News and press releases

VIENNA, 30 August 2001 (OSCE)- H.E. Mrs. Ilinka Mitreva, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia addressed today the 55 States on the Permanent Council of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe.

YEREVAN, 29 August, 200 (OSCE)-- A survey that presents a picture of the judgments, attitudes and assessment of political developments in Armenia, as seen by students in Yerevan, was published yesterday with the support of the OSCE.

MINSK, 29 August, 2001 (OSCE)-- Kimmo Kiljunen MP (Finland), the Vice-President of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, visited Minsk on 28 and 29 August 2001. Mr. Kiljunen has been named by the OSCE Chairman-in-Office as Special Co-ordinator...

WARSAW, 27 August 2001 (OSCE)-- Citing government obstruction, the Director of Europe's leading election observation agency cancelled a planned visit to oversee OSCE preparations for the observation of the upcoming presidential election in Belarus.

VIENNA, 27 August 2001 (OSCE)-- The death of a British soldier, who was serving with the NATO forces sent to collect weapons from the armed group opposed to the Government of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, was sharply condemned today

PRISTINA, 27 August 2001 (OSCE)-- The OSCE is holding a series of workshops for women candidates for the Kosovo Assembly election. The sessions will discuss the role of women in politics and how they can contribute to democratic governance in Kosovo.

DUSHANBE, 23 August 2001 (OSCE)-- A round table organized in collaboration with the OSCE Mission to Tajikistan has agreed on a set of recommendations to be put to the Government.

COPENHAGEN, 23 August 2001 (OSCE)- OSCE Parliamentary Assembly Vice-President Kimmo Kiljunen MP (Finland) will lead the OSCE Observers for the Presidential Elections in Belarus on Sunday 9 September 2001.

SARAJEVO, 23 August 2001 (OSCE)-- With regard to recent media reports about a legal controversy regarding alleged illegal occupancy of real property in the region of Banja Luka, the OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina wishes to reiterate...

SARAJEVO, 23 August 2001 (OSCE)-- The Acting Head of the OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Dieter Woltmann, and the High Representative, Wolfgang Petritsch, wholeheartedly welcome the adoption of the Election Law by the Bosnia and Herzegovina...

BUCHAREST, 22 August 2001 (OSCE)-- The OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Romanian Foreign Minister Mircea Geoana, welcomes the decision taken by the Kyrgyz President, Askar Akayev, to sign a decree on pardoning the well-known human...

SKOPJE, 22 August 2001 (OSCE)- Ambassador Craig Jenness from Canada has been appointed as new Head of the OSCE Spillover Monitor Mission to Skopje. He took up his duties on 20 August. Prior to this new position, Ambassador Jenness has been...

VIENNA, 21 August 2001 (OSCE)-- On 17 August, 400,000 copies of a special issue of the independent Belarus newspaper Nasha Svaboda were confiscated at the private publishing house Magic in Minsk by police from the Committee for Financial...

SKOPJE, 21 August 2001 (OSCE)-- The OSCE Mission to Skopje strongly condemns the destruction of the Lesok Monastery in the early hours of today. According to first findings, the destruction seems to be a deliberate and premeditated...

DUSHANBE, 17 August 2001 (OSCE)-- From 20 August to 3 September, the OSCE Mission to Tajikistan organizes a two-week summer camp for university students from the Sught Province in North Tajikistan...

PRISTINA, 16 August 2001 (OSCE)- Today, the Kosovo Media Appeals Board met to consider the decision of the Temporary Media Commissioner on 20 February 2001 to impose on the owner(s) and publisher(s) of the newspaper \"Epoka E Re\"...

SKOPJE, 15 August 2001 (OSCE)-- In response to allegations from some media and from the Macedonian Ministry of Interior, which have already been corrected by Minister Boshkovski on 14 August, the OSCE Mission to Skopje would like to state the following:

BUCHAREST, 13 August 2001 (OSCE)- The Chairman-in-Office of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, Romanian Foreign Minister Mircea Geoana, participated today in the signing ceremony of the Framework Agreement...

PRISTINA, 13 August 2001 (OSCE)-- The OSCE-run Kosovo Judicial Institute and Kosovo Police Service School are holding a two-day roundtable on ways to improve working relations between Kosovo\'s police force and investigative...

PRISTINA, 13 August 2001 (OSCE)-- The way has been prepared for political parties, citizens\' initiatives and coalitions to put together their lists of candidates for the forthcoming Kosovo-wide election scheduled for 17 November...

BUCHAREST, 12 August 2001 (OSCE)- The Chairman-in-Office of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, Romanian Foreign Minister Mircea Geoana, will travel tomorrow to Skopje to participate in the planned signing...

BELGRADE, 10 August 2001 (OSCE)-- Representatives of the OSCE Mission to the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia met with relatives of two victims of the 1999 Radio Televizija Srbije (RTS) bombing in Aberdareva Street...

SARAJEVO, 9 August 2001 (OSCE)- On Monday, the Bosnia and Herzegovina daily Glas Srpski published a 12-page list of names provided by the Republika Srpska Government Documentation Centre in Banja Luka. The names purportedly belong to individuals...

YEREVAN, 9 August 2001 (OSCE)- For the second consecutive year the OSCE Office in Yerevan has supported an international summer work camp in Armenia. This grass root project introduced and implemented by Voluntary Service of Armenia...

