OSCE Minsk office to completely terminate operation in few months (Jan 5 2011, BNS)
"Formally we have a mandate to work for a couple of months, maybe, to finish programs and sort of to phase the mission out if there is no other solution," Haller told journalists after a meeting with Lithuanian Foreign Affairs Minister Audronius Azubalis.
"Phasing out needs some time, we have to finish projects, we have staff to take care to end treaties, about the building contracts," Haller added.
As the OSCE's Chairperson-in-Office, Azubalis evaded a direct answer when asked if he hoped Belarus to reconsider its decisions not to extend the mission's mandate.
"As the OSCE's Chairperson-in-Office, I see my duty to put every effort to prevent the situation from becoming worse," he said, asked about possible reopening of the Minsk office.
"The mission is formally closed. We have a couple of months to finish the remaining work that can be finished. And then something else will be there," Azubalis said.
In his words, "the situation in Belarus is complicated not only for the Lithuanian OSCE Chairmanship, but also for the whole Europe as the country is in the center of Europe."
Azubalis called very important the U.S. and EU statement condemning Belarus' decision to close the Minsk office.
In a joint statement, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Catherine Ashton, the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy of the European Union, have said they "regret the decision by the government of Belarus to terminate the mission of the OSCE's office in Minsk."
"Minsk should pay careful attention to this statement," Azubalis said.
Andrei Savinych, a spokesman of the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, has said earlier that his government decided to close the trans-Atlantic organization's office "due to the absence of objective reasons for an OSCE mission in Belarus."
