SCRIPT DISPUTE FLARES UP IN TRANSDNIESTER.

Moldovan president Mircea Snegur has appealed officially to international groups for help in reopening Moldovan schools closed by Transdniester authorities in retaliation for the teaching of the native language in the Latin script rather than in Cyrillic. Snegur’s appeal for intercession with the Transdniester authorities was directed toward the OSCE, Russia, and Ukraine–the three mediators in the Transdniester settlement talks — and also to international human rights organizations. In the latest incidents in the script dispute, two more Moldovan schools were seized in recent days by Transdniester military police and Russian Cossacks. (Basapress, Flux, October 1 through 3)

Imposition of the Cyrillic script on non-Slavic peoples was a major feature of forced russification in the former USSR. Transdniester represents the only known case in which local Russians have successfully opposed the use of a non-Cyrillic script by the native population for its own language. Transdniester Russians are a ruling minority comprising 25 percent of the region’s population.

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