Ambassador Jorma Inki to be Head of OSCE Assistance Group to Chechnya

Under the Portuguese Presidency of the OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe) Ambassador Jorma Inki will be in charge of the OSCE Assistance Group to Chechnya in 2002. The OSCE Assistance Group has operated in the Chechen Republic, which belongs to the Russian Federation, since 1995. For the period from August 1996 until June 2001, the mission was withdrawn to Moscow.

The Chairman-in-Office of the OSCE has traditionally appointed the head of this Mission from among its own nationals but Portugal, which is the new Chairman-in-Office, this time asked Finland to designate a diplomat whom it appointed to this task. As the Head of the Assistance Group, Ambassador Inki will work under the authority and supervision of the Portuguese Chairman-in-Office. The Assistance Group is currently stationed in the town of Znamenskoye in North-Western Chechnya, where the staff was able to return from Moscow last summer during Romania’s term as the OSCE Chairman-in-Office.

Ambassador Inki, born in 1941, was leading ECMM (now EUMM) in South-Western Europe during the Finnish EU Presidency. He has been in charge of i.a. conflict prevention at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland. He has a long record of contacts with Russia, having worked e.g. as press-counsellor in Moscow and the director in charge of for Finlands Eastern trade in the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. He has served as ambassador in Belgrade and Oslo.

Additional information: Ambassador Jorma Inki, tel 160 6123,
counsellor Hannele Voionmaa, tel 040 840 3448