DUBOSSARY. Oct 24 (Interfax) - Tension broke out near the village of Pogrebya in the Moldovan-Transdniestrian conflict zone after Transdniestrian authorities put up a border checkpoint on a road from the village to the Tiraspol-Dubossary highway.
Deputy Commander of the Dubossary border service Lt. Andrei Borshch has told Interfax that the Moldovan side responded by staging protests near the checkpoint.
"Policemen wearing civilian clothes, activists of nationalist-minded groups from nearby communities under Moldovan jurisdiction, in all about 400 people, were massing on the adjoining side, demanding that the checkpoint be removed," the officer said.
About 50 public activists from the Transdniestrian cities of Grigoriopol and Dubossary arrived at the scene, he said.Military observers of Russia, Ukraine, Transdniestria and Moldova managed to defuse tension by persuading the protesters to go home.
The trilateral Joint Control Commission will hold an emergency session on Tuesday in the wake of the incident, the commission's Transdniestrian co-chairman, Oleg Belyakov, told Interfax.
Meanwhile, another Transdniestrian border checkpoint was put up to the left of the Dubossary hydropower plant last night in what Transdniestria explained was a forced measure, given the increased flows of citizens and cars crossing the Moldovan-Transdniestrian border.
Pogrebya is a village under Chisinau's jurisdiction on the left bank of the Dniester.
At the beginning of September, the Moldovan authorities began rebuilding the road from the village to the Tiraspol-Dubossary highway. Following a rise in passenger and cargo traffic, Transdniestria put up a mobile border post first and replaced it with a stationary checkpoint last night.
The joint peacekeeping force patrolling the conflict area comprises 402 Russian, 492 Transdniestrian and 355 Moldovan servicemen, and ten military observers from Ukraine