Medvedev supports European watchdog role

MOSCOW, Aug. 17 (UPI) -- Russian President Dmitri Medvedev Sunday supported a larger role for a European human rights and military watchdog group in the South Ossetia conflict zone.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, OSCE, is right to expand its presence in the region, Medvedev said in a Kremlin statement reported by RIA Novosti. The OSCE said last week it planned to increase its military monitors in Gerorgia from eight to 100 in the wake of continued fighting.

Medvedev issued the statement after meeting with Finnish President Tarja Halonen, who currently holds the rotating presidency of the OSCE. The group said the future of the of South Ossetia must be determined by local residents.

"The fate of South Ossetia must be decided by the people of South Ossetia," Marc Perrin de Brichambaut, OSCE's secretary general, told RIA Novosti in the North Ossetian capital of Vladikavkaz. "They live in very difficult conditions and the context of what has happened is quite complex."

Brichambaut told reporters history and realities need to be taken into account when deciding the status of South Ossetia. He added the international community is gearing up to provide all necessary aid to refugees from war-torn South Ossetia.