ITALY SUPPORTS ESTABLISHING OSCE SPECIAL REP FOR

UNCLAS ROME 003999 SIPDIS DEPT FOR EUR/OHI E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PREL PHUM IT OSCE EUN SUBJECT: ITALY SUPPORTS ESTABLISHING OSCE SPECIAL REP FOR ANTI-SEMITISM Guidance request - see para 4 ¶1. On October 15, MFA OSCE Office Director Fabio Cristiani told EUR/OHI Director Don Braum (in Rome for the Holocaust Education Task Force) that Italy fully supports US view that a special representative for anti-Semitism should be established in the OSCE. EU representatives met at 25 to discuss the issue on the margins of the OSCE Human Dimension Implementation Meeting on October 12 in Warsaw. The EU will take up the subject again on October 19 at the EU COSCE meeting in Brussels. ¶2. Italy supports establishing two new representatives, one for anti-Semitism and one for all other forms of intolerance. Cristiani was fairly confident that such an approach would address concerns of some participating States, especially Islamic countries, that anti-Semitism was being given special treatment. Cristiani added that Italy would not support establishing any more than two special representatives. He warned that there was a danger of "proliferation" of special representatives for every type of intolerance. Cristiani promised to make his views clear at the COSCE. ¶3. Cristiani questioned the necessity of a third OSCE meeting on anti-Semitism, especially if it covered the same ground and employed the same format as the Berlin conference. He said that Italy would consider supporting a meeting at a working level, or one that covered anti-Semitism one day and other forms of intolerance the next. ¶4. Finally, Cristiani asked at what level the US would be represented at the OSCE Ministerial in Sofia in December. Poloff promised Cristiani he would check with Washington. SEMBLER NNNN 2004ROME03999 - Classification: UNCLASSIFIED