Georgian Foreign Minister Criticizes OSCE over S.Ossetia

Georgian Foreign Minister Salome Zourabichvili said at a news conference on September 28 that the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has failed to become a meaningful vehicle to help solve the South Ossetian conflict.

?Last August we demanded demilitarization and monitoring [in South Ossetian conflict zone] there [in the OSCE headquarters in Vienna] to become a priority, a real priority for the OSCE and there [in Vienna] we demanded an increase in the of number of [OSCE] monitors. But we have failed to achieve this so far. If the OSCE failed to show us there that it can make progress, than we can not believe that this is the organization which can solve our conflicts,? Salome Zourabichvili said at a news conference in Tbilisi.

The OSCE, through its branch office in the South Ossetian capital Tskhinvali and its monitors there, helps gather information on the military situation in the conflict zone, as well as examines violations of the cease-fire agreement.

The OSCE has long been a target of criticism of the South Ossetian side, which blames observers from the organization of biased monitoring and assessment of the developments in the conflicting zone in favor of the Georgian side. 

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