Russia's UN ambassador accused the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe on Friday of not doing enough to prevent last year's war in Georgia, when Russia invaded the country."Unfortunately within the context of the August events … the OSCE clearly did not fulfill its role, was not up to its responsibility as an important instrument to ensure security in the Euro-Atlantic area," Ambassador Vitaly Churkin told the UN Security Council.
"The OSCE was not able either to prevent the Georgian attack on southern Ossetia nor to appropriately assess the actions of the Saakashvili regime," Churkin said, referring to Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili.
Russia invaded Georgia in August to thwart an attempt by Tbilisi to re-establish control over the pro-Russian breakaway region of South Ossetia, which has since declared independence along with another breakaway enclave, Abkhazia.
Churkin said military monitors from the OSCE in South Ossetia had information about Georgian plans to attack South Ossetia but did not share it with OSCE members or its key bodies.
Instead, OSCE members learned how much the monitors knew after the information was provided to The New York Times.
Greek Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyannis, who is currently chairing the OSCE, declined to comment on Churkin's criticisms of the OSCE on Friday.
The Moscow Times
It is very clear from the post that if OSCE clearly did not fulfill its role, then there very big fault can be occur.
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