OSCE needs clear strategy for region - official

The relationship between the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and Central Asian states lacks balance and consistency, and needs a clearer strategy, according to a former senior OSCE official. "There should be a clear strategy, the activities should be streamlined and long term consistency in the approach of its activities is needed," Gerard Stroudmann, former director of the OSCE office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), told IRIN from Geneva, noting that the OSCE had an important potential role to play in Central Asia. "The problem with Central Asia and OSCE is that there is some imbalance in the way that the organisation has approached the relationship with the region and sometimes also a lack of consistency in the diplomatic mandate," he added. His comments came after Zafar Abdullayev, a Tajik journalist with the Biznes I Politika, newspaper, questioned the local role of the OSCE in an article published early this month entitled "OSCE centre in Dushanbe: Access only granted to favourites" which stated that the international organisation was putting obstacles in the way of the country's media instead of helping it to develop. Abdullayev said he had had difficulty in accessing information and interviews with senior officials at the OSCE centre in Tajikistan after he published an interview with Davlatali Davlatov, deputy chairman of the ruling People's Democratic Party of Tajikistan (PDPT), asserting that the OSCE was dealing with "insignificant issues" and wasn't playing a central role in Tajik society. However, Stroudmann disagreed and maintained that the organisation had, over four years, created a "very active" institution to support the emerging independent media. He highlighted the OSCE role in the field of elections and the rule of law, but noted that more needed to be done in the context of security, particularly in dealing with new challenges such as terrorism and related issues. After seeking the views of the OSCE on this issue, officials maintained that much work was being done to ensure press freedom. "During the last threee months, the centre organised several meetings with Tajik journalists to discuss in the presence of OSCE high personalities visiting Tajikistan. The importance of ensuring freedom of speech was high in the agenda," head of OSCE Centre of Tajikistan, Ambassador Yves Bargain, told IRIN. He added that general activities at the centre included election preparations on fostering dialogue between political parties and various other sections of society. In addtition, a mine action programme also continued at the centre. Nine of the 12 Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries, including all of the Central Asian states bar Turkmenistan, lodged a complaint with the OSCE on 8 July stating that the organisation was exercising "double standards", was interfering in their "internal affairs" and failing in the implementation of the Helsinki Final Act (1975), the Charter of Paris for New Europe (1990) and the Charter for European Security (1999). They asserted that the organisation was focusing its activities on monitoring human rights and democratic institutions, and noted an imbalance between that work and other areas, such as the politico-military, economic and environmental fields. Stroudmann asserted that the OSCE sometimes exercised double standards. "Sometimes there is a need to follow different agendas in different countries depending on the political situation," he said, but he added: "if you want to act credibly you need to play the same standards everywhere." The US mission to the OSCE has disagreed with the complaint, stating that CIS countries had contributed to the expansion of the organisation's work in the politico-military field and highlighted the important role that the OSCE played in promoting democratisation and respect for human rights. "Respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, democracy and the rule of law is at the core of the OSCE's comprehensive concept of security," James Cox, acting deputy representative to the OSCE permanent council, said in a recent statement. The former ODIHR director explained that the OSCE was facing very deep and very substantial challenges to its credibility in the future and asserted that the answer given to those challenges will be a determining factor in whether the organisation has a future or not as a regional security and cooperation body. "It is basically the words security and cooperation that have to remain linked one to another. You don't have security without cooperation and you don't have cooperation without security," he explained.