English

There are no grounds for OSCE investigation into post-election developments in Belarus

There are no objective grounds for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to launch an investigation into post-election developments in Belarus under the so-called Moscow Mechanism, Alyaksandr Sychow, Belarus` permanent representative to international organizations headquartered in Vienna, said at a meeting of the OSCE Permanent Council on Friday.

Belarus flatly rejects the accusations by the initiators of the investigation, Mr. Sychow stressed, according to the press office of the Belarusian foreign ministry. The claim that the handling of post-election demonstrations and other post-election developments in Belarus constitutes a "particularly serious threat" to the fulfillment of Belarus` OSCE commitments contradicts the plain meaning of the document that established the Moscow Mechanism, he said. There are no such threats in Belarus, not to speak of serious threats, the situation in the country is stable, there are no ethnic and religious conflicts, he said.

According to Mr. Sychow, "some [OSCE] colleagues openly declare" that Belarus` decision not to prolong the mandate of the OSCE Office in Minsk is the real reason behind the attempt to engage the Moscow Mechanism. OSCE participating States try to pressure Belarus into reopening the OSCE Office and to set a precedent for dealing with other countries unwilling to have such offices, he said.

Every country has a sovereign right not to prolong the mandate of the OSCE Office, and this right has repeatedly been exercised, sometimes under circumstances that could be viewed as a threat to fulfilling OSCE commitments, Mr. Sychow. However, the Moscow Mechanism was never applied in those situations, he said.

Moreover, in recent years, the OSCE has repeatedly chosen not to use this Mechanism to deal with crisis situations in the region that claimed many human lives, Mr. Sychow noted. That is why the attempt to engage it to investigate events in Belarus is a flagrant example of the application of double standards that causes major damage to the reputation of the OSCE, he said.

On April 7, 14 OSCE countries called on the Belarusian government to cooperate in a fact-finding mission by international experts to investigate the handling of post-election protests and other developments following Belarus` December 14-19, 2010 presidential election.

The investigation would be carried out within the framework of the Moscow Mechanism, a rarely evoked instrument for protecting human rights and fundamental freedoms.

Established at a conference in Moscow in 1991, the Moscow Mechanism allows members of the OSCE to set up ad hoc missions of independent experts to investigate suspected human rights violations and assist in the resolution of other human dimension problems either on their own territory or in other OSCE states. In extreme cases, such probes may be launched without the consent of the country in question, said BelaPAN.