CHECHNIA—THE OSCE EXPERIENCE 1995-2003
Abstract
Gradually evolving from the embryonic détente initiatives of the 1970s, and having braved the Charybdian rocks of the still lingering Cold War of the 1980s, the Organization for Security
and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) finally emerged as a full-fledged international organization with the renaming in 1995 of what had previously been known as The Conference for Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE). On its website, the OSCE now boasts of being “the world’s largest regional security organization whose 55 participating States span the geographical area from Vancouver to Vladivostok.”1 The objectives of the OSCE are, broadly speaking, concerned with early warning, conflict prevention and post-conflict rehabilitation. Its listing of activities also includes such tasks as antitrafficking, arms control, border management, combating terrorism, conflict and democratization.
The OSCE’s main tools in carrying out these tasks are its field operations. Acting under the directions from the OSCE Secretariat in Vienna, and under the general auspices of the organization’s Chairman-in-Council, the field operations comprise a number of rather diverse groups—each one with a specific mandate according to the problem(s) to be addressed in their respective operational areas.
At the time of the writing (February 2008), the OSCE maintains 19 field operations in SouthEastern Europe, Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia. These are the following:
OSCE Presence in Albania
OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina OSCE Mission to Croatia
OSCE Mission to Serbia and Montenegro OSCE Mission in Kosovo
OSCE Spillover Monitor Mission to Skopje OSCE Office in Minsk
OSCE Mission to Moldova
OSCE Project-Coordinator in Ukraine OSCE Office in Baku
OSCE Mission to Georgia
OSCE Office in Erevan
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See [http://www.osce.org/].
As quoted in the Introduction, p. xii, to C. Gall, Th. de Waal, Chechnia—A Small Victorious War, London, 1997.
Cf. the relevant passage in: O.G. Skagestad, “How Can the International Community Contribute to Peace and Sta-bility in and around Chechnia,” in: Chechnia: The International Community and Strategies for Peace and Stability, ed. by L. Jonson, M. Esenov, The Swedish Institute of International Affairs, Stockholm, 2000, pp. 121-129.
“Chechnia is Different,” editorial article in the International Herald Tribune (from The Washington Post), 5 Oc-tober, 2001.
For a more thorough discussion of the prospective relevance of the international community and its agents in the context of the Chechen conflict, see: O.D. Skagestad, op. cit., pp.122-124.
Cf. OSCE, Permanent Council, 16th Plenary Meeting of the Council, Journal No.16, 11 April, 1995, pp. 2-3.
For a detailed account and analysis of the Assistance Group’s mediation role, see: T. Guldimann, “Supporting the Doves against the Hawks,” in: The OSCE Yearbook 1997, Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy at the Univer-sity of Hamburg (Ed.), Baden-Baden, 1998, pp. 135-143.
Statement of the Russian Federation, in: OSCE, Permanent Council, 105th Plenary Meeting of the Council, PC Journal No.105, 13 March, 1997, Annex 3, Agenda item 7(d).
It should be noted that the Peace Treaty, in form as well as in substance, had a text which would normally only be found in agreements between sovereign states in the full international legal sense, as in the following excerpt: “The High Contracting Parties, desiring to put an end to their centuries-old opposition, and endeavoring to establish sound, equita-ble and mutually advantageous relations, have agreed as follows: 1. That they renounce for ever the use or the threat of force in the resolution of any disputes between them. 2. That they will build their relations on the basis of generally rec-ognized principles and standards of international law [... etc.].” The Treaty text, together with the fact that it was signed by the two presidents, for all obvious purposes in their respective capacities as Heads of States, could easily be interpreted as a Russian de jure recognition of Chechnia as a sovereign state. That was certainly the view of the Chechen authorities,whereas the Russian side (see below) would subsequently denounce the Treaty altogether.
As Norway held the OSCE Chairmanship in 1999, the Organization’s Chairman-in-Office during that year (which also coincided with the period when the author of this article held the assignment as the Head of the Assistance Group) was the then Minister of Foreign Affairs of Norway, Mr. Knut Vollebæk.
