OSCE Envoy: Situation Still ‘Fragile’

17:07
OSCE needs 100 monitors on the ground “to swiftly respond to the crisis,” the Finnish diplomat said.

The situation in and around the South Ossetia conflict area remains “fragile” and up to 100 additional OSCE monitors are needed on the ground, Heikki Talvitie, the OSCE Chairman-in-Office special envoy, told an OSCE Permanent Council special session in Vienna on August 14.

“The proposed number of monitors would allow the OSCE to react to the situation as it unfolds,” he said. “The OSCE must be in a position to swiftly respond to the crisis.”

He said that the OSCE's presence on the ground could help establish and maintain a humanitarian corridor for international relief efforts, as well as monitor the ceasefire and disengagement of forces agreed by the sides on August 12.

Currently the OSCE Mission to Georgia has 200 staff, including eight unarmed military monitoring officers, who were in charge of monitoring of, and reporting on the ceasefire in the South Ossetian conflict zone.

Consent of all 56 OSCE-member states, including of Russia, is required to take a decision on increasing of number of monitors.