by Vestnik Kavkaza
The OSCE has decided to send a monitoring mission to Ukraine for half a year. Its mandate may be extended on Ukraine's request. Moscow insists that the OSCE mission should be organized in Kiev, Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv, Lugansk, Kherson, Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Odessa and Chernivtsi. 100 civil observers are on their way to Ukraine. Their number may rise in the future.
Crimea is not included in the monitoring list. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called the persistence of international partners in demanding observers in Crimea as part of Ukraine unexplainable.
Russian Permanent Representative to the OSCE Andrey Kelin said that “the operation had no relation to Crimea. It is carried out on Ukraine's territory. The observers will monitor security. They will monitor protection of human rights and rights of ethnic minorities. The observers will keep in touch with the local authorities, central government of Kiev, NGOs, civil society and religious figures.”
In Kelin’s words, “permanent observers are recruited through the Internet. The OSCE has a special system for this. Invitations were posted in English and 22 people have already volunteered to join the monitoring mission. We, in our turn, presented a set of candidates. They are police officers, office workers related to foreign politics… It is important to speak English, know computers and rights. The list of requirements volunteers need to meet in order to become observers is available. The mission may consist of 500 people, quite a large figure. It will certainly need resources. We expect that our observers will take an active part and we view some of them as supervisors in the mission.”
Another OSCE mission is operating in Ukraine within the National Dialogue project. It collects information about case of political and humanitarian concern and protection of the rights of ethnic minorities..
According to Kelin, “it is a small project, it consists of 15 people. Its point is to form interaction between the central government and the eastern regions where there is no dialogue. Now, a lot depends on how the OSCE instruments work, how they will be used. Works of the OSCE in Ukraine is certainly not a nostrum. The most important thing is that observers remain non-partisan, unbiased. It is a complicated mission, a lot of human factors affect it.
The OSCE has very advanced instruments, maybe they are the most advanced instruments of the OSCE for crises at all stages, from prevention of conflicts to post-conflict peacebuilding. All negotiation formats for conflicts on the Euro-Atlantic space come from OSCE decisions. This concerns the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, this concerns the Transnistria conflict, the Geneva discussions where the OSCE plays an important role. This is all happening under the auspices or participation of the OSCE. The most important thing is that the OSCE is our organization and that Russia is an equal member - it has a vote, a very important vote. Our opinion is esteemed in our organization, we really have an opportunity to affect decisions and make decisions.”
