Mikalay Samaseyka, who chairs the House of Representatives`Committee on International Affairs, made two unfortunate mistakes while being interviewed. He expanded abbreviation "OSCE" as the Security Department of the Council of Europe and classed the organisation among the EU bodies…
"We appreciate cooperating in different fields with the EU countries, their organisations and bodies, particularly with the Security Department of the Council of Europe," he told journalists after the meeting with Dunia Mijatović, the OSCE representative on freedom of the media.
It is an open secret that the OSCE is expanded as the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. To put it lightly, that’s most strange that the high-profile government official and member of the lower chamber of the Belarusian Parliament does not possess basic knowledge of international organisations.
It should be noted that the final report by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) on the 23 September 2012 parliamentary elections in Belarus concludes that many OSCE commitments were not met, and offers recommendations to bring the conduct of elections in line with fundamental principles for democratic elections.
