OSCE Envoy Meets Lavrov in Tskhinvali

Terhi Hakala, the head of the OSCE Mission to Georgia, met Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Tskhinvali on September 15.

“We discussed the access of OSCE Military Monitoring Officers to South Ossetia and the need for restrictions to be lifted on freedom of movement of the OSCE Mission as well as the possibility of reopening the OSCE Field Office in Tskhinvali,” Ambassador Hakala said. “I emphasised the need to protect the civilian population in war-affected areas and the need for humanitarian aid to be delivered as soon as possible.”

Lavrov said at a joint news conference with the South Ossetian leader, Eduard Kokoity, in Tskhinvali that Moscow would firmly insist on the South Ossetian side’s participation in discussions before any South Ossetia-related issue was decided by the Vienna-based organization.

The OSCE Field Office in Tskhinvali was evacuated on August 8. Before the evacuation, the OSCE had eight unarmed monitors there observing the situation within a 15-km radius around Tskhinvali. The September 8 agreement between the Russian and French presidents envisages a return of the eight monitors to Tskhinvali and the resumption of the observation mission in accordance with the mandate they had before the August hostilities.

The OSCE deployed an additional 20 observers in Georgia, but they are unable to gain access to South Ossetia. Talks are still underway in Vienna on the modalities of the deployment of another 80 OSCE observers, but there seems to be no progress on the matter.

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