[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 28 (Thursday, March 10, 2005)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2500-S2501]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            ACTIONS OF RUSSIA REGARDING GEORGIA AND MOLDOVA

  Mr. McCONNELL. I ask unanimous consent that the Foreign Relations 
Committee be discharged from further consideration and the Senate now 
proceed to S. Res. 69.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered. The clerk 
will report the resolution by title.
  The legislative clerk read as follows:

       A resolution (S. Res. 69) expressing the sense of the 
     Senate about the actions of Russia regarding Georgia and 
     Moldova.

  There being no objection, the Senate proceeded to consider the 
resolution.
  Mr. McCONNELL. I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed 
to, the preamble be agreed to, and the motion to reconsider be laid 
upon the table.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The resolution (S. Res. 69) was agreed to.
  The preamble was agreed to.
  The resolution, with its preamble, reads as follows:

                               S. Res. 69

       Whereas the Organization for Security and Cooperation in 
     Europe (OSCE) evolved from the Conference on Security and 
     Cooperation in Europe (CSCE), which was established in 1975, 
     and the official change of its name from CSCE to OSCE became 
     effective on January 1, 1995;
       Whereas the OSCE is the largest regional security 
     organization in the world with 55 participating States from 
     Europe, Central Asia, and North America;
       Whereas the 1975 Helsinki Final Act, the 1990 Charter of 
     Paris, and the 1999 Charter for European Security adopted in 
     Istanbul are the principal documents of OSCE, defining a 
     steadily evolving and maturing set of political commitments 
     based on a broad understanding of security;
       Whereas the OSCE is active in early warning, conflict 
     prevention, crisis management, and post-conflict 
     rehabilitation;
       Whereas Russia and Georgia agreed at the 1999 OSCE Summit 
     in Istanbul on specific steps regarding the withdrawal from 
     Georgia of Russian forces, including military equipment 
     limited by the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe 
     (CFE), and committed to resolve other key issues relating to 
     the status and duration of the Russian military presence in 
     Georgia;
       Whereas Russia has completed some of the withdrawal from 
     Georgia of military equipment limited by the CFE Treaty in 
     excess of agreed levels, but has yet to agree with Georgia on 
     the status of Russian forces at the Gudauata base and the 
     duration of the Russian presence at the Akhalkalaki and 
     Batumi bases;
       Whereas Russia completed the withdrawal from Moldova of its 
     declared military equipment limited by the CFE Treaty, but 
     has yet to withdraw all its military forces from Moldova, as 
     Russia committed to do at the 1999 OSCE Summit in Istanbul;
       Whereas Russia made virtually no progress in 2004 toward 
     its commitment to withdraw its military forces from Moldova;
       Whereas Moldova has called for a genuinely international 
     peacekeeping force to replace the Russian forces, and insists 
     on the

[[Page S2501]]

     implementation by Russia of its commitment to withdraw its 
     remaining military forces from Moldova;
       Whereas Secretary of State Colin Powell stated at the 
     December 2004 OSCE Ministerial in Sofia, Bulgaria, that 
     ``Russia's commitments to withdraw its military forces from 
     Moldova, and to agree with Georgia on the duration of the 
     Russian military presence there, remain unfulfilled. A core 
     principle of the CFE Treaty is host country agreement to the 
     stationing of forces. The United States remains committed to 
     moving ahead with ratification of the Adapted CFE Treaty, but 
     we will only do so after all the Istanbul commitments on 
     Georgia and Moldova have been met. And we stand ready to 
     assist with reasonable costs associated with the 
     implementation of those commitments.'';
       Whereas since June 2004, Russia has called for the closure 
     of the OSCE Border Monitoring Operation (BMO), the sole 
     source of objective reporting on border crossings along the 
     border between Georgia and with the Russian republics of 
     Chechnya, Dagestan, and Ingushetia;
       Whereas OSCE border monitors took up their mission in 
     Georgia in May 2000, and prior to the failure to extend the 
     mandate for the BMO in December 2004, OSCE border monitors, 
     who are unarmed, were deployed at nine locations along that 
     border;
       Whereas the current rotation of the BMO includes 65 border 
     monitors from 23 countries, including Austria, Azerbaijan, 
     Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, 
     Estonia, Finland, France, Hungary, Ireland, Lithuania, 
     Macedonia, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, 
     Turkey, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, and the United States;
       Whereas at the December 2004 OSCE Ministerial, Russia 
     blocked renewal of the mandate for the BMO in Georgia;
       Whereas Russia has stated that the BMO has accomplished 
     nothing, but it has in fact accomplished a great deal, 
     including observing 746 unarmed and 61 armed border crossings 
     in 2004 and serving as a counterweight to inflammatory press 
     reports;
       Whereas in response to Russian complaints about the cost-
     effectiveness of the BMO, the OSCE agreed in December 2004 to 
     cut the number of monitors and thereby reduce the cost of the 
     BMO by almost half;
       Whereas the BMO began shutting down on January 1, 2005;
       Whereas the staff of the BMO is now dismantling facilities 
     and is not performing its mission;
       Whereas the shutdown of the BMO will become irreversible in 
     the second half of March 2005 and is currently scheduled to 
     be completed by May 2005;
       Whereas the United States has reiterated its disappointment 
     over the failure of the Permanent Council of the OSCE to 
     reach consensus on renewing the mandate of the BMO, despite 
     request of Georgia, the host country of the BMO, that the 
     OSCE continue the border monitoring operation, and the 
     consensus of all states but one to extend the mandate for the 
     BMO; and
       Whereas United States Ambassador to the United States 
     Mission to the OSCE, Stephan M. Minikes, said in a statement 
     to the OSCE Permanent Council in Vienna on January 19, 2005, 
     that ``we believe that the closure of the BMO would remove a 
     key source of peaceful relations and of objective reporting 
     on events at the sensitive border and increase the likelihood 
     of heightened Russia-Georgia tensions.'': Now, therefore, be 
     it
       Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that the 
     United States should--
       (1) urge Russia to live up to its commitments at the 1999 
     Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) 
     Summit in Istanbul regarding Georgia and Moldova;
       (2) in cooperation with its European allies, maintain 
     strong diplomatic pressure to permit the OSCE Border 
     Monitoring Operation (BMO) in Georgia to continue; and
       (3) if the BMO ceases to exist, seek, in cooperation with 
     its European allies, an international presence to monitor 
     objectively border crossings along the border between Georgia 
     and the Russian republics of Chechnya, Dagestan, and 
     Ingushetia.

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