O.S.C.Es' Parliamentary Assembly Lashes Out At Russia

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe called for national and worldwide concentration on what it described as the tragedy of the Ukrainian people. What did it mean by that? It agreed with Ukraine that the famine of 1932 and 1933 was a logical result of Moscow's policy for Ukraine. The Russian and Kazakh delegations raised objections to that vision of the past. The Russian delegates accused the Parliamentary Assembly of twisting facts. They reminded it that people of other ethnic backgrounds found those years very difficult. To tell the truth, they said, various parts of the Soviet Union were hit by famine in the early 1030's. The Russian delegates called for an unbiased approach to history and refused to see what had happened as a purposeful attempt to exterminate Ukrainians.

Another resolution of the Parliamentary assembly of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe urges Russia to refrain from moves that put a question mark over the sovereignty of Georgia. Tbilisi feels the Russian strategies for Abkhazia and South Ossetia violate the territorial integrity of Georgia. Moscow disagrees with Tbilisi. Russian railroad troops, armed with spades and hammers instead of firearms, have entered Abkhazia. And what the Parliamentary Assembly said about the forcible naturalization of Abkhazians sounded simply ridiculous. Quite a few Abkhazians carry Soviet identification documents because Abkhazia used to be a republic of the Soviet Union. Abkhazia and South Ossetia have held referendums to prove they have no desire to be parts of Georgia. And, none other but Georgia ordered troops into Abkhazia, provoking an armed conflict with that republic, back in 1992. An expert with the Russian Institute of the Commonwealth of Independent States, Kirill Frolov, sees what is happening as politically slanted anti-Russian action. It is not the O.S.C.E.'s business to indulge in the interpretation of history. Attempts to hurl ungrounded accusations at Russia translate into attempts to rewrite history. Just the way Yushchenko does in his own efforts for the political rehabilitation of the Ukrainian collaborators of Nazi Germany. Frolov believes the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe may yet come to doubt the verdict of the Nuremberg Tribunal and move to rehabilitate the Ukrainian Nazis.

Russia is calling for an overhaul of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. The word "security" makes part of the name of that international organization, and continental security is what that organization is supposed to protect. The foreign minister of Russia, Sergei Lavrov, feels countries will have to reconsider their membership of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, if that organization happens to turn into a club of nations that focuses on nothing but humanitarian issues.

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