Dacic urges all sides to ensure safety to OSCE observers

Dacic urges all sides to ensure safety to OSCE observers

AFP is reporting that "western monitors of Ukraine's tattered truce on Tuesday reported coming under targeted fire," with deputy mission chief Alexander Hug telling reporters in Kiev that "in the past days the SMM (Special Monitoring Mission) has faced three separate, targeted security incidents in certain locations in the conflict zone."

AFP quoted Hug as saying that "one mission leader suffered a head injury and was flown to Kiev for treatment after being caught in an exchange of heavy gun and sniper fire in a town about 100 kilometers south of the separatists' de facto capital Donetsk."

Monday's incident in Shyrokyne came a day after another team escaped unharmed from a similar breach of the armistice in the Donetsk region town of Shchastya, the French agency said, adding that "the OSCE refused to assign blame for either attack."

According to reports, armed persons on Monday shot at an OSCE "patrol" in Shyrokyne, when an observer was injured with "a shard of concrete that flew due to heavy shooting."

The mission said that mortar shells also landed near OSCE vehicles in Lugansk, but that nobody was injured.

"All sides in eastern Ukraine have a responsibility to ensure the safety of OSCE monitors and guarantee their unfettered access across the region," OSCE Chairperson-in-Office and Serbia’s Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic said on Tuesday.

The statement was made following two recent incidents in which teams from the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine were caught in crossfire.

“I am alarmed and deeply concerned by the incidents in Shchastya on July 26 and Shyrokyne on July 27, especially when it appears our unarmed, civilian monitors were targeted,” the OSCE quoted Dacic as saying.

Dacic stated that an SMM monitor who had suffered a mild concussion and an injury to his right leg in the incident in Shyrokyne had now been discharged from hospital.

“I commend the bravery and diligence that monitors and staff of the SMM show every day in their work in increasingly difficult circumstances. I strongly condemn any incidents or actions that hamper the SMM’s work,” Dacic said.

The Serbian minister said that all sides on the ground in eastern Ukraine were obliged under their commitments to the Minsk Agreements to ensure the safety, security and freedom of movement of the SMM observers.

Dacic also reminded all sides of the urgent need to fully implement the ceasefire, to continue and enhance the withdrawal of heavy weapons, and to step up the political dialogue.