Ukraine Orders Alternate Routes Opened Into Moldova

4 August 2004 -- The government of Ukraine ordered transport authorities today to open alternate routes to Moldova after demonstrators from Moldova's breakaway region of Transdniester blocked rail traffic.
Hundreds of passenger and cargo vehicles were prevented from traveling between Ukraine's Black Sea port of Odesa and the Moldovan capital Chisinau.

The route between the two commercial hubs traverses the restive Transdniester region, where hundreds of women blocked rail traffic today into and out of the Russian-speaking region. Some of the demonstrators carried signs protesting recent moves by the Moldovan government.

Moldova's government effectively imposed sanctions against Transdniester on 1 August after pro-Russian separatists in the region closed down several schools for teaching students in the Latin, rather than Cyrillic, script.

(dpa/AP)