OSCE Chairman encourages UN Security Council to seek OSCE support in Iraq, Afghanistan

NEW YORK, 7 May 2004 - The OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Bulgarian Foreign Minister Solomon Passy, told the United Nations Security Council on Friday that the 55-nation security body would be willing to offer its assistance in rebuilding democratic institutions in Iraq and Afghanistan if requested to do so by the UN.

The OSCE, Europe's largest security organization, had considerable expertise and experience in organizing elections, building democratic institutions and training police, he said.

"These are areas in which Iraq and Afghanistan urgently need support. If the Security Council asks the OSCE and other regional organizations for assistance, I am confident that it will be possible to find consensus within the OSCE on this," the Chairman-in-Office said.

The OSCE, which covers a territory stretching from Vancouver to Vladivostok, has not operated "out-of-area" until now and neither Iraq nor Afghanistan are members. However, Afghanistan became an OSCE Partner for Co-operation last year.

In his address, Minister Passy highlighted the OSCE's work in fighting terrorism and crime and improving border security, areas in which it works closely with the UN. He described the OSCE as a special partner for the United Nations.

"With its unique comprehensive approach to security - stressing human rights and economic development as well as political-military issues - the OSCE today remains the primary instrument for early warning, conflict prevention, crisis management and post-conflict rehabilitation in its region," the Chairman-in-Office said.

In the UN-led fight against international terrorism, the OSCE was concentrating on practical issues such as travel document security, the threat to civil aviation from shoulder-fired missiles and improving ways of stopping the financing of terrorism.

Calling on the international community to do more to break the link between crime and conflict, Minister Passy said the OSCE had developed a special expertise in policing, launching programmes to make police forces both more effective and more democratically accountable in a number of countries.

"When there is effective, democratically controlled policing, societies will be more stable and more integrated. We should not wait until crises deteriorate to the point where peace-keeping is required. We should do more to strengthen policing within States, where necessary with the support of the international community."

The Chairman-in-Office said the OSCE was devoting greater attention to border management and security.

"As Europe transforms, borders are becoming more open, but this openness is being exploited by traffickers in drugs, people and weapons. The challenge is to facilitate legitimate cross-border travel and commerce, protecting human rights and promoting human contacts, while ensuring a level of security that is commensurate with the threats of illegal cross-border activities."

The Chairman-in-Office said the OSCE and the UN worked well together in the field, citing their operations in Kosovo as one example. "The recent violence in Kosovo has once again shown that the international community must act in concert for the progress there to be maintained and become truly sustainable," he said.

Minister Passy said there was scope for sharing the OSCE's experience in co-operative security with other parts of the world, particularly in areas adjacent to the OSCE region.

"OSCE institutions and commitments may be inspirational to others who, like us, are searching for ways to prevent conflict, improve bilateral and regional relations, and live in secure, pluralistic and lawful societies. This has been the OSCE's aim for the past thirty years," he said.