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.
(Jason Cooper, Tiraspol Times) Monday, October 22, 2007
BERLIN (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.
