CO-CHAIRS OF OSCE MINSK GROUP ISSUE STATEMENT

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[08:35 pm] 05 March, 2009

The Charge d’Affaires of the US Mission to the OSCE, Kyle Scott, issued
the following statement in the OSCE’s Permanent Council today on behalf
of the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, Ambassadors Bernard Fassier
of France, Yury Merzlyakov of Russia and Matthew Bryza of the United
States. "On behalf of the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, France,
the Russian Federation and the United States, I have the following
statement to make: The Minsk Group Co-Chairs condemn the shooting
incident near Goradiz along the Line of Contact on February 26,
when shots were fired during a monitoring mission carried out by the
Personal Representative of the Chair-in-Office Andrzej Kasprzyk. We
call on the parties to adhere scrupulously to the ceasefire and
express our deep regret that over 30 people have died and 50 have been
wounded in 2008 as a result of ceasefire violations. We condemn in the
strongest terms the violation of the ceasefire during the course of
an OSCE monitoring mission, particularly given that local commanders
provided written security guarantees to the OSCE monitoring mission
just prior to their monitoring activities on February 26. We call for
an explanation from the parties for how such an egregious violation
of the ceasefire could have taken place. We regret that not all of the
parties agreed to the recommendation made by the Minsk Group Co-Chairs
at the Ministerial Council meeting in Helsinki in December 2008 to
pull snipers back from the Line of Contact. We express full support
and admiration for the work of Personal Representative Kasprzyk and
his team, and underline the importance of monitoring the Line of
Contact as a confidence building measure between the sides."