Tiraspol Times & Weekly Review, Moldova
Oct 20 2007

Frozen conflict countries call Europe "undemocratic" for not hearing
their side

The Council of Europe is planning to discuss the future of "frozen
conflicts" in an upcoming two-day session. Moldova got an invitation
and will take part of the proceedings, but the door is closed for
Transdniestria. Along with three other unrecognized countries,
Transdniestria calls this undemocratic and now requests to have a
voice in its own future.

By Tiraspol Times, 20/Oct/2007

Europe will discuss the future of Transdniestria and 3 other
unrecognized countries … but doesn’t want to hear their
opinionsBERLIN (Tiraspol Times) – "We will decide your future … but
we are not interested in hearing your own opinion about it." That is
the essence of the Council of Europe’s current approach to frozen
conflicts, in the eyes of four new and emerging countries that are
struggling for international recognition.

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) has
scheduled hearings on four frozen conflicts in the post-Soviet space,
but will not invite the local authorities from the conflict regions.

The PACE monitoring committee’s hearings on frozen conflicts will be
held in Berlin November 5-6.

Besides the committee members and experts from the U.S., Europe and
Russia, the Foreign Ministers of Moldova, Georgia, Armenia and
Azerbaijan will take part in the hearings.

However, the Secretariat of the Interparliamentary Assembly of the
Commonwealth for Democracy and Peoples’ Rights reported that
representatives from other sides concerned – Transdniestria,
Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Nagorno Karabakh – will not be allowed to
attend.

The Secretariat described this fact as undemocratic and expressed
hope that invitation will still be sent. The issue will be put on the
agenda of the Assembly’s plenary session due to be held on 29
October, news agency Regnum reported.

A million voiceless people
Together, the four new and emerging countries represent more than one
million people.

" – They are one million human beings who are left voiceless," says a
representative from Tiraspol, "but the Council of Europe just doesn’t
seem to care. And yet they want to teach us about democracy?"

" – They are making it harder and harder for themselves all the time,
when they won’t take the opinions of the affected populations into
account, and will only listen to one side of the story: Moldova’s."

This is not the first time that the unrecognized countries are being
silenced and excluded from international events. Earlier this year,
the United States blocked entry to Abkhazia’s Minister of Foreign
Affairs, who was not allowed to attend talks at the United Nations on
the future of his own state.

At the same time, however, the U.S. State Department vigorously
defends the right of Kosovars to be present at all international
venues where their desire for independence and statehood is
discussed. This is despite the fact that Kosovo’s claim to statehood
rests on much shakier ground than Transdniestria’s: Unlike
Transdniestria and Abkhazia, the Kosovars do not yet have a "de
facto" country to call their own.