SRES69sMAR11

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Week Ending March 11, 2005

Senate Resolution 69 expressing the sense of the Senate about the actions of Russia regarding Georgia and Moldova.

Click flag for map and country data, Russia

Click flag for map and country data, Georgia

Click flag for map and country data, Moldova

BRIEF

In 1999 Russia agreed with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to withdraw military equipment and personnel from the Republics of Georgia and Moldova. (former Soviet States). To date it has not lived up to its word the Resolution said. Further complicating the matter is Russia’s opposition to the OSCE Border Monitoring Operation (BMO). The BMO is “the sole source of objective reporting on border crossings along the border between Georgia and with the Russian republics of Chechnya, Dagestan, and Ingushetia,” the Resolution said. The importance of the BMO to the OSCE is primary: the OSCE is an early warning system, so to speak, that monitors border crossings for movement of armed and unarmed crossings and the potential for conflict.

At Russia’s insistence the BMO staff of 65 was cut in half and now, unable to do the job, is dismantling and plans to vacate the borders this May.

The Resolution urges Russia to live up to the 1999 agreements and if the BMO leaves seeks an “international presence to monitor objectively border crossings along the border between Georgia and the Russian republics of Chechnya, Dagestan, and Ingushetia”.

Sponsor: Senator Richard G. Lugar (R-IN)

Vote: Passed Senate by Unanimous Consent (Mar. 10, 2005)

Cost to the taxpayers: No discernible cost.

MORE INFORMATION

S. Res. 69

Whereas the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) evolved from the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE), which was established in 1975, and the official change of its name from CSCE to OSCE became effective on January 1, 1995;

Whereas the OSCE is the largest regional security organization in the world with 55 participating States from Europe, Central Asia, and North America;

Whereas the 1975 Helsinki Final Act, the 1990 Charter of Paris, and the 1999 Charter for European Security adopted in Istanbul are the principal documents of OSCE, defining a steadily evolving and maturing set of political commitments based on a broad understanding of security;

Whereas the OSCE is active in early warning, conflict prevention, crisis management, and post-conflict rehabilitation;

Whereas Russia and Georgia agreed at the 1999 OSCE Summit in Istanbul on specific steps regarding the withdrawal from Georgia of Russian forces, including military equipment limited by the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE), and committed to resolve other key issues relating to the status and duration of the Russian military presence in Georgia;

Whereas Russia has completed some of the withdrawal from Georgia of military equipment limited by the CFE Treaty in excess of agreed levels, but has yet to agree with Georgia on the status of Russian forces at the Gudauata base and the duration of the Russian presence at the Akhalkalaki and Batumi bases;

Whereas Russia completed the withdrawal from Moldova of its declared military equipment limited by the CFE Treaty, but has yet to withdraw all its military forces from Moldova, as Russia committed to do at the 1999 OSCE Summit in Istanbul;

Whereas Russia made virtually no progress in 2004 toward its commitment to withdraw its military forces from Moldova;

Whereas Moldova has called for a genuinely international peacekeeping force to replace the Russian forces, and insists on the implementation by Russia of its commitment to withdraw its remaining military forces from Moldova;

Whereas Secretary of State Colin Powell stated at the December 2004 OSCE Ministerial in Sofia, Bulgaria, that ``Russia's commitments to withdraw its military forces from Moldova, and to agree with Georgia on the duration of the Russian military presence there, remain unfulfilled. A core principle of the CFE Treaty is host country agreement to the stationing of forces. The United States remains committed to moving ahead with ratification of the Adapted CFE Treaty, but we will only do so after all the Istanbul commitments on Georgia and Moldova have been met. And we stand ready to assist with reasonable costs associated with the implementation of those commitments.'';

Whereas since June 2004, Russia has called for the closure of the OSCE Border Monitoring Operation (BMO), the sole source of objective reporting on border crossings along the border between Georgia and with the Russian republics of Chechnya, Dagestan, and Ingushetia;

Whereas OSCE border monitors took up their mission in Georgia in May 2000, and prior to the failure to extend the mandate for the BMO in December 2004, OSCE border monitors, who are unarmed, were deployed at nine locations along that border;

Whereas the current rotation of the BMO includes 65 border monitors from 23 countries, including Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Hungary, Ireland, Lithuania, Macedonia, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Turkey, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, and the United States;

Whereas at the December 2004 OSCE Ministerial, Russia blocked renewal of the mandate for the BMO in Georgia;

Whereas Russia has stated that the BMO has accomplished nothing, but it has in fact accomplished a great deal, including observing 746 unarmed and 61 armed border crossings in 2004 and serving as a counterweight to inflammatory press reports;

Whereas in response to Russian complaints about the cost-effectiveness of the BMO, the OSCE agreed in December 2004 to cut the number of monitors and thereby reduce the cost of the BMO by almost half;

Whereas the BMO began shutting down on January 1, 2005;

Whereas the staff of the BMO is now dismantling facilities and is not performing its mission;

Whereas the shutdown of the BMO will become irreversible in the second half of March 2005 and is currently scheduled to be completed by May 2005;

Whereas the United States has reiterated its disappointment over the failure of the Permanent Council of the OSCE to reach consensus on renewing the mandate of the BMO, despite request of Georgia, the host country of the BMO, that the OSCE continue the border monitoring operation, and the consensus of all states but one to extend the mandate for the BMO; and

Whereas United States Ambassador to the United States Mission to the OSCE, Stephan M. Minikes, said in a statement to the OSCE Permanent Council in Vienna on January 19, 2005, that ``we believe that the closure of the BMO would remove a key source of peaceful relations and of objective reporting on events at the sensitive border and increase the likelihood of heightened Russia-Georgia tensions.'': Now, therefore, be it

Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that the United States should--

(1) urge Russia to live up to its commitments at the 1999 Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Summit in Istanbul regarding Georgia and Moldova;

(2) in cooperation with its European allies, maintain strong diplomatic pressure to permit the OSCE Border Monitoring Operation (BMO) in Georgia to continue; and

(3) if the BMO ceases to exist, seek, in cooperation with its European allies, an international presence to monitor objectively border crossings along the border between Georgia and the Russian republics of Chechnya, Dagestan, and Ingushetia.

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