BRUSSELS / SOUTH CAUCASUS
Danger of war in South Caucasus increased

After the round of conversations with Michael Emerson, Sabine Freizer (third from the left) and Peter Semneby (fourth from the left)

The smouldering conflicts in Nagorny Karabach, Abchasia and South Ossetia are threatening to destabilize the whole region in South Caucasus if solutions on basis of international law are not immediately found. Participants from Armenia, Aserbaidzhan and Georgia agreed about that and put an emphasis upon it at a three-day seminar of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom from 23 to 25 June in Brussels. Massive armament in the area and more intensive war rhetoric is causing serious worries. The situation is further sharpened by Russia's attempts to regard current developments in Kosovo as a precedent for the organization of its own politics towards the territory of Abchasia, which is not internationally recognized. Opposition representatives in the three countries of South Caucasus reproach with their governments instrumentalization of their power politics, which would establish lacking progress at the development of democracy and a state of law. In election year 2008 the authoritarian powers are in advance so far.

A critical attitude of international organizations towards South Caucasian governments was demanded by the participants in a round of conversations with the special EU deputy for South Caucasus, Peter Semneby. First of all, a brief and adequate reaction is necessary because of the obvious election counterfeiting and it should be announced in one of the understandable languages for South Caucasus' peoples. Representatives of international organizations often wouldn't concentrate upon really important questions while judging the elections. So it is being worked intensively for example on election law making which is only of limited use because there are no institutions which could really put these laws into action.

Vote counting received too little attraction. A representative report of international election observers, which describes adequately the situation is often presented months after the elections.

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