Moldovan Schools in Transdniestria: an Uphill Battle Against “Linguistic-Cleansing”
Moldovan schools in Transdniestria: An uphill battle against “linguistic-cleansing”
In the summer of 2004, 15-year old orphan Igor Dabija became “I am here to defend my school because it something of a media celebrity. He shared his story with television holds the key to my future,” Igor told a televi- audiences in Moldova, Romania, Ukraine and Russia, and an sion journalist. The boy, who was abandoned interview with him was much sought after by every major news by his parents, added: “I don’t have anything agency. Despite this fleeting brush with fame, however, Igor and else in life that is as precious to me.” his friends in the Republican Orphanage in Bender, near Tiraspol, Although in the end Igor’s school was are not especially keen to see journalists and camera crews spared, his classmates and his teachers descending on their school again anytime soon. remain anxious about the likelihood of their having to come to the defence of their schools once again. BY GOTTFRIED HANNE AND “This coming summer, we will all stay CLAUS NEUKIRCH here at the orphanage and will not leave for our regular summer camps”, says Maria he Bender orphanage and its 320 Ungereanu, director of the Bender orphanage. wards ranging from 6 to 17 years old William Hill, Head of the OSCE Mission to came under the international spotlight Moldova, is just as concerned. “Negotiations Tin late July last year, along with other between educational experts from Moldova schools in the country’s Transdniestrian proper and from Transdniestria resumed in region that conduct classes in the Romanian the spring, but so far we have not achieved July 2004: Orphans in language using the Latin alphabet. In Bender a lasting solution to the school conflict,” the Bender return from their and Rybnitsa, hundreds of schoolchildren Ambassador said. annual summer camp only and their teachers kept a protective vigil The plight of Moldovan schools in to find their school shut over their buildings. They had been horri- Transdniestria has figured prominently in the down by Transdniestrian fied to learn how the Transdniestrian militia agenda of the OSCE Mission and the OSCE militia. forcibly closed down the Moldovan lyceum High Commissioner on National Minorities Photo: OSCE Mission to in Tiraspol, and they wanted to make sure since early 1993. The contentious issue is Moldova/Liliana Sorrentino the scene was not repeated. a lingering remnant of the armed conflict
20 OSCE Magazine June 2005 Transdniestria
The OSCE Mission to Balti Rezina Rybnitsabnitsa Moldova, based in the UKRAINE capital, Chisinau, was MOLDOVA officially established in Roghi February 1993 and started Corjoorjovvaa Dubasari operations the following April. It opened a branch CHISINAU
office in the Transdniestrian Tiraspol ROMANIA Bender administrative centre, (Tighina) Tiraspol, in February 1995 Security Zone and an office in Bender in May 2003. OSCE MISSION TO MOLDOVA/KRISTIN FRANKLIN
Two girls take a gloomy look over the remains of their school in Tiraspol after it was raided by the Transdniestrian militia
on 15 July 2004. Repair work lasted until February 2005. OSCE Mission OSCE Mission Offices Black Sea MAP: OSCE MAGAZINE/NONA REUTER between Transdniestrian and Moldovan of higher education that teach Romanian forces in 1992, which left several hundreds in Cyrillic. Bluntly put, the authorities’ of human casualties and some 100,000 refu- insistence on the Cyrillic script means that gees in its wake. Moldovan children in Transdniestria are Shortly after the pro-Moscow deprived of their right to receive higher edu- Transdniestrian authorities had firmly cation in their mother tongue. entrenched themselves in power, they Caught in this no-win situation, many of reintroduced the use of the Cyrillic alphabet, the parents choose to enrol their children in in keeping with Soviet policy that considers one of the Russian-language schools, where Moldovan (essentially Romanian) in Cyrillic the learning environment is free of harass- as a different language from Romanian. ment and educational methods are relatively CONSTANT INTIMIDATION up to date. Resorting to an even more dras- However, Moldovan schools in the cities tic step, some families simply opt to uproot of Bender, Tiraspol, Rybnitsa and Dubasari, themselves from their home base and re- as well as those in the villages of Corjova locate to Moldova proper. and Roghi (see map) have continued to offer It was these “strong-arm” assimilation instruction in the Latin script, in line with measures in Transdniestria that led Rolf the Moldovan Ministry of Education cur- Ekeus, the OSCE High Commissioner on riculum. Undeterred by the local authorities’ National Minorities, to call the region’s constant intimidation, teachers have been education policy “nothing less than lin- educating more than 4,000 children in their guistic cleansing”. Addressing the OSCE’s native language as best they can, using the Permanent Council in Vienna in October Latin alphabet to which Moldova reverted in 2004, he called Transdniestria’s measures 1989. provocative, illegal and inhuman. The unstable situation has left Moldovan “The Transdniestrian policy of suppress- parents