OSCE to send additional monitors to Georgia

The Special Envoy of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Chairman-in-Office, Ambassador Heikki Talvitie, said on a special meeting of the Organization's Permanent Council in Vienna Thursday that additional OSCE monitors were needed in Georgia.
He said that the situation in and around the South Ossetia conflict area remained "fragile" and international monitoring of the ceasefire and of the humanitarian situation was urgently needed.
"The OSCE must be in a position to swiftly respond to the crisis," said Talvitie. He therefore asked the 56 member states to increase the number of OSCE monitors by up to 100, pointing out that with this number of monitors would allow the OSCE to react fast.
He also said that the Chairman-in-Office had grave concern about the safety and the welfare of civilians in the related region and would continue to follow the situation carefully.
However, the decision of increasing the number of monitors needs the approval from all the 56 participating states. The formal decision of increase monitors would be made later.
The current OSCE Mission to Georgia has about 200 staff, including eight unarmed military monitoring offices.