Andrzej Kasprzyk: Number of incidents on line of contact declined

Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan – Serzh Sargsyan and Ilham Aliyev made clear that they intend to accelerate the pace of their meetings and intensify the peace process, which gives cause for optimism in 2014, Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office Andrzej Kasprzyk told the Trend news agency.

In his words, with the assistance and consent of the sides, in 2013 members of the OSCE Mission visited the line of contact of the armed forces 17 times. He said that the number of those killed or injured as a result of violations of the ceasefire declined in 2013 as compared with 2012.

Nevertheless, the agreement on the ceasefire remains self-regulating and the risks are serious as never before, while those living near the line of contact will continue to be exposed to difficulties until the ceasefire regime is strengthened, A. Kasprzyk said.

According to him, the Co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group and Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office have mandates to work with the sides in order to develop trust building measures. Besides, his team helps work out mechanisms for investigation of possible armed incidents, Andrzej Kasprzyk noted.

In his words, some trust building measures are more difficult to carry out than others, but they will help to ease tension on the line of contact sooner or later.