Minsk refuses to open OSCE Office

Official Minsk doesn't consider the question of reopening the OSCE Office in Belarus.

BelaPAN news agency learnt it from Belarusian MFA spokesman Andrei Savinykh.

“I don't understand why you are asking it,” he said.

Christian Holm, who was appointed head of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly Ad Hoc Working Group on Belarus on October 15, said getting permission for reopening the OSCE Office in Minsk was among his main tasks at the post.

The OSCE mission in Belarus had worked since 1998. A decision to close the Office was taken by the Belarusian authorities in late 2010. On December 31, permanent representative of Belarus in international organisations in Vienna Aliaksandr Sychou informed members of the OSCE Permanent Council that the Belarusian authorities hadn't extended the mandate of the OSCE office in Minsk “for the lack of objective grounds for continuation of the mission”. The OSCE Office in Minsk was officially closed on March 31, 2011.