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PACE Begins Georgian War Discussion
The Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) begins its new session today in Strasbourg. It will be almost entirely devoted to the war between Russia and Georgia. A proposal by 24 delegates, headed by deputy speaker of the Estonian parliament Kristina Ojuland, to deprive Russia of its voting rights in the assembly will be considered, but is not expected to be adopted. Nonetheless, Russia will be subject to severe criticism. A PACE commission visited South Ossetia and Georgia late last week and stated that there was no genocide of the Ossetian people. But the ethnic cleansing of the Georgian population in South Ossetia may have taken place.
The first order of business at the session will be the recognition of the delegations. Georgia’s delegation has undergone changes after that country’s parliamentary elections. If ten members of PACE challenge the makeup of a delegation, a special reporter is called in to handle the case. Rumor has it that the Russian and Georgian delegations are negotiating to come to terms and not challenge each other’s voting rights. The heads of the main PACE organs and PACE reporter for Russia Luc van den Brande, who visited Moscow, Tbilisi and Tskhinvali last week, have spoken out against depriving Russia of its vote.
Discussion of the war will begin in earnest on Tuesday, when reporters for Russia van den Brande of Belgium and Teodoros Pangalos of Greece and reporters for Georgia Matyas Eorsi of Hungary and Kastriot Islami of Albania read their report. In a press conference in Tbilisi, they made it clear that they consider the Georgian population, not the Ossetian population, of South Ossetia the main victims in the conflict. The discussion will last through Thursday and a resolution will be past based on the conclusions reached in it. Sources say that resolution may contain a number of demands of Russia and the threat of depriving it of its vote in the future.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Sep. 29, 2008
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