VIENNA (AFP) - The head of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), voicing concern over the "human tragedy" in Chechnya, said yesterday she plans to travel to the Caucasus in early April.
Speaking after talks with Russian deputy premier Nikolai Koshman, OSCE chairperson-in-office and Austrian Foreign Minister Benita Ferrero-Waldner added that a lower-level OSCE mission would visit the republic next week.
"I myself will go... most probably after the [Russian] elections, early April, we have not yet completely decided on the date. I will go to Moscow but also to the areas that I would like to see. There is a human tragedy there, we have deep concern about the refugees," said Koshman.
A two or three-person team from the OSCE's Assistance Group based in Moscow will travel to the region on March 6.
Koshman, in Vienna to discuss the Chechen situation, said Moscow would be willing to accompany Ferrero-Waldner wherever she wanted after presidential elections scheduled for March 26.
Ferrero-Waldner predecessor as OSCE chairman-in-office, Norwegian Foreign Minister Knut Vollebaek, visited the north Caucasus in December after Russia agreed to the trip at the OSCE's Istanbul summit in November.
At the Istanbul summit Russia agreed a joint statement on Chechnya, which notably said: "We agree that a political solution is essential, and that the assistance of the OSCE would contribute to achieving that goal."
Koshman said however on Monday that the OSCE had delayed too long in proposing help, adding that Chechnya was a Russian political problem.
"With regard to the statement. That the OSCE is coming too late of course I cannot agree with that. I think my predecessor Mr. Vollebaek also always has offered help, although not everything was carried through that was offered," she said.
