OSCE Condemns Detention of Observers in S.Ossetia

The OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Belgian Foreign Minister Karel De Gucht, expressed great concern on Wednesday ?at the actions of South Ossetian officers who detained at gunpoint unarmed military monitors from the OSCE Mission to Georgia on 11 July,? the OSCE press office reported.

According to the OSCE its two Military Monitoring Officers were conducting a normal patrol near the village of Zari in the zone of the Georgian-Ossetian conflict when they were surrounded by a group of heavily armed South Ossetian personnel, detained on the spot for almost an hour and prevented from communicating with their headquarters. They were then taken under close guard to Tskhinvali. They were later released.

“This was an extremely serious incident involving the threat of armed force against unarmed diplomatic personnel,” the OSCE Chairman-in-Office Karel De Gucht said.

“The fact that armed South Ossetian officers physically entered the OSCE vehicle to take the Military Monitoring Officers to Tskhinvali is a breach of internationally recognized diplomatic practice,” he added.

Minister De Gucht has demanded an explanation from the South Ossetian authorities and a clear commitment there will be no repetition of such actions.

This post is also available in: ქართული (Georgian) Русский (Russian)