in a quandary. If they enrol their ing the State language of the Republic of children in one of the schools that offer Moldova is unacceptable not only because a Moldovan curriculum using the Latin it violates the fundamental rights of ethnic script, they risk being threatened by the Moldovans but also because it impedes regional security service, and seeing their the determining of a special status for jobs put in jeopardy. Sending their children Transdniestria and the bringing about of to one of the 33 Transdniestrian schools a final conflict settlement in Moldova,” that teach in their native language in Ambassador Ekeus said. Cyrillic is, however, hardly an appealing Since 1994, every summer without fail, alternative, as the schools follow an out- the same uneasiness has set in and the dated curriculum and use textbooks from same disputes have arisen over whether or the Soviet period. not the schools are to be allowed to re-open Furthermore, nowhere in the world — in September. Also without fail, the OSCE even in Transdniestria — are there institutes Mission and the High Commissioner step
June 2005 OSCE Magazine 21 OSCE MISSION TO MOLDOVA/GREG COOK 1 September 2004: The first day of school is hardly cause for celebration at the Moldovan school in Rybnitsa. Parents and
OSCE MISSION TO MOLDOVA/LILIANA SORRENTINO teachers gather on the banks of the Dniestr as pupils are still without a school building.
July 2004: Transdniestrian up their year-round mediation efforts. power, water and gas supplies. Finding militia try to stop pupils In 2003, experts from the High themselves surrounded by regional forces, from entering the Bender Commissioner’s office and the OSCE Mission students and their parents and teachers took orphanage but eventually to Moldova were able to broker a compre- it upon themselves to guard their schools they manage to sneak back hensive breakthrough agreement according day and night. into their rooms. to which Moldovan schools in the six locali- To defuse the potentially explosive cli- ties would be changed from public to private mate, members of the OSCE Mission, academic institutions, to be financed by the with some help from their colleagues in central Moldovan authorities. The intention the Secretariat, took turns monitoring the was to enable schools to offer a Latin-script schools in Bender and Rybnitsa from sunrise Moldovan curriculum. to sunset, seven days a week. The euphoria over the agreement turned Under the watchful eyes and interference out to be short-lived. Radical circles within of Transdniestrian security forces, they deliv- the Transdniestrian leadership refused to ered food and drinking water to the besieged compromise, and the crisis escalated to children in the orphanage, who managed new heights. to hold out for more than a month despite DEFUSING TENSION unbearably unhygienic conditions. On 15 July 2004, members of the Meanwhile, the Mission continued to pur- Transdniestrian militia stormed the sue talks with local authorities on the terms Moldovan school in Tiraspol, destroying for the withdrawal of the militia and the re- parts of the building, removing the furni- opening of the schools — to no avail, as the ture, textbooks and archives, and declar- authorities adamantly refused to enter into ing the facilities and other school property any negotiations. On 29 July, Transdniestrian confiscated. Transdniestrian authorities also militia also stormed the school in Rybnitsa. declared the Latin-script schools in Bender As tension mounted, the international and Rybnitsa closed, disconnecting their community stood fast and firm in its position that Transdniestrian authorities News update: 1 July 2005 should agree to some kind of compro- Moldovan schools in Transdniestria granted legal status mise. Condemning the region’s unilateral As the OSCE Magazine was about to go to press, the Moldovan schools in Tiraspol, Rybnitsa, actions, participating States paid unswerv- Bender and Corjevo received the welcome news that they had been granted permanent ing attention to the crisis. Delegations called registration by the Transdniestrian authorities, a recognition of their legal status. The schools on the Russian Federation and Ukraine can now enter into contracts with local suppliers of water, electricity and other communal to bring their influence to bear on the services. Transdniestrian leadership. Since February 2005, the OSCE Mission to Moldova has hosted nine rounds of negotiations Senior staff of the OSCE Mission and spe- between the Moldovan and Transdniestrian educational authorities on the issue, with representatives from the Russian and Ukrainian embassies serving as mediators. cial representatives of the OSCE Chairman- “The agreement reached on 1 July on a set of school statutes acceptable to both sides in-Office, the Russian Federation and hopefully brings a long-awaited solution to the conflict over the existence of these Moldovan Ukraine engaged in intensive shuttle diplo- institutions in the Transdniestrian region,” said Kristin Franklin, Human Dimension Officer in the macy between the Moldovan Government OSCE Mission to Moldova. and separatist authorities, pressing for a Negotiations between the Moldovan and Transdniestrian educational authorities will resume solution to the stalemate. in September to resolve issues concerning a common curriculum for disputed subjects, and Finally, in late August, international pres- applications for licences and accreditations. Regardless of the results of these talks, however, the schools are expected to open at the start of the academic year. sure and the prospect of local upheavals started making an impact on Transdniestrian
