OSCE wants to return to Georgia’s breakaway regions

The Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) is looking for a way to restore its observer mission in the Russian-occupied regions of Georgia after being snubbed out following the 2008 Russia-Georgia war.

OSCE top official, Secretary General Lamberto Zannier, met Georgia’s Foreign Minister Tamar Beruchashvili in Tbilisi earlier today and discussed the OSCE’s intention to resume observing in breakaway Abkhazia and Tskhinvali (South Ossetia) regions.

The meeting was held in the framework of Zannier’s three-day official visit to Georgia.

The official spoke to local media at a special press conference after their meeting. Zannier said the organisation was using "all its leverages”, particularly dialogue, to solve problems in Georgia’s breakaway regions.

"But solving political and other problems would be easier if our mission were presented at the place,” the OSCE top official added.

OSCE officially closed its observer mission in Georgia after the Russia-Georgia war in the summer of 2008.

The OSCE Monitoring Mission in Georgia was established in Tbilisi in 1992. Its initial mandate was to promote constructive negotiation between Georgian and breakaway Tskhinvali (South Ossetian) sides. The mandate also covered human rights, freedom of media and economic and environmental dimensions.

However after the 2008 war, Russia rejected extending the Mission's mandate.

At today’s press conference Zannier also expressed the OSCE’s concern about Russian military training exercises in Georgia’s occupied Abkhazia and Tskhinvali (South Ossetia) regions.

He said these kinds of moves did not contribute to peace in the region, and he called on Russia to adhere to the ceasefire agreement signed shortly after the August war.

After the press conference, the OSCE Secretary General travelled to Khurvaleti, a small settlement in eastern Georgia inhabited by people who were internally displaced after the 2008 conflict.