Moldovans Leaving for Romania? Part 3

This news is far from impartial, since it comes from the Pro-Transnistria Tiraspol Times. But still.....


Failed state index ranks Moldova as worst in Europe

Moldova is Europe's worst country according to the 2007 Failed State Index from Washington DC. The country's Prime Minister refuses to take responsibility and instead blames everything on Transdniester. But experts now recommend that Moldova forget about its dubious territorial claim to Transdniester and instead concentrate on building a viable state at home.

For the second year running, Moldova raced towards the bottom off the heap in the world's "Failed State Index". The index, compiled in Washington DC, is a select list of places with serious governance problems.

In a ranking analyzing 177 different countries, Moldova was ranked as the most unstable state in Europe. Countries were selected on the basis of twelve indicators. Among a subset of 60 states which were rated especially unstable, Moldova took the 48th place in the rating leaving behind all other European countries. The most unfavorable ratings were doled out to Moldova in the “emigration of population” and “legitimacy of the state” sections.

Moldova's Prime Minister Vasile Tarlev, 43, washed his hands of his country's "F" by putting the blame on Trandniestria. Tarlev told the press that the stability degree in Moldova is "influenced by the existence of the breakaway Transnistrian region that cannot be controlled by the Moldovan constitutional authorities."

Some policy experts point out that Moldova's territorial claim to to Transdniestria rests on a doubtful legal and historical basis. They doubt that it will ever be successfully enforced and advise Moldova to drop the claim and instead focus on European integration.

" - The best thing they can do is to let Transdniester pursue its own future," says American commentator Michael Garner. "The most unstable countries are focusing on territorial conflicts that don't make any sense, rather than good housekeeping, nation building, creating institutional capacity and good government. Concentrate on your own future, Moldova. Don't waste more time on a stretch of land which isn't yours anymore and which only creates trouble for you if you keep insisting that you want to rule it."

"F" stands for Failed State

The Failed States Index 2007 was unveiled in Washington this week by the research organization The Fund for Peace and by Foreign Policy, an influential journal which covers international relations. Using 12 social, economic, political, and military indicators, the index ranked 177 states in order of their vulnerability to violent internal conflict and societal deterioration.

Moldova's Vasile Tarlev has now ordered the creation of a working group that will analyze the study and the reasons why Moldova was ranked among the most unstable countries in the world. It will look at what Moldova has in common with other failed states ranking at the bottom of the index.

Sudan, Iraq and Somalia also scored bad on the instability index along with Moldova as some of the most unstable countries of the world. However, all four of these failed states have stable pockets of freedom, democracy and stability which are nominally considered to be part of these states but which are in reality either already 'de facto' independent or in the process of breaking free.

In Sudan, a referendum on the independence of the Southern Sudan is scheduled for 2011. American analysts familiar with the situation expect that the outcome of the vote will create a new, Christian country with future United Nations membership.

In Iraq, some experts - including U.S. senator and presidential hopeful Joe Biden - advocate a split-up of the country into three parts. As Chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, Biden points to the success of Kurdistan in northern Iraq as a shining example of what an independent-minded population can achieve when they are left to run their own affairs in peace.

The third unstable stable, Somalia, is a mess of warring factions except in the 'de facto' independent Somaliland, which since 1991 has functioned as an unrecognized country with a stable and democratic government.

With regards to Moldova, Transdniestria declared inpendence in 1990 and today functions as the stable and peaceful Pridnestrovskaia Moldavskaia Respublica, or Pridnestrovie for short. Last year, a referendum on independence confirmed that the population of Transdniestria have no desire to be part of the Moldovan state and that they prefer the current 'de facto' independence despite a lack of official international recognition.

" - Moldova is a dictatorship, plain and simple," says Polish TV journalist Borys Hass who was prevented by police from filming a documentary in Moldova in July. Interviewing ordinary Moldovans, his planned documentary was supposed to uncover the real situation in the country.

" - But instead, we came to Transnistria and we discovered that there is a real, functioning country which is inhabited by honest, decent, hardworking people," said the film-maker who has no doubt as to which of the states is a failed state and which one has a bright future ahead of it as one of Europe's new and emerging democracies.