OSCE FOREIGN MINISTERS ADOPT POSITIVE STATEMENT ON SE EUROPE

PORTO, Dec 7 (Hina) - The foreign ministers of countries in the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) on Saturday ended a two-day conference in Portugal's Porto by adopting, among a series of documents, three separate regional statements, including one on Southeast Europe. #L# Southeast Europe is mentioned in a positive context. The statement commends the region's countries' successes in the consolidation of security and stability and further democratisation. The statement also notes the countries' big interest in integrating into Euro-Atlantic structures. The document points to the need of maintaining peace and bolstering security and stability in former hot spots, and stresses the OSCE's intention to continue playing an active part in the U.N. Mission to Kosovo. The statement also notes the need for Serbia and Montenegro to adopt a constitutional charter on their future union. The OSCE foreign ministers support the efforts Southeast Europe's countries are investing in building multiethnic societies with strong democratic institutions and rule-of-law, where human rights and basic human freedoms are respected, including those of national minorities. The region's countries are urged to adopt and enforce laws on national minorities which will comply with their international commitments and OSCE's recommendations. The countries are also called on to cooperate in issues relating to refugees and displaced persons and to ensure that they may exercise their rights to return to pre-war homes and reclaim their property. The OSCE foreign ministers expect Europe's south-east to participate in the fight against terrorism, organised crime, corruption, illegal migrations, and trafficking in arms, drugs and humans, and urge them to step up border surveillance. The statement welcomes these countries' initiatives to increase cooperation in this field. The statement also notes the stronger cooperation between the OSCE and the European Union, and stresses that the Stabilisation and Association Process and the Stability Pact for Southeast Europe complement each other. The statement also points to the need for the region's countries to fulfil their international commitments, particularly full and all- round cooperation with the U.N. war crimes tribunal at The Hague. All war crimes indictees must, without exception, be brought before the tribunal, and the region's countries must open their archives and enable the arrival of witnesses, the document says. The OSCE foreign ministers welcome the cases in which war crimes are prosecuted at national courts. Croatia's Ambassador to OSCE's Permanent Council, Vladimir Matek, who attended the Porto conference, told Croatian reporters there the statement did not mention Croatia by name, which he said was an improvement as against previous years. He said representatives of the international community were very satisfied with an agreement the Croatian and Yugoslav foreign ministers reached on Friday on a temporary regime on the peninsula of Prevlaka. "That is considered a significant contribution to stability in the region, thereby to stability throughout Europe and the OSCE region," said Matek. He confirmed terrorism was slowly becoming OSCE's absolute priority, as visible in the documents the UNHCR submitted in Porto. The UNHCR says human trafficking is its biggest problem, followed by asylum seekers, with refugees coming in third, mostly in the context of minorities, said Matek. The key document adopted in Porto today was a charter on the prevention of and fight against terrorism, which is estimated will become one of the crucial documents of OSCE's future activity. (hina) ha