These working visits enabled the Head of the Assistance Group to have extensive talks and meetings with the Chechen authorities, including President Aslan Maskhadov and his Press Secretary Mairbek Vachagaev, First Deputy Prime Minister Turpal-Ali Atgeriev, Deputy Prime Ministers Khamzat Shidaev, Kazbek Makhashev, Alkhazur Abdulkarimov,Akhmed Zakaev, Minister of Foreign Affairs Akhyat Idigov, Minister of Shariat State Security Aslambek Arsaev and his Deputy Khasan Khatsiev, Speaker of the Chechen Parliament Ruslan Alikhadzhiev, Deputy Speaker Selam Beshaev, Dep-uty Attorney General Abu Arsukhaev, the Chief Mufti of Chechnia Akhmat-Hadji Kadyrov (later to be installed by the Russian occupants as “President” of the Chechen Republic, and eventually assassinated on 9 May, 2004), and others. Un-til July 1999 the post as the Chechen President’s General Representative in Moscow was held by Edelbek Ibragimov, who was subsequently replaced by President Maskhadov’s former Press Secretary, Mairbek Vachagaev.
For a more extensive account of the Assistance Group’s activities during 1999, see: O.G. Skagestad, “Keeping Hope Alive—Experiences of the OSCE Assistance Group to Chechnia,” in: The OSCE Yearbook 1999, Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy at the University of Hamburg (Ed.), Baden-Baden, 1999, pp. 211-223. For more detailed presentations and analyses, reference is made to the periodic Reports to the OSCE Permanent Council submitted by the Head of the As-sistance Group, notably viz. Doc. PC.FR/7/99, OSCE Secretariat (Vienna), 11 March, 1999; Doc. PC.FR/18/99, OSCE Secretariat (Vienna), 24 June, 1999; and Doc. PC.FR/30/99, OSCE Secretariat (Vienna), 21 October, 1999.
These talks took place in the context of the Assistance Group’s extensive contacts with Russian federal authori-ties, including meetings with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Deputy Minister Evgeni Gusarov and Department Director Vladimir Chizhov) as well as numerous high-level meetings with other relevant interlocuteurs such as the (then) Ministerof the Interior Sergei Stepashin (later to become Prime Minister), the (then) Minister of Nationalities Ramazan Abdulatipov,the FSB Director and Secretary of the Russian Federation’s Security Council Vladimir Putin (later to succeed Stepashin as Prime Minister, and eventually succeeding Boris Yeltsin as President), the Deputy Secretary of the Russian Federation’s Security Council Vyacheslav Mikhailov (who preceded as well as succeeded Mr. Abdulatipov in the post of Minister of Nationalities), Duma Members Vladimir Zorin and Mikhail Gutseriev, the Russian Federation’s President’s Representative to Chechnia Valentin Vlasov, the Russian Federation’s Government’s Representative to Chechnia Georgi Kurin, former Secretary of the Russian Federation’s Security Council and Russian Federation’s Chief Negotiator Ivan Rybkin, and oth-ers. In addition, the Assistance Group maintained regular contacts with the Republic of Ingushetia’s President Ruslan Au-shev, who rendered the Group valuable support and protection at the regional level.
Ref. [http://wikipedia.org/wiki/Organization_for_Security_and_Co-operation_in_Europe#endnote_ivanov].
Cf. the OSCE Annual Report 2000 on OSCE Activities, pp. 29-31.
For a more substantive account of the tasks performed by the Assistance Group upon its redeployment to Chech-nia, see: Annual Report 2001 on OSCE Activities, pp. 36-38.
A detailed account of the Assistance Group’s activities in 2002 is given in the Annual Report 2002 on OSCE Ac-tivities, pp. 36-38.
Indeed, other observers have been noticeably less charitable than the present author in portraying the vicious char-acter of Ramzan Kadyrov and his régime.
In addition to presidents Maskhadov and Akhmat-Hadji Kadyrov, notable examples include their predecessor Zelimkhan Yandarbiev (acting president 1996-1997, killed 13 February, 2004), former vice-president Vakha Arsanov (killed 15 May, 2005) and “field commanders” (warlords) Arbi Baraev (killed 25 June, 2001), Movsar Baraev (killed 26 October,2002), Salman Raduev (killed 14 December, 2002), Ruslan Gelaev (killed 28 February, 2004) Abdul Khalim Saidullaev (killed 17 June, 2006) and Shamil Basaev (notorious perpetrator of a number of terrorist acts, killed 10 July, 2006).
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