Vice-President Grossruck and Speaker of the Azerbaijani Parliament Ogtay Asadov in Baku. VIENNA, 20 October 2010 -- PA Vice-President Wolfgang Grossruck, Special Co-ordinator and leader of the short-term OSCE observer mission to the 2010 general elections in Azerbaijan, visited the country on a pre-assessment mission from 14 to 18 October. He met with the President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, the Speaker of the Parliament (Milli Mejlis) Ogtay

24.kg NEWS AGENCY 18 October 2010 Kyrgyzstan hosts International Independent Commission for investigation of events broke out in the south of the country. This was announced today by its chairman and Special Representative for Central Asia of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly Kimmo Kiljunen. According to him, the Commission has both international and domestic support. "The Kyrgyz government gave consent for our work," said Kimmo Kiljunen. He

EURASIANET.ORG 18 October 2010 Catherine A. Fitzpatrick The independent Kyrgyz website AKIpress has published the names of six experts who have been invited to serve on the international commission to investigate the violence in southern Kyrgyzstan in June, headed by Kimmo Kiljunen, a member of the Finnish Parliament and Special Representative on Central Asia for the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization of Security and Cooperation in

Morten Hoeglun performs election observation in Bishkek. BISHKEK, 11 October 2010 – Marked by political pluralism and a vibrant campaign, yesterday’s parliamentary elections in Kyrgyzstan constituted a further consolidation of the democratic process and brought the country closer to meeting its international commitments on democratic elections, international observers concluded in a preliminary statement issued today. They stressed, however,

PALERMO, 9 October 2010 – Organized crime remains one of the most pressing problems worldwide and I am confident, said today OSCE PA President Petros Efthymiou, and expressed his confidence in that the discussions in the next two days at the Fall Meetings here will be a useful and effective guide in dealing with this problem. Mr. Efthymiou’s speech today led off the conference at the PA’s Fall Meetings here titled, “The Fight Against

BISHKEK, 9 October 2010 – A delegation from the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly under the leadership of the Norwegian member of parliament, Morten Hoeglund, has arrived in Kyrgyzstan to observe Sunday’s parliamentary elections. Mr. Hoeglund, an experienced election observer, has also been appointed as OSCE Special Co-ordinator by Kanat Saudabayev, OSCE Chairperson-in-Office and Kazakhstan’s Foreign Minister. In this capacity, Mr. Hoeglund heads of