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MoldovaProgress Toward Political Accommodation
New parliamentary elections were held in Moldova on
February
27, 1994. Although the election was described by
international
observers as free and fair, authorities in Transnistria
refused
to allow balloting there and made efforts to discourage
the
inhabitants from participating. Only some 7,500
inhabitants voted
at specially established precincts in right-bank Moldova.
The new Parliament, with its Democratic Agrarian Party
of
Moldova majority, did not face the same gridlock that
characterized the old Parliament with its majority of
Popular
Front hard-line nationalists: legislation was passed, and
changes
were made. President Snegur signed the Partnership for
Peace
agreement of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
in
March 1994, and in April Parliament approved Moldova's
membership
in the Commonwealth of Independent States
(CIS--see Glossary) and
in a CIS charter on economic union. On July 28, Parliament
ratified a new constitution, which went into effect August
27,
1994, and provided substantial autonomy to Transnistria
and to
Gagauzia.
Russia and Moldova signed an agreement in October 1994
on the
withdrawal of Russian troops from Transnistria, but the
Russian
government balked at ratifying it, and another stalemate
ensued.
Although the cease-fire was still in effect at the
beginning of
1995 and further negotiations were to include the
Conference on
Security and Cooperation in Europe and the United Nations,
there
was little hope for progress in the near future toward
settling
the dispute and getting the Russian troops to leave.
In March and April 1995, Moldovan college and
secondaryschool students staged a series of strikes and
demonstrations in
Chisinau to protest the government's cultural and
educational
policies. The students were joined by segments of the
local
intelligentsia and later by workers and pensioners who
were
protesting for economic reasons. The most emotional issue
was
that of the national language: should it be Moldovan, as
named in
the 1994 constitution, or Romanian as most experts agree?
(See Language
, this ch.)
In an April 27 speech to Parliament, President Snegur
asked
Parliament to amend the constitution and change the name
of the
language to Romanian. The government's final decision was
postponed until the fall because of the stipulation that
six
months must pass before a proposed change to the
constitution can
be made. The student demonstrators declared a moratorium
on
further strikes until September 6.
In 1995 Moldova was still faced with substantial
domestic
social and economic problems, but it seemed to be on the
road to
making progress toward the ideal of an open-market
democracy. The
country's complex ethnic makeup and the political legacy
of the
Soviet period continued to contribute to the government's
difficulties, but the fall from power of the extreme
nationalists
in the 1994 parliamentary elections lowered ethnic
tensions and
allowed compromises to be made with the major ethnic
groups. With
Russia now a partner in negotiations on Transnistria and
with
pledges by the new government to respect the rights of the
country's Russian-speaking populace, the threat of
international
hostilities has been greatly reduced.
Data as of June 1995
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