OFFICIAL STATEMENT
by Ministry of Education of PMR
For five years, there has been no end to the stream of innuendoes cast by Moldova regarding the “fate” of six non-state schools teaching Romanian on the territory of the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic.
Objective analysis shows that Pridnestrovie has not impeded activity of these educational institutions. The struggle waged by Moldova as the founder of these institutions, in 2004 ended finally with registration of five out of six institutions on our territory. The fact of registration established the status of these educational institutions as legal entities and ensured their civil legal capacity.
Nevertheless, Moldova prohibits the institutions from further involvement with relevant agencies in charge of education licensing in Pridnestrovie. Warnings from the Ministry of Education of PMR concerning illegal graduation documents being issued to graduates of these schools have been ignored whereas over 40% of the graduates want to continue their education at professional education institutions in our republic.
Another fact of notorious violation by Moldova of education laws, disrespect to officials and personality of citizen, as well as failure to meet commitments, was demonstrated by the OSCE on 12 November 2006 during the visit of a delegation of OSCE ambassadors to our republic. Programme of the visit, agreed in advance between the OSCE and the MFA of PMR, envisaged that the delegation and representatives from the PMR Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Education visit the Romanian language lyceum Alexandru cel Bun in Bender.
However, having arrived to Bender, Deputy Minister of Education V. Surinov and Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs S. Guska were not allowed access to premises of the educational institution. Apropos, personally Head of the OSCE Mission to Moldova Louis O’Neill physically prohibited access to the building.
The meeting between lyceum officials and the OSCE Ambassadors was held behind closed doors. This way of obtaining “trustworthy” information can hardly be regarded objective and democratic. Even less so it can be considered friendly towards our colleagues, i.e. officials of Pridnestrovian executive bodies.
Destructive actions by OSCE representatives in Moldova do not make for development of constructive dialogue and confidence-building measures between education experts from the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic and the Republic of Moldova sustained over past two years of their work.
In the meantime, they resolved one of the major issues, i.e. registration in Pridnestrovie, in June 2005, of schools under jurisdiction of the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Moldova.
During two recent meetings, education experts reached and envisaged in bilateral protocols, in the presence of representatives from the OSCE Mission to Moldova and Embassies of the Russian Federation and Ukraine, agreements on providing the Pridnestrovian side with a package of licensing documents for educational institutions of the Republic of Moldova (Protocols from 18/05/2006 and 16/06/2006).
Unfortunately, the Moldovan side due to unknown reasons drags out resolution of the licensing issue and has not provided the Pridnestrovian side with the documents specified in the protocols of the expert meetings.
The Ministry of Education, in the letter dated 2 October 2006 #02-36/1780, addressed Head of the OSCE Mission to Moldova Mr. O’Neill with deep concern over the lingering failure to resolve the licensing issue for Romanian language schools, and proposed to hold the next meeting in a fully constructive manner, and to this end, with mediators’ facilitation, ensure handing over by Moldovan side relevant documents for licensing of the educational institutions.
We have not received any reply from the OSCE Mission to Moldova to our requests.
In this context, actions of Head of the OSCE Mission Mr. O’Neill at the lyceum in Bender comply with his policy of blocking the work of education experts from Pridnestrovie and Moldova and thwarting agreements reached.
I consider this fact a direct evidence of grave violation by Members of the OSCE Mission to Moldova of the Statute of their Organization, as well as direct abetment to officials of the Republic of Moldova in ignoring norms of international law and agreements reached during meetings between education experts from Pridnestrovie and Moldova.
Minister of Education E.V. Bomeshko
Tiraspol, 20 November 2006