Georgia: Russia Consents to OSCE Extension of Monitor Mandates

Participants to the Permanent Council of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe on February 12 reached consensus on extending the mandate of the OSCE's unarmed military monitoring mission to Georgia until June 30.

The decision does not affect the mandate of the OSCE Mission to Georgia which remains a matter of tense negotiations between Russia and the organization's other participating states. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

The OSCE says in a statement issued in Vienna that the decision to extend the mandate of its unarmed military monitoring officers (MMO) was reached "without prejudice to any further Permanent Council decisions on the future OSCE presence [in Georgia]."

One OSCE official who asked not to be named told EurasiaNet that Russia voted to extend the mandate of the military monitors only after receiving assurances that the decision would not be tied to ongoing discussions on the fate of the OSCE's mission to Georgia.

The OSCE has 28 military observers in Georgia, who operate under two distinct mandates.

The February 12 decision affects the 20 additional MMOs the organization deployed to areas adjacent to South Ossetia after the August Georgian-Russian war and whose mandate had been due to expire on February 18. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

What fate awaits the remaining eight monitors, who had been deployed in South Ossetia to verify the implementation of the 1992 Georgian-South Ossetian ceasefire agreement and who were evacuated to Tbilisi during the recent conflict, is unclear. Their mandate is tied to that of the OSCE Mission to Georgia, which remains in limbo after it officially expired on December 31 of last year.

In theory, those eight monitors have retained their mandate to patrol certain areas of South Ossetia that were previously under the jurisdiction of a joint peacekeeping force comprising Russian, Georgian and Ossetian peacekeepers. However, South Ossetian authorities have been drastically restricting mission members' freedom of movement since the August war.

On February 10, separatist militiamen briefly detained two OSCE monitors south of the former administrative border with Georgia -- an area that is now under South Ossetian control -- on "border violation" charges. Authorities in Tskhinvali say another group of OSCE military officers barely escaped detention the next day.

Although the separatist administration initially described the first of those two incidents as the result of a "misunderstanding," South Ossetia's foreign minister subsequently blamed OSCE monitors for adding to the existing tensions by "systematically" violating the "state borders" of the separatist republic. "Considering that the mandate of the OSCE mission to Georgia is expiring, we view the actions taken yesterday [February 10] and today [February 11] by the OSCE mission's military observers as a provocation that aims at complicating the situation ahead of the Geneva discussions [on Georgia]," Murat Dzhioyev told the Res news agency on February 11.

Backed by Russia, South Ossetia opposes the redeployment of international monitors to Tskhinvali until the dispute over the OSCE's mission to Georgia is settled in its favor.

Moscow insists that the legal status of the field office the Vienna-headquartered organization has been maintaining in the South Ossetian capital Tskhinvali be upgraded. As a result, the Kremlin has prevented the routine extension of the mandate of the OSCE mission to Georgia.

Arguing that South Ossetia is now an "independent state," Moscow demands that the Tskhinvali office be separated from the OSCE mission's Tbilisi headquarters and be given a separate mandate. Russia is the only OSCE participating state which recognized South Ossetia's independence after the August war. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

In a bid to break the deadlock, the Greek chairmanship of the OSCE in January drafted a proposal that partially meets the Russian demand, while addressing Georgia's concerns that the statutory changes might legitimize South Ossetia's independence. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

However, disagreements remain and nothing indicates that a new consensus can eventually be reached.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on January 21 commended the Greek proposal for "[going] in a realistic direction and tak[ing] the 'de facto' and 'de jure' situation into account." Yet, OSCE officials familiar with the talks have told EurasiaNet that Moscow still objects to certain provisions of the draft.

In comments made to EurasiaNet last week, Georgia's outgoing ambassador to the OSCE, Viktor Dolidze, described the plan as "fair" and "providing a good basis for further consultations." But he warned against any proposal that he said would infringe on Georgia's territorial integrity by abolishing any linkage between the OSCE mission's Tskhinvali office and its Tbilisi headquarters.

The OSCE's chairperson-in-office, Greek Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyannis, was due to travel to Tbilisi on Thursday to discuss the plan with Georgian officials. However, she postponed her visit at the last minute because of scheduling problems. Georgia's Foreign Minister Grigol Vashadze said the visit might take place in March and that Bakoyannis had assured him that in the meantime she would continue working on the draft proposal.

Meanwhile, preparations for the possible termination of the OSCE mission are going on.

Herbert Salber, the director of the OSCE's Conflict Prevention Center, told journalists on February 11 that the organization was finalizing a "closure plan" that could be activated "at any time." He added that, from the moment a potential decision to close down the mission is made, it would take the organization between three and five months to pull out from Georgia.

Termination of the mission would mean that OSCE observers would no longer have access to South Ossetia, where Russia is preparing to deploy up to 3,600 troops.