AUSTRIA: OSCE SPOKESMAN SAYS QUICK ELECTIONS MUST BE ORGANISED IN CHECHNYA TO DETERMINE WHO ITS CHOSEN LEADERS ARE

Record ID: 643500

  • Title: AUSTRIA: OSCE SPOKESMAN SAYS QUICK ELECTIONS MUST BE ORGANISED IN CHECHNYA TO DETERMINE WHO ITS CHOSEN LEADERS ARE
  • Date: 12th January 1995
  • Summary: VIENNA, AUSTRIA (JANUARY 12, 1995) (REUTERS TELEVISION - ACCESS ALL) 1. SV EXTERIORS OF OSCE CONFERENCE VENUE 0.04 2. SV CONFERENCE HALL, AMBASSADORS PREPARING FOR START OF MEETING 0.09 3. SV UNITED STATES DELEGATION 0.12 4. SV BOSNIAN DELEGATION 0.15 5. SV RUSSIAN FEDERATION DELEGATION 0.18 6. SV OSCE RUSSIAN ENVOY HUNGARIAN ISTVAN GYARMATI AND HUNGARIAN DELEGATION SEATED 0.21 7. SV CHECHEN DELEGATION 0.26 8. SV CONFERENCE HALL 0.29 (AUDIO AS INCOMING) 9. NEWS CONFERENCE 0.35 10. SCU GYARMATI SPEAKING (ENGLISH) 1.23 11. SV PROTESTORS OUTSIDE CONFERENCE VENUE DEMONSTRATING FOR END TO CHECHEN CONFLICT/UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER HOLDING BANNER CALLING FOR FREEDOM IN CHECHNYA. (3 SHOTS) 1.52 SEQUENCE 10 TRANSCRIPT: GYARMATI :"THE OSCE CAN NOT ENFORCE A CESSATION OF HOSTILITIES IN CHECHNYA, AND THAT THE OSCE HAS EXPRESSED ITS CONVICTIONS ABOUT A NEGOTIATED SOLUTION THE INTERNATIONAL EFFORT WILL EFFECT NOT ONLY THE RUSSIAN SIDE BUT ALL PARTIES INVOLVED. WE WILL TRY TO HELP FIND A SOLUTION ALSO SAYS HE HOPES A CEASEFIRE WILL BE ENFORCED SOONER THAN IN BOSNIA" Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
  • Embargoed: 27th January 1995 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: VIENNA, AUSTRIA
  • City:
  • Country: Austria
  • Reuters ID: LVA8KY3NU4SSJ787AYWUFQ0EMASF
  • Story Text: An international envoy to Russia on the Chechen crisis said on Thursday (January 12) that quick elections must be organised in the breakaway territory to determine who its chosen leaders are.

    Istvan Gyarmati of Hungary, who held talks in the Russian capital this week on behalf of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), announced he would return to Moscow in a few days to resume negotiations.

    The 53-member OSCE, striving to carve out an effective role in preventing conflict in post-communist Europe, is limited to diplomatic initiatives and has no powers to enforce peace or impose sanctions.

    Gyarmati said he was not sure OSCE mediation was necessary to end the Chechnya crisis.

    The organisation of 51 European states plus the United States (U.S.) and Canada should concentrate all its diplomatic resources on assisting negotiations between Russian federal authorities and Chechen local authorities, he said.

    Speaking during a meeting of the OSCE permanent council in Vienna, Gyarmati said he would return to Moscow on Sunday to resume talks on a possible OSCE role in finding a peaceful solution to the conflict.

    Demonstrators who are against the war in Chechnya demonstrated in Vienna as the meeting took place.

    The meeting is seen as a test of how much political leverage the OSCE could usefully apply to stem the fighting in Chechnya and prove to sceptics that it can be more than a hand-wringing spectator to nationalist conflicts in Europe.

    Russia is one of the most influential members of the OSCE, which operates by consensus.

    The organisation accepts that the Chechen war is an internal affair but that at the same time the violation of human rights there cannot be considered the internal affair of any country.

    If Moscow should fail to cooperate to end human rights violations, the OSCE has the power to suspend its membership -- as in the case of rump Yugoslavia -- and may take action without Russia's consent under its "consensus minus one" principle.

    Such action was considered highly unlikely, however.


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