Conflict Settlement, Border Monitoring Top Georgia-OSCE Relations

Since the supsension of the OSCE Border Monitoring Operation (BMO) at the Chechen, Ingush and Daghestani sections of the Russo-Georgian border last December, owing to Russia’s veto, Georgia and its western partners habve been in search of a new format in which an international presence on the troubled sections of border would be possible. Currently, Tbilisi is pushing the OSCE on the issue of a training program for the Georgian border guards and, simultaneously, is urging the European Union to send observers to the border as well.

“Of course we could not avoid discussing the issue of border monitoring operation. Some of the moves in the future [in this regard] are already being prepared. Unfortunately the previous border monitoring operation has been concluded, now we have to find the ways to assist Georgian border guards to be able to perform some of these duties. The OSCE expects [a] decision on format, on scope of the next mission very soon, probably next week,” Dimitrij Rupel said at a news conference after talks with Salome Zourabichvili.

“You know that one of our main issues [in regard to the OSCE] is resumption of [a Russo-Georgian] border monitoring [mission by the OSCE observers], [and the issue of] how and in which form this can be resumed. Discussions of this issue in the OSCE are still in progress. Next week a decision will be made [by the OSCE] over [a Georgian border guard] training mission [under the aegis of the OSCE],” Salome Zourabichvili said.

When asked whether Georgia is now trying to more focus on the EU’s help rather than counting on the OSCE, Zourabichvili said that Georgia sees all alternatives as “additions to one another.”

“I think that we’ve gone through a very long and difficult period on this question of a border monitoring mission. As was mentioned by Mr. Rupel it is clear that this mission was a very important and efficient mission and [it is] very regretful that it had to be closed down. We are in the process of looking for alternatives and we look at these alternatives as additions to one another and not as an ‘either, or’ situation,” Salome Zourabichvili stated.

“We are very thankful for the European Union to have taken a decision on opening a mission in Tbilisi that will have a monitoring mandate with three persons in the beginning. We know that it is a first step and that it will be increased. We know that the OSCE is trying to get on its way on [a Georgian border guard] training mission. And we also know that there are other options that currently are being discussed: whether it is within the OSCE or within the EU or between the EU and our Ukrainian partner for joint monitoring missions. So all of that we see as different elements of a big puzzle that will help us to replace what was [a] well-functioning mission [BMO] for which we were very thankful for the OSCE,” she added.

Although, the EU is cautious about sending a large-scale team of observers to Georgia to monitor the border, it has agreed to dispatch two or three civilian experts, as EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana put it on March 18, to observe the situation in Georgia in various areas around the country, including near the Russian border.

‘Stuck in Veto Rule’

Meanwhile, Georgia is trying for the second time to push borderguard training with the OSCE. In March the OSCE has failed to even discuss this, because of, as officials in Tbilisi put it, the “unconstructive position” of Russia. This “unconstructive” position taken by Russia prompted Georgian Deputy Foreign Minister Giorgi Gomiashvili to voice regret last month about “the weakness of those international organizations wherein Russia is a member and where each member state has the right of veto.”

The visiting OSCE Chairman-in-Office admitted at a news conference in Tbilisi that a “decision is difficult to be reached [sic]” in a 55-member organization, where the rule of consensual decision-making exists.

“In the case of the BMO we had a veto of one member country and I believe you understand which country this is, so we could not proceed, so it is not really a matter of the organization itself, or the people which run this organization, but we are simply stuck with the rule, which perhaps will have to be changed – perhaps; I am not saying that we shall change the rule, but perhaps it will be changed the same way as in the European Union, where we no longer have consensus rule in as many areas as we used to have,” Dimitrij Rupel stated.

“We are in the middle of transforming not just the OSCE, not just the United Nation but the European Union also. All the international organizations are under reconstruction these days. Maybe it was easier in the past to come to decisions than it is in present. For instance, the OSCE has the rule of consensual decision-make [sic], to reach a decision there has to be a consensus of 55 countries. You can imagine that 55 countries is quite a number of countries and [a] decision is difficult to [reach],” he added.

Conflict Resolution

The OSCE Chairman-in-Office also reiterated that the organization “is in favor of a peaceful and political settlement of conflicts. Other ways of resolving differences is not part of the OSCE’s vocabulary.”

“The OSCE is interested in assisting the implementation of agreements to demilitarize the conflict zone,” Dimitrij Rupel added. He said that the Slovenian Chairmanship, which hosted the first expert meeting of the ‘Georgian-Ossetian Dialogue’ organized under the auspices of the London-based International Institute of Strategic Studies in March, stood ready to assist this process further.

“As far as the South Ossetian problem is concerned full attention should be given to the [peace] plan that has been presented by the [Georgian] President [Mikheil Saakashvili] in Strasbourg [at the Parliamentary Assembly of Council of Europe session],” he said, adding that the organization will “start discussing more practical options” after the Georgian government submits a “more detailed plan of action.

The Georgian Foreign Minister pushed the issue of increasing the number of OSCE observers in the South Ossetian conflict zone. She also stressed the necessity of setting up an OSCE human rights office in Georgia’s other breakaway region of Abkhazia, specifically in the Gali district.

“For us and for the OSCE the human rights issue is very important in Gali and in the rest of Abkhazia. This is crucial for the return of internally displaced persons there, as without the protection of human rights displaced persons will not be able to return,” Salome Zourabichvili said.