05 January 2003 00:00
TRANSCRIPT OF DEPUTY MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION VLADIMIR CHIZHOV INTERVIEW WITH MAYAK RADIO STATION (MOSCOW, JANUARY 4, 2003)
7-05-01-2003
Question: Why has the mandate of the OSCE Assistance Group to Chechnya not been prolonged?
Deputy Foreign Minister Chizhov: The answer is fairly simple. The mandate had a term of validity until December 31, 2002. For its renewal a consensus decision by the Permanent Council of the OSCE was required -- that is, a consensus of the Organization's 55 participating states. Unfortunately, that consensus had not been reached. Consequently, the OSCE Assistance Group to Chechnya passed on January 1 into a technical shutdown phase. This phase will last, under the existing arrangement in the Permanent Council, until March 21, 2003. It provides for several stages. Stage One is the preparation and submission by the OSCE Secretariat of concrete proposals on measures to wind down the Assistance Group. Those proposals are to be considered by the Permanent Council on January 24, 2003.
Question: Does that not mean an automatic winding down of cooperation by Russia with the OSCE in this sector?
Deputy Foreign Minister Chizhov: Of course, it does not. The Russian side feels, as was stressed in the answer of Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Igor Ivanov to your colleagues' question on December 31, that this in no way means the winding down of cooperation with the OSCE in this sector. This cooperation will continue. The Russian side is ready to consider other forms of cooperation with the Organization. Such forms exist. As is known, the Organization consists not only and by no means only of field presences, that is, missions in different countries. It also possesses other structures, one of which is its Warsaw-based Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR). By the way, it is this institution that is responsible for the monitoring of election processes in the participating states of the OSCE.
If we are to speak of the Chechen Republic specifically, it could involve OSCE participation in the international monitoring of a referendum which is scheduled for the spring and then of the elections in the Chechen Republic that evidently will be held at the end of the year. For such monitoring there is absolutely no need for an Assistance Group presence.
Question: If the conditions are provided that suit both sides, will the OSCE continue to monitor the situation in Chechnya?
Deputy Foreign Minister Chizhov: The OSCE is in a position to conduct the monitoring even without having an Assistance Group there. I would like to repeat that at issue is monitoring of an election process: a referendum on the Constitution and elections in the Chechen Republic.
I can add a couple of words to explain why a consensus on renewing the mandate did not work out.
The Russian Federation back in the first half of November 2002, pending the expiration of the mandate of the Assistance Group, had in Vienna submitted a corresponding proposal, a Permanent Council Draft Decision, which contained a new mandate, because the mandate on the basis of which the Group has worked until now was adopted in 1995 in an entirely different situation. Now the situation in the Chechen Republic has altered in a cardinal way. Regrettably, however, a favorable decision on our proposal, which in fact meant an invitation by the Russian side to the Organization to render the kind of assistance which it is called upon to render, had become impossible because of the objections from a number of states. That's why I would like to especially stress that it is incorrect to speak of "a decision by Russia to shut down the Assistance Group" or end its presence. That wasn't a decision of Russia. Actually responsibility for the fact that the Assistance Group has ceased to exist lies on those who did not back up the proposal of the Russian side for a new mandate.
January 5, 2003
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