RUSSIA, WEST DISAGREE ON ROLE OF ODIHR AT OSCE SUMMIT IN BELGIUM – PAPER
by Jorn De Cock

De Standaard website, Belgium
Dec 5 2006

"This evening’s truth is not necessarily tomorrow’s truth," a
philosophical Karel De Gucht said yesterday evening [4 December] on
the first day of the OSCE ministerial conference at Heizel. What he
meant by that was that the outcome of the two-day summit yesterday
was meagre, but today there is hope for a little bit more.

The conference of the Organization for Security and Cooperation
in Europe (OSCE) marks the conclusion of the Belgian chairmanship
of the organization. But it was primarily discomfort that reigned
yesterday among the representatives of the 56 countries of the OSCE,
from North America, Europe, Russia, and Central Asia.

In his opening comments Chairman Karel De Gucht was positive about
ODIHR [Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights], the OSCE’s
human rights office, which among other things monitors election. The
observers generally clash with Russia, which has its own idea about
democratic elections.

The Russian minister of foreign affairs, Sergey Lavrov, was
surprised about the positive comments of De Gucht, among others. A
self-evaluation by the human rights office presented to the ministers
"does not succeed in giving adequate answers to Russia’s numerous
objections," Lavrov said.

The Russian minister also felt the OSCE now has two options. Either
the "imbalances" in the organization must be "corrected," or the
OSCE can be renamed the "organization for humanitarian affairs,"
in which case Russia would consider whether it should remain a member.

In short, according to the Russians the OSCE should concern itself
somewhat less with human rights and democracy.

Russia received a response from the American Deputy Secretary of State,
Nicholas Burns, who lashed out at countries that "backslide" in terms
of human rights, like Russia’s neighbour Belarus. Deputy Secretary
Burns also spoke out against "some OSCE countries that exert economic
and financial pressure on their neighbouring countries," a reference
to the Russian boycott of its small pro-western neighbour Georgia.

Part of the argument revolves around the so-called "frozen conflict"
between Georgia and the breakaway republic of South Ossetia, which is
supported by Moscow. A text on it will not come out of this conference,
De Gucht said yesterday evening, "because Russia refuses to talk
about it."

De Gucht says there may be "substantial progress, but no breakthrough
yet" on the frozen conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over
Nagorno-Karabakh.

The controversial candidacy of authoritarian Kazakhstan to become
OSCE chair in 2009 was also postponed until next year. De Gucht says
there are "two schools": those who feel Kazakhstan will indeed meet
more democratic standards by 2009, and those who believe Kazakhstan
should work on them first and only then become a chair candidate. A
consensus was not in sight yesterday in Brussels.