OSCE to send mission to Chechnya

Feb 06, 2003 Posted: 17:33 Moscow time (13:33 GMT)
 
THE HAGUE - Europe's leading security and human rights organizations will send a mission to Chechnya to assess the possibility of monitoring next month's constitutional referendum there.

At a meeting in the Netherlands Thursday, high-level representatives  of the Council of Europe and the Organization for Security and  Cooperation in Europe agreed to send a team to the war-torn region  before the March 23 vote, a statement said.

A spokeswoman for the OSCE in The Hague, Stella Ronner, said a group  of experts heading to Chechnya ahead of the referendum will also  research re-establishing a long-term mission in Chechnya.

The prior mission ended Dec. 31 after officials failed to agree with  Russia about the scope of its mandate. Diplomats said at the time  renewal foundered on the language governing the monitors' activities.

At talks between Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov and the acting  head of the OSCE Jaap de Hoop Scheffer on Tuesday, the men discussed  a restart of the operation, Ronner said.

Moscow has touted the referendum - which would ask voters to approve  a constitution that would be subordinate to Russian law - as a path  back to peace for the war-ruined region.

The Council of Europe's parliamentary assembly last week expressed  concern about its timing, but stopped short of calling for a  postponement.

/The Associated Press/