OSCE decides to establish an Advisory and Monitoring Group in Belarus

VIENNA, 18 September 1997 - The Chairman-in-Office of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Minister for Foreign Affairs of Denmark, Mr. Niels Helveg Petersen, has issued the following statement on the situation in Belarus:

On 18 September 1997 the OSCE Permanent Council decided to establish an OSCE Advisory and Monitoring Group in Belarus. According to its mandate, the Advisory and Monitoring Group will assist the Belarusian authorities in promoting democratic institutions and in complying with other OSCE commitments. The Advisory and Monitoring Group will also be tasked with monitoring and reporting on this process.

The Chairman-in-Office of the OSCE, Danish Foreign Minister Mr. Niels Helveg Petersen, welcomes the decision of the Permanent Council.

"Today's decision by the OSCE Permanent Council constitutes an important step forward in the efforts to promote democratic development in Belarus. The establishment of an OSCE Advisory and Monitoring Group in Belarus aims at consolidating the necessary dialogue with Belarus and at providing the Belarusian authorities with ready access to expertise and advice on OSCE commitments and principles".

Following the decision by the OSCE Permanent Council talks will be initiated between the OSCE Secretariat in Vienna, the Belarusian authorities, and the Chairman-in-Office on technical modalities of the Advisory and Monitoring Group in order for it to begin its work in the near future.

The mandate of the OSCE Advisory and Monitoring Group was negotiated with Belarus by the Chairman-in-Office and his Personal Representative for Belarus, Ambassador Ole Bierring. An OSCE presence in Belarus was one of the main recommendations made to the Chairman-in-Office by his then Personal Representative, Ambassador Rudolph Thorning-Petersen after a fact-finding mission to Belarus in April 1997.