OSCE counts to return its office to Minsk

The OSCE mission did much good work for Belarus and the people of Belarus.

The director of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR),  Janez Lenarčič, exprtessed this thought in an interview with BelaPAN news agency.  Lenarčič arrived in Belarus for the “parliamentary election”.

Lenarčič says his personal opinion was that the mission did much good work for Belarus and its people.

He notes it was much easier for the Bureau to cooperate with Belarus when the OSCE mission was in the country, because it helped to establish contacts and offered assistance. Without the mission the Bureau is all by itself that creates additional problems, Lenarčič says.

The OSCE Office in Minsk was closed on a decision of the Belarusian authorities in December 2010 after the organization did not recognize the results of the presidential election and said about numerous violations  during the election campaign.