Timeline of Events in The War of Transnistria - 1992

1992

• 3 January 1992: The building housing the KGB unit at Tighina is occupied by separatists.
• 3 January 1992: The mayor of Varniţa, A. Cuconescu, and several other people are arrested in Varniţa Town Hall and taken to Tiraspol where they are interrogated and threatened with prison. They are later freed after a request from the Chişinău authorities.
• 6 January: On the road between Dubăsari and Rîbniţa 6 armed Transnistrian guards capture Moldovan policemen P. Frecăuţan and H. Adam. They are ordered to leave the region with their families and are threatened with death if they refuse.
• 9 January 1992: 70 armed separatists attack a column of trucks from military unit 07481, which transports weapons from Hlinaia (Grigoriopol district) to Chişinău. Trucks, weapons and ammunition are all captured by the separatists.
• 12 January 1992: Transnistrian guards open fire on a car belonging to the Moldovan police in Dubăsari. 2 people, policemen S. Ţîstoi and a passenger, are wounded. In another incident at Dubăsari, another 2 people are wounded, policeman S. Manole and G. Damaschin.
• 13 January 1992: E. Martin and V. Plămădeală are shot and wounded by Transnistrian guards at an exit point from Dubăsari.
• 15 January 1992: 2 policemen and a woman are wounded when gunfire is opened on a Moldovan police car.
• 22 January 1992: The prosecutor of Tighina, L. Toderaş, is arrested again. Following talks with the Moldovan police he is later freed.
• 25 January 1992: L. Toderaş, prosecutor of Tighina, is arrested yet again. His family and colleagues are threatened.
• 29 January 1992: Separatist militia arrest a group of drunken cossacks in Tiraspol. The headquarters of this militia is then blocked by a committee of local women. The cossacks are later freed.
• 30 January 1992: There are attacks against several units of the Moldovan police in Tighina. 39 policemen are arrested. The Transport Police section is stormed and the building later set on fire. 18 guns and 6 cars are stolen.
• 31 January 1992: 4 policemen are arrested in Tighina and subsequently beaten.
• 1 February 1992: F. Ţurcan is killed at a check-point by Transnistrian guards in Lunga, a village near Dubăsari. Turcan's car is fired on despite him responding to a request from the Transnistrian guards to stop his vehicle.
• 2 February 1992: Also at Lunga, policeman V. Rusu is wounded after his car is stopped by 18 separatists guards.
• 4 February 1992: The deputy of the Tighina Police unit, A. Corolicov, and police officer O. Pavliuc are arrested when they return from duty. They are subsequently beaten and their weapons confiscated.
• 12 February 1992: The medical nursery school Tighina is closed by Transnistrian authorities.
• 14 February 1992: People from Transnistria are heading to Moscow to inform public opinion about human rights abuses in Transnistria.
• 19 February 1992: The Customs building in Dubăsari is attacked by separatist forces and Customs officers are beaten. Their weapons are confiscated.
• 20 February 1992: Peaceful demonstrators occur in Lunga, near Dubăsari, where the people are protesting against a referendum organised in the village by the Transnistrian authorities. The demonstration is later broken up by force. The protestors are fired on and tear gas used against them. The order to use force is made by Alexandru Porojan, a separatist leader from Dubăsari.
• 21 February 1992: In Slobozia, the bank accounts of 2 schools which refuse to accept the legitimacy of the Transnistrian authorities, are closed down.
• 22 February 1992: Military unit 01002 is attacked by separatists. 95 officers and soldiers are ambushed and driven to a bridge over the Dniester river. They are then told to go on to Chişinău on foot.
• 29 February 1992: Unknown assailants armed with automatic guns stop a car near Dubova and kill the driver, N. Boiniceanu. Another person is wounded. In addition, the gunmen rob all the passengers in the vehicle. .
• After Moldova became a member of the United Nations on 2 March 1992, Moldovan President Mircea Snegur (president from 1990 to 1996) authorized concerted military action against PMR forces which had been attacking police outposts loyal to the Moldovan government on the left bank of the river Dniester (Nistru), and on a smaller section of the right bank around the southern city of Tighina (Bender/Bendery). The PMR forces, aided by contingents of Russian Cossacks and the Russian 14th Army, consolidated their control over most of the disputed area.
• 17 March 1992, Moldova had troops under the Ministry of the Interior. On 17 March 1992, they started recruiting troops for the newly created Ministry of Defence.
• 5 April 1992, Vice-President Rutskoy of Russia, in a speech delivered to 5,000 people in Tiraspol, encouraged the Transnistrian people to obtain their independence.
• On June 2, 1992, Ilie Ilaşcu and three more ethnic Romanians, members of the "Ilaşcu group" (Ilaşcu together with Andrei Ivanţoc, Alexandru Leşco and Tudor Petrov Popa) were arrested by the breakaway Transnistrian government and charged with the murder of two separatist officials.
• 21 July 1992, a ceasefire was declared, which has held ever since.