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Life in an OSCE Mission

by Rory Field 

Life in an OSCE Mission is a huge change from what most people will have experienced working in a job in the UK. Every country where a Mission is located is different, every Mission is unique and every job carries individual responsibilities. At the end of the working day you are living in a different country with all the attendant challenges. Accordingly, as legal advisor on organized crime in Belgrade, Serbia and Montenegro my experiences will not mirror anyone else's in the OSCE. Indeed, given that one of the benefits of working in this Mission is having considerable latitude to put ones own ideas into action, my job is unique to me, since someone else doing it would no doubt involve themselves in different projects with different interlocutors and have different experiences.

I know that I am fortunate, since Belgrade is a very easy city to live in. Despite the recent turbulent history, the people are very warm and friendly and the city is very safe from street crime. That is not to say that there is not a lot of organised crime, indeed this was a city which saw the assassination of the prime minister only 2 years ago. But this sort of crime seldom touches the lives of the international community. As a large capital city it has the normal facilities you would expect. Prices tend to be less than in the UK. The food is simple but tasty and I imagine suits the average English palate (unless you are vegetarian, as it is heavily meat based!) and importantly you can eat out safely in attractive restaurants without worrying about getting ill.

The Mission itself has almost 200 members of whom about 40 are internationals. The internationals come from a cross section of the 55 member states that make up the OSCE, including the US and Russia. This mix is stimulating but also creates possibilities for miscommunication. It is essential when working in a Mission to respect cultural differences and be aware that there is often more than one ‘right way' of doing something. Equally one must remember that we are guests in the host country and it is our task to support and help but not to lecture.

Arriving mission members tend to sink or swim depending on their ability to quickly adapt and get to grips with the new Mission and their job. There is no welcoming committee. The language is not easy to learn and most people outside the Mission do not speak English. There are no provisions of accommodation or anything of that type. Accordingly, in my case, I put myself up in a hotel for a few days and then found myself an apartment and took out a short contract on it. My job was new, so I had to create it from scratch.

In fact, my particular task of running programs to fight organized crime still allows me a great deal of latitude and creative thinking. Since I am the expert, I cannot expect ideas to come from superiors who may very well have less experience in these areas than myself. Accordingly, I have chosen to deal with a very wide range of ideas. A few of these are providing training or developing law in the area of asset seizure and asset forfeiture, special investigative techniques, witness collaborators, witness protection and cyber crime. I have developed a Code of Conduct for Prosecutors, organised conferences for prosecutors, assisted in the development of a regional prosecutors network and developed relations between the Serbian prosecution and the Anti Mafia prosecution based in Rome. My interlocutors are the senior representatives of the judiciary, prosecution and police, together with representatives of the Serbian government, other international organizations, embassies, NGOs and civil society.

The work is challenging and every day is different. It is also rewarding to pass ones expertise onto others and I would recommend anyone who has the opportunity, to take up a position like mine.

Rory Field is the Organised Crime Advisor at the OSCE Mission to Serbia and a member of 15 New Bridge Street.

30 November 2006

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