OSCE Georgia Mission expands border monitoring operation

TBILISI, 2 January 2002 - The OSCE Mission to Georgia today deployed a team of five international border monitors to the village of Sno, north-eastern Georgia, where a new OSCE border monitoring base has been established. The deployment is part of the expansion of the Mission's two-year-old border monitoring operation, which will now cover the border between Georgia and the Ingush Republic of the Russian Federation.

OSCE monitors will begin patrolling this stretch of the Georgian border tomorrow, 3 January. Preparations are also underway for the establishment of a presence in the Assa Valley, covering the eastern section of the border with the Ingush Republic.

The OSCE border monitoring operation in Georgia began in December 1999, when the mandate of the OSCE Mission to Georgia was expanded to include monitoring and reporting on movement across the 82-kilometre mountainous border between Georgia and the Chechen Republic of the Russian Federation. On 13 December 2001, the OSCE Permanent Council decided to expand the operation to include the border between Georgia and the Ingush Republic, to the west of Chechnya.

"The expansion of the OSCE border monitoring operation is a significant contribution to stability in this volatile region," said Ambassador Jean-Michel Lacombe, Head of the OSCE Mission to Georgia.

The expansion takes the total number of OSCE personnel engaged in the border monitoring operation in Georgia up to 42 during the winter period and a maximum of 54 in the summer. They operate from four bases: Shatili, Girevi, Omala and Sno.

The monitors are unarmed and have no enforcement responsibilities, but act with full respect for the sovereignty of the Georgian authorities over their own borders. The Government has given assurances that it will provide security for the monitors and ensure their freedom of movement.