OSCE chief Spain targets terrorism, racism in 2007

By Staff
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VIENNA, Jan 11 (Reuters) Combating terrorism and xenophobia, especially anti-Muslim feeling, will be priorities of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe in 2007, new OSCE chairman Spain said today.

It said the 56-nation, pan-European security body, recently torn by tensions over democracy issues, will also push for respect for human rights in Kosovo which seeks independence, and tackle threats to the environment.

Spain brings immediate experience of terrorism and xenophobia to its year-long helm of the OSCE.

The Basque separatist group ETA killed two people in a New Year weekend bombing, while xenophobia has risen in Spain as it has turned into Europe's biggest magnet for poor, illegal immigrants, whom many blame for a spike in violent crime.

''Tensions of all kinds (are) rippling throughout Europe today,'' Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Moratinos said in a speech at OSCE headquarters in Vienna.

''Within each nation are societies which are ever more diverse and are threatened by intolerance, discrimination and even hatred,'' the Socialist foreign minister said.

He said reconciling the increasing and irreversible diversity of European society was of ''strategic'' importance. Moratinos said the OSCE would work to improve cross-border investigative cooperation to curb terrorism, including streamlining the handling of travel documents and promoting the rights of victims of terrorism.

He said a special OSCE anti-terrorism conference, including civic and business leaders, would be held in Vienna in coming months.

NORTH AFRICA Spain would strive for more participation in OSCE security talks by Mediterranean states outside Europe, mainly North African and other Arab countries seen as potential springboards for Islamist militant attacks.

''We can't speak of security and cooperation in Europe if we don't take account of the challenges and feelings of our Mediterranean partners,'' Moratinos told a news conference.

Two other high-level OSCE special conferences were planned this year -- one in Romania on fighting ethnic discrimination and the other in Spain addressing the rise in ''Islamophobia''.

A European Union report last month said Europe's Muslims face entrenched discrimination denying them equal access to education, housing and jobs. This was alienating Muslims from the mainstream and spurring unrest in countries like France.

It said such marginalisation was borne of an increasing tendency to associate Muslims in general with terrorist acts by a relative few, and immigration from the Islamic world.

The OSCE groups European nations, all former Soviet republics plus the United States and Canada.

At the final OSCE meeting of 2006, Moscow and Washington clashed in ways reminiscent of their Cold War rivalry.

Washington spoke of many OSCE members backsliding over human rights and criticised Moscow's use of economic clout to pile pressure on small neighbours Georgia and Moldova.

Russia hit back, saying the OSCE should focus on the fight against terrorism or drug trafficking, or risk irrelevance.

''Neither the spirit nor letter of the OSCE ... are enhanced when (such) relations are characterised by sanctions, pressure or aggressive rhetoric,'' Moratinos said.

REUTERS BDP BD2130

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