uses the northern Moldovan railroad branch - in detour of Transnistria.

For this, the CFM was going to arrange an improvised, temporary railroad platform inside the Moldovan territory, some 500 meters off the boundary of the Bendery-2 station controlled by the Tiraspol regime. So, on Tuesday the CFM technicians tried to build such a platform. However, the Transnistrian militiamen did not let them do that, saying that the site in question was in the Security Zone, and that the building operations had not been agreed upon with the Joint Control Commission (JCC).

Currently, the representatives of the confli