22 OSCE Magazine June 2005 authorities. They agreed to register the ing in their native tongue using the Latin Gottfried Hanne (right) schools under a private status, valid for script. But beneath the semblance of nor- is a Political Officer one year, which would enable them to fol- mality, an unsettling calm prevails. The and Claus Neukirch low a Moldovan curriculum using the Latin school in Rybnitsa operates on the premises is Spokesperson in script. Four of the six schools began the new of a kindergarten of a local factory, since the OSCE Mission academic year as planned, on 1 September the municipality refuses to return the confis- to Moldova, which 2004, with the Rybnitsa school following cated school building. The future of all six currently comprises suit in October. schools hangs in the balance, at the mercy 11 international staff For the Tiraspol school’s more than 500 of the local authorities’ potential sanctions, members. children, however, the transition was to including an interruption of public services. take considerably longer. Over five months, Igor Dabija and the region’s 4,200 affect- they had to travel long distances to attend ed pupils who call Transdniestria their home schools in neighbouring villages while their want nothing more in the world than to building was undergoing repairs. The school continue being educated in their native lan- finally reopened on 7 February 2005. guage in the Latin script. But come summer, As the dramatic events of summer 2004 they may have to stand guard over their approach their one-year anniversary, pupils schools again. If they have to, they should and students are happily immersed in learn- not be left on their own. OSCE MISSION TO MOLDOVA/VICTOR MUNTEANU
School children: Innocent victims of a political conflict
Moldovans comprise the largest national 27 August 1991. Moldova declares its group (34 per cent) in the region controlled by independence from the Soviet Union. In the the authorities in Tiraspol, but Ukrainians (29 following weeks and months, Transdniestrian per cent) and Russians (28 per cent) together paramilitary formations progressively take over make up a “Slavic majority”. Traditionally, previously Moldovan public institutions such as Bender as well as the industrialized cities on police stations, administrative bodies, schools, the left bank of the Dniestr river have always radio stations and newspapers. had stronger links with their old Soviet roots 2 March 1992. Developments build up into a than have Chisinau and other localities on the violent conflict after Transdniestrian forces and right bank. Moldovan police clash in Dubasari. The events in the summer of 2004 revolved 19 June 1992. A large-scale military battle around 4,000 students in six Moldovan ensues, involving the use of heavy arms. schools teaching Romanian in the Latin script. The sought-after prize: control of the city of Another 33 schools in the Transdniestrian Tighina/Bender, situated on the right side of region conduct their teaching in Moldovan the Dniester but claimed by Transdniestrian (Romanian) using the Cyrillic script. authorities. In fact, the schoolchildren are innocent victims of a larger conflict between the 21 June 1992. Moldovan units are driven central government in Chisinau and the out from Tighina/Bender. Transdniestrian authorities in Tiraspol which 21 July 1992. A ceasefire agreement is goes back to the beginning of Moldova’s signed in Moscow. process of emancipation from the Soviet Union The present. Today, historical, ethnic and in the late 1980s. religious factors do not present any serious The following key developments form the risk of conflict between the populations on backdrop: the left and right banks of the Dniestr. The 1989. Protest movements strongly in favour economic interests of the elite have become of the preservation of the Soviet Union and the major force behind the country’s continued of “socialist values” start surfacing in the division, with Transdniestrian authorities Transdniestrian region’s predominantly non- ensuring maintenance of the status quo by Moldovan cities. driving out individuals and institutions that 23 June 1990. Moldova issues declaration of they perceive as representing Chisinau’s sovereignity: Moldovan legislation is declared concerns. to be superior to Soviet Union legislation. To find out more about the work of the OSCE 2 September 1990. A Congress of Mission to Moldova, including its lead role in Transdniestrian Peoples’ Deputies declares the negotiation of a lasting political settlement the independence of the “Transndniestrian of the Transdniestrian conflict, please visit Moldovan Socialist Soviet Republic” www.osce.org/moldova from Moldova. OSCE MISSION TO MOLDOVA/LILIANA SORRENTINO
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