Denying basic utilities to people affected by conflict inexcusable, says OSCE Chairmanship official

GENEVA, 7 June 2011 –The Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office for Protracted Conflicts, Giedrius Čekuolis, today called on all parties to urgently improve conditions for people affected by the August 2008 conflict.

The co-chairs of the 16th round of the Geneva International Discussions - Antti Turunen of the UN, Pierre Morel of the EU and Giedrius Čekuolis of the OSCE - assessed the security situation as stable, but unpredictable, with a potential for dangerous escalation due to highly worrying developments and incidents.

Čekuolis expressed concern about the difficulty the local communities face to move freely, noting that the freedom of movement varied greatly along the length of the boundary line.

“It is our collective responsibility to ensure that local residents can exercise their freedom of movement,” he said. He also appealed for the release of detained local residents without delay.

He also underlined the failure to restore gas to the affected communities as “one of the biggest challenges which negatively affect the daily life of the local population".

"Schools cannot be properly heated during the long winter and sanitation conditions in homes are poor,” Čekuolis said, adding that this issue will remain high on his agenda “I see no excuse for denying basic utilities to those affected by the conflict.”

The OSCE Chairmanship will continue to be actively engaged in the resolution of protracted conflicts and is working on confidence-building measures, Čekuolis said. The OSCE briefed the meeting on the progress of such projects to restore water supply.

The Geneva discussions take place in two parallel working groups. One group deals with security and stability and the other with humanitarian questions, including internally displaced persons and refugees.

The Co-Chairs agreed with the participants that the next meeting will be in Geneva on 4 October 2011.