Belarusian foreign minister says OSCE in acute crisis

January 20, BPN. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) is experiencing an acute crisis, Belarusian Foreign Minister Siarhiej Alejnik told reporters following the Belarusian and Russian foreign ministries’ annual board meeting in Minsk.

“This crisis is systemic and applies to all three baskets, the so-called three dimensions – politico-military, economic and human,” Alejnik said, as quoted by the foreign ministry’s press office on January 19.

He said that numerous conflicts in the OSCE’s area of responsibility proved that the organization’s confidence-building measures had devalued. The erosion of mechanisms “did not start yesterday. It’s been underway over the past few years,” he added.

He went on to accuse the OSCE of not implementing a “serious economic project” in recent years “that would bring real benefits to our countries’ citizens.”

The OSCE’s human dimension had “an obvious, total distortion,” he continued. “They stubbornly lash all the countries east of Vienna. What can you say, if for many years the OSCE has not even been able to develop common standards for election observation. […] Not to mention the fact that the OSCE has not reacted in any way to the illegal nature of economic sanctions, which affect citizens and their rights. I’m not even talking about mobility and restrictions on the movement of citizens in the OSCE region, imposed by many western members of the organization,” the minister said.

He concluded by saying that the OSCE “has turned into a battleground.” “This house needs an overhaul today,” Alejnik said.

Minsk shut down the OSCE’s Office in the Belarusian capital over 10 years ago. In 2020, seventeen OSCE states invoked a special mechanism to investigate human rights violations in the country. Rapporteur Wolfgang Benedek found that that year’s presidential election was not transparent and fair, and condemned mass human rights abuses.