Deirdre Clune
Question:84 Ms Clune asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs if he will make a statement on the current activities and priorities of the OSCE. [12847/00]
Written Answers. - Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe.
The main tasks currently facing the OSCE are the follow up to the Charter for European Security, ongoing efforts to establish lasting peace in Chechnya and consolidation of peace in the Balkans.
The OSCE Istanbul Summit last November adopted a substantive Charter for European Security. The charter builds on existing OSCE documents, notably the Helsinki Final Act and the Paris Charter, and will enhance the OSCE's ability to play an active part in support of democracy and stability. Among the concrete measures in the charter was the decision to create rapid expert assistance and co-operation teams, known as REACT, thereby enabling the OSCE to respond quickly to demands for assistance and for large civilian field operations. In consultation with participating states, an OSCE task force has been established which is preparing the necessary measures in order to make REACT operational.
In the case of Chechnya, it has been agreed, following the visit to the area by the chairman in office, Austrian Foreign Minister Benita Ferrero Waldner, that the OSCE assistance group will return to the region, if possible by the end of May. In addition the OSCE has placed 62 monitors on the border between Georgia and Chechnya with the aim of preventing any conflict spillover.
In the Balkans, the mission in Kosovo, which is the organisation's largest mission, has a major role in encouraging inter ethnic co-operation and in the preparation for elections to take place later this year, possibly in October. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, the second largest OSCE mission, the mission supervised the local municipal elections which took place in April and is preparing to monitor the parliamentary elections scheduled to be held later this year. The mission in Croatia is actively engaged in seeking to facilitate the return of refugees and in providing professional expertise to the ethnically mixed local police force in the Croatian Danube region.
In addition to these missions, the OSCE has teams assigned to Albania, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Latvia, Estonia, Ukraine, Moldova, Belarus and each of the five Central Asian States. The main thrust of these Missions is to assist in the development of democracy, the promotion of human rights and encouragement of respect for the rule of law.
The Office of Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, ODIHR, is active in promoting free and fair elections and the High Commissioner on National Minorities, HCNM, closely monitors the issue of minority rights.