The National Union of Independence War Veterans will pay homage on Sunday, March 14, to the combatants who died on the battlefield near Cosnita village during the Nistru war 18 years ago. “We owe our present day to those who fought with honor and dignity for the independence of the country, those who loved their motherland and nation more than their own lives. Those were police officers and minuteman that died a hero’s death”, the Union chairman Eduard Maican has told Info-Prim Neo. The commemorations will start with a traditional rally, followed by a flower-laying ceremony at the tombs of the Moldovan combatants. Some 2,000 people are expected to attend, including officials, Cosnita residents and war veterans. On 14 March 1992 a company of police officers and minutemen in the village of Cosnita opposed troops of the Russian 14th Army and of the separatists. Almost every family in Cosnita lost someone in those hostilities.