1 of 1 Special Representative To: PA President and PA Secretary General Report Week 3, 2006 This week, we participated in meetings of the Permanent Council, the Preparatory Committee, the Advisory Committee for Management and Finance, the Economic Subcommittee, and the informal briefing by the Head of Mission to Kosovo, Ambassador Werner Wnendt. In spite of a long agenda and a number of (routine) decisions, the meeting of the Permanent Coun- cil did not have any highlights. A little more interesting than the altogether eight points under Current Issues, or the debates on the reports by the Economic Coordinator and Ambassador Wnendt, was the discussion that took place in the Preparatory Committee on the issue of the then pending reappointment of the Chairman-in-Office’s three personal representatives on tolerance issues. The reappointment, on which the delegations are only consulted, has in the meantime taken place. In this discussion, most delegations, in particular Canada and Russia, made it very clear that they saw this reappointment as one that will only give the three sufficient time to finish their reports, and that after 2006 a new solution will have to be found. Possibilities discussed were an altogether new format, a single Representative for all three issues, or simply to make it one of ODIHR’s tasks. The only one who indicated a preference towards a longer engagement was the Turkish Ambassador. The Permanent Council took the following decisions: OSCE 2005 Unified Budget revision topics and dates of the Human Dimension Seminar in Warsaw topics for the second part of the Human Dimension Implementation Meeting 2006 OSCE-Thailand Conference on Challenges to Global Security: From Poverty to Pandemic, to be held in Bangkok, 25 and 26 April 2006. The Budget revision is routine business. The budget for the previous year is adapted to the actual spending, in order to make it possible that the savings will be returned to the Participating States. The most important point under Current Issues was the invitation extended by Belarus to ODIHR to observe the upcoming elections. The EU and the U.S. took advantage of the opportunity to again criticize Belarus for Human Rights’ violations. The other points were (again) Andijan, return of Uzbek refugees by Kyrgyzstan, Kyrgyz constitutional reform and its moratorium on death penalty, interruption of BBC FM broadcast services in Tajikistan, the release of a political prisoner in Ka- zakhstan, the Avian (Bird) Flu and the attack on a synagogue in Russia. The latter point was brought up by the U.S. who commended Russia for its reaction a called for vigilance in all Partici- pating States. On Kosovo, it became clear that –whatever the outcome of the status talks will be – all delegations see a need for a continued presence and most likely a greater role of the OSCE in the region. It was also evident that now with the status talks started the implementation of standards has almost come to a standstill. All sides, but in particular the Kosovo Albanians, are extremely sensitive to anything they see as an international involvement that could be interpreted as being in favor of the respective other side. There have been some incidents, which according to the Head of Mission will not likely lead to large-scale violence, but the situation remains unstable. January 24, 2006