PRISTINA, 9 August 2001 (OSCE)-- The Head of the OSCE Mission in Kosovo, Daan Everts, has whole-heartedly condemned the attack on an elderly Roma woman outside a registration centre...

SKOPJE, 8 August 2001 (OSCE)-- The OSCE strongly condemns the attack by ethnic Albanian armed groups on the convoy of Macedonian security forces on the road Skopje-Tetovo of this morning, which led to several casualties...

SKOPJE, 7 August 2001 (OSCE)-- Recent observations have shown disturbing indications that the historic monument of the Arabati Baba Teke Dervish Monastery and the area next to the Painted Mosque in Tetovo are used as a base of military operations...

SARAJEVO, 7 August 2001 (OSCE)- Bosnia and Herzegovina has the highest percentage of women in political office of all 12 countries covered by the Stability Pact for South-Eastern Europe...

WARSAW, 6 August 2001 (OSCE)- Belarusian authorities are obstructing an effective international observation of their upcoming presidential election by denying entry to Europe's principal election observation institution.

BELGRADE, 6 August 2001 (OSCE)-- The third phase of multi-ethnic police training in southern Serbia, organized jointly by the Serbian Ministry of the Interior and the OSCE Mission to the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, will start today

PRISTINA, 6 August 2001 (OSCE)-- People in Kosovo who believe their rights regarding the electoral process have been violated have a right to turn to the Election Complaints and Appeals Commission (ECAC).

PRISTINA, 3 August 2001 (OSCE)-- After a temporary closure of registration centres in Serbia proper during the first week of registration, a steadily growing number of people are now seeking to be registered for the general elections in Kosovo...

PRISTINA, 2 August 2001 (OSCE)-- The Head of the OSCE Mission in Kosovo, Daan Everts, has signed an agreement with the Serbian Commissariat for Refugees on monitoring the voter registration process in the current registration...

BUCHAREST, 2 August 2001 (OSCE)- The Chairman-in-Office of the OSCE, Romanian Foreign Minister Mircea Geoana, took note with appreciation of the removal, by the Kazakh Government, of the exit visas system, following the decree on 28 July...

PRISTINA, 31 July 2001 (OSCE)-- The OSCE-supported Department for Democratic Governance and Civil Society, part of Kosovo's Joint Interim Administrative Structure (JIAS), opened a contact office to assist with political party registration...

BUCHAREST, 31 July 2001 (OSCE)- The Chairman-in-Office of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), Romanian Foreign Minister Mircea Geoana, met yesterday in Bucharest Mr. Paskal Milo, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Albania...

ALMATY, 31 July 2001 (OSCE)- The OSCE Centre in Almaty commends Kazakhstan for having abolished the so-called exit visas by governmental decree on 28 July. In the light of OSCE commitments and repeated recommendations from the OSCE...

WARSAW, 30 July 2001 (OSCE)- The Belarusian authorities today informed the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) that it should delay deployment of its Mission to observe the upcoming Presidential election...

VIENNA, 27 July 2001 (OSCE)-- On 27 July, Freimut Duve, the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, intervened with the Italian Foreign Minister Renato Ruggiero regarding actions by the Italian police against journalists...

PRISTINA, 27 July 2001 (OSCE)-- The OSCE Mission in Kosovo is going to update the province\'s voters\' list in a six-week exercise that begins on Monday, 30 July. The Mission\'s office for voter services is setting up 48 sites across Kosovo...

SKOPJE, 27 July 2001 (OSCE)- The Chairman-in-Office of the OSCE, Romanian Foreign Minister Mircea Geoana, visited Skopje yesterday, together with NATO Secretary General Lord George Robertson and European Union Foreign Policy High Representative...

BUCHAREST, 26 July 2001 (OSCE)-- The OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Romanian Foreign Minister Mircea Geoana, is travelling today to the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. In Skopje, he will meet with the NATO Secretary General...

BUCHAREST, 25 July 2001 (OSCE)-- The Chairman-in-Office of the OSCE, Romanian Foreign Minister Mircea Geoana, has expressed his deep concern about the recent outburst of violence in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia...

WARSAW, 24 July 2001 (OSCE)- Ambassador Gerard Stoudmann, Director of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), met today in Warsaw with Mr. Alexander Veshnyakov, Chairman of the Russian Federation Central Election...

TIRANA, 23 July 2001 (OSCE)-- The two weeks leading up to yesterday's third round of Albanian parliamentary elections served to highlight remaining electoral deficiencies, concluded the International Election Observation Mission...

PRISTINA, 23 July 2001 (OSCE)-- The four week period for political party certification for Kosovo\'s upcoming elections ended at 1700, on Friday, 20 July...

TBLISI, 22 July 2001-- In an emergency flight, an OSCE helicopter brought 14 people- including six children- from the village of Omalo in Georgia to the country\'s capital Tbilisi yesterday, on 21 July...

VIENNA, 20 July 2001 (OSCE)- The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) deeply regrets the death of three members of the European Union Monitoring Mission (EUMM) in the north-western part of the former Yugoslav...

DUSHANBE, 20 July 2001 (OSCE)- A two-day seminar for political parties and movements of Tajikistan on \"Party Leadership Skills and Strengthening Party Long-Term Planning\" ended yesterday in Dushanbe...

CHISINAU, 20 July 2001 (OSCE)-- On 19 July, a group of demonstrators intruded into the Tiraspol office of the OSCE Mission to Moldova, purportedly in protest of the disposal of Russian arms which has been proceeding...