We welcome Ambassador Orn to the Permanent Council and congratulate him on his assumption of duties as Head of Mission in January, 2000; for his interesting report; and for his fine start as Head of Mission.

We support the efforts and notable progress achieved by the Government of Latvia in improving the pace of naturalizations. As noted by Ambassador Orn, the 1999 total of 12,500 naturalizations exceeds the total for the previous four years. This is certainly a positive development.

We urge the Naturalization Board to ensure through the dedication of adequate resources that the present pace of naturalizations is maintained.

We strongly support the efforts of the Social Integration Program (SIP) Working Group. The ongoing work to identify projects and implementation mechanisms for the SIP is vital to the program's success.

The Government of Latvia must continue with its current efforts. Much has been achieved and much remains to be done.

With regard to an issue raised yesterday at the Preparatory Committee meeting, the Kononov case, we understand that he has filed an appeal, which is currently under consideration.

It is our understanding that Mr. Kononov was brought to trial and convicted, according to international norms, of war crimes. He was not charged or convicted for anti-fascist activities.

The OSCE mission will continue to monitor the Latvian Government’s implementation of OSCE-consistent legislation, and their treatment of non-citizens. We do not support an expansion of the current mandate to include monitoring of the Kononov case.