Yarmoshyna unhappy with number of OSCE observers

She thinks 300 observers are too many, because only 40 were sent to Germany.

The head of the Central Election Commission (CEC) finds it unfair  that several hundreds of observers come to Belarus while only 15-40 people visit Western European countries. In her view, it demonstrates the biased attitude of the mission  towards the country, Viasna human rights centre reports.

Lidzia Yarmoshyna expressed this opinion in an interview to the state media. “The difference between the East and the West in this sense is huge. If a mission consisting of 15 persons visits Germany with a population of 40 million people and 700 people visit 9-million Belarus, you understand it yourselves that these observation missions have different aims,” Narodnaya Gazeta newspaper cites Yarmoshyna.

Antonio Milososki, the head of the OSCE/ODIHR observation mission in Belarus, explained at yesterday's press conference in Minsk that the number of observers was determined by two factors. “The first  one is mission's data regarding observation needs assessment. The mission takes into account the previous experience of its work in the country and final reports on results of elections in the country. The second factor is availability and desire of OSCE member states to send their observers to elections in a country.” The expert stressed the mission had the balanced number of observers from Eastern and Western Europe. “We have observers from Armenia, Germany, Georgia, Italy, Kazakhstan and the US,” he noted.

But Yarmoshyna finds the argument untenable. “Representatives of CIS countries working for the OSCE often belong opposition in their countries. We cannot say they have common international views in relation to Belarus. There are a number of people coming to Belarus with friendly intentions, but their opinions are simply ignored,” the CEC head says.

The CEC top officials are already pessimistic about the work of OSCE observers. “In Belarus and other CIS countries, conclusions are made in a different way – they begin with good things and end with bad ones,” Yarmoshyna said.

The OSCE/ODIHR mission is expected to consist of 36 long-term and 270 short-term observers.