OSCE Special Representative says Organization's Georgia monitors are needed on both sides of administrative boundary line

VIENNA, 30 April 2009 - The OSCE's unarmed military monitoring officers in Georgia need to be deployed on both sides of the administrative boundary line, the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office's Special Representative, Ambassador Charalampos Christopoulos, said today.

In a speech to the OSCE's Permanent Council, Christopoulos welcomed the commitment to strengthen security in the region demonstrated at a first meeting on working-level Mechanisms to deal with security-related incidents that took place last week as "a major step forward".

"The Chairmanship is convinced that in order for the Mechanisms to become operational and efficient, we need to deploy OSCE monitors on both sides of the administrative boundary line. This is of course linked to the wider question of the OSCE presence in the region," he said.

He added recent incidents, including the 21 April detention of two OSCE monitors, underlined the need for Mechanism meetings to be held regularly to discuss security concerns. A second meeting is scheduled for next week. The Mechanisms were agreed on at a meeting of the Geneva Discussions, which are co-chaired by the OSCE, the European Union and the United Nations.

The Greek OSCE Chairmanship is leading negotiations that aim to find consensus for a way to continue OSCE work in Georgia. The mandate for the OSCE Mission to Georgia ended on 31 December.

On Transnistria, Christopolous said he welcomed the sides' commitment to renew work in the 5+2 format, which includes Moldova, Transnistria, Russia, Ukraine, the OSCE and observers from the European Union and the United States.

"I look forward to a renewal of formal, regular negotiations in this format as soon as possible," he said.

He also emphasized the importance of direct contact between residents of both sides of the river, and said he hoped that the work of joint Moldovan-Transnistrian expert groups on matters such as transportation and infrastructure, health care, economic issues and ecology would resume soon.