Chairman-in-Office Regrets Suspension of OSCE Border Monitoring in Georgia
The OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Slovenian Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel said, while addressing the OSCE Permanent Council on January 13, that he regrets that the OSCE border monitoring operation in Georgia was not extended.
At the session of the OSCE Permanent Council in Vienna on December 30 Russia vetoed to prolong the border monitoring mission in Georgia, citing that the OSCE border monitoring mission in Georgia has “already achieved its aims.”
?Like many others, I regret that the Border Monitoring Operation [BOM] was not extended. The BOM has been a vital confidence-building measure in the volatile region. It demonstrates the OSCE?s growing border-monitoring capabilities. Indeed, it is one of the most challenging operations that the OSCE has ever carried out in terms of the terrain and conditions under which OSCE staff have worked. I know that Georgia would like to have international assistance for border management and security and we should be receptive to the call,? the OSCE Chairman-in-Office Dimitrij Rupel said.
Up to 150 unarmed observers from OSCE member countries conducted round-the-clock foot, air and vehicle monitoring procedures along the 280 km Daghestani, Chechen and Ingush sections of the Russian-Georgian border, in an effort to observe and report border-crossing movements.
