OSCE Commissioner ‘Regrets’ over Refusal to Visit Tskhinvali

OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities, Knut Vollebaek, said he regretted that he was again rejected to visit breakaway South Ossetia.

“I wanted to go to Tskhinvali,” he told journalists after meeting with Georgian Foreign Minister, Grigol Vashadze, in Tbilisi on January 20. “I have tried before as you know [during his visit to Georgia in October]; I was again rejected, which is clear contravention of my mandate, which says that I should have open access to all the OSCE areas. I regret that very much.”

The OSCE High Commissioner will visit breakaway Abkhazia on January 21. He said that human rights situation in the predominantly ethnic Georgian population Gali district would top the agenda of his talks with the Abkhaz authorities.

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