Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
07CHISINAU1435
2007-12-10 09:40:00
UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY
Embassy Chisinau
Cable title:  

TRANSNISTRIAN CEMETERY HONORS ROMANIAN WAR DEAD

Tags:  PBTS PGOV PHUM PREL MD 
pdf how-to read a cable
VZCZCXRO7722
RR RUEHAG RUEHAST RUEHDA RUEHDF RUEHFL RUEHIK RUEHKW RUEHLA RUEHLN
RUEHLZ RUEHPOD RUEHROV RUEHSR RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHCH #1435 3440940
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 100940Z DEC 07 ZDK
FM AMEMBASSY CHISINAU
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 5988
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
UNCLAS CHISINAU 001435 

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE

SIPDIS

STATE FOR EUR/UMB and DRL/AE

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PBTS PGOV PHUM PREL MD
SUBJECT: TRANSNISTRIAN CEMETERY HONORS ROMANIAN WAR DEAD


SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED. PLEASE PROTECT ACCORDINGLY.

REFS: A) CHISINAU 986, B) CHISINAU 872, C) CHISINAU 868

UNCLAS CHISINAU 001435

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE

SIPDIS

STATE FOR EUR/UMB and DRL/AE

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PBTS PGOV PHUM PREL MD
SUBJECT: TRANSNISTRIAN CEMETERY HONORS ROMANIAN WAR DEAD


SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED. PLEASE PROTECT ACCORDINGLY.

REFS: A) CHISINAU 986, B) CHISINAU 872, C) CHISINAU 868


1. (SBU) Summary: After earlier refusals, Transnistrian (TN)
authorities allowed an Embassy officer to cross into TN-controlled
territory to check conflicting claims about the graves of Romanian
World War II dead in Bender. A visit to the Dragalina Cemetery
revealed careful and sensitive restoration, Transnistrian complaints
about Romanian politicization, and some insights into getting
official visitors across the line. End summary.

What a Difference Two Months Make
--------------


2. (SBU) On December 4, Pol-Econ Officer Michael Mates was greeted
by name and with a smile at the Transnistrian "Migration Service"
(part of the "Ministry of Interior") checkpoint, the final hurdle to
entry into Transnistria. The welcome contrasted sharply with
earlier denials of Mates and other emboffs (reftels).

The Cemetery: All Laid to Rest with Respect
--------------


3. (SBU) Colonel Gregoriy Vilkov, the head of the "Ministry of
Interior's" public relations department, explained that the
"Ministry of Interior" got the job of restoring the cemetery because
the property fell under his Ministry's aegis. The Ministry put
Vilkov in charge of the task because he is an historian by training.
He described the site as a former dump, reduced in size from 10 to
1.5 hectares by 1970's road-building and housing construction.
Because of neglect, all the headstones, some dating back to 1811,
were equally derelict. With a modest but serious pride he showed us
the large, ground-level black marble plaques honoring the dead, who
are grouped by nation: Russians from the 19th century, French and
British from post-World War I interventions against the Bolsheviks,
and Russians and Romanians from World War II. A crew of five
workers is restoring original headstones, some of which are broken
into several pieces and lying flat, and sprucing up the rest of the
cemetery.

The Romanian Graves Respected
--------------


4. (SBU) Vilkov showed us the plaque, written in Romanian and
Russian, and dedicated "to the Romanian officers and soldiers fallen
and deceased in Bender, 1941-1944, buried in this cemetery." (Note:
The word "decedat" in Romanian was misspelled "desedat" on the
plaque. End note.) Behind the plaque, 33 white-painted Celtic
crosses, known to have commemorated the Romanian dead, were arrayed.
Vilkov explained that the inscriptions had been erased, either by
time or by Soviet hands. Before-and-after photographs of the
Romanian headstones can be seen at the "Ministry of Interior's"
website on http://www.mvdpmr.org/index.php?option=com_da tsogaller
y&Itemid=48&func=viewcategory&catid=13

The Romanian Authorities Dismissive
--------------


5. (SBU) The even tenor of Vilkov's remarks was broken when he
showed us the letter from the Romanian Embassy in Chisinau. He
described the letter with a Russian barnyard epithet and then shared
its contents: after listing the 337 Romanian dead known to them,
the Romanian authorities, addressing the Transnistrian authorities
as "separatist elements," demanded exclusive access to and control
of the site commemorating their dead, and the right to finance all
reconstruction. Vilkov sharply contrasted this letter, whose
contents closely follow Romanian government and press statements
about the issue, with the cooperative efforts of the British and
French embassies in Chisinau, and declared that the dead should be
honored, and not politicized. He then extended an invitation to the
opening of the cemetery (which will include a chapel and a museum,
now both under construction),which is set for October 8, 2008, the
600th anniversary of the founding of Bender.

Comment
--------------


6. (SBU) We learned several lessons from this trip: that the
Transnistrian authorities, at least in the case of the Dragalina
Cemetery, can act with dignity and fairness, especially considering
what Romanian soldiers, as Hitler's allies, did in the region in
World War II. We need to persuade the Government of Romania that
its image is not helped by acting contumaciously on the issue, and
that its representative should be on the platform on opening day at
the cemetery complex next October.

Kirby