Chechen refugees warned of camps closure
Dec 09, 2002 Posted: 20:21 Moscow time (16:21 GMT)
VLADIKAVKAZ - Authorities told Chechen refugees living in two camps in the
neighboring region Monday that the camps will be closed this month and they
will have to return to Chechnya, an activist said.
Migration officials and representatives of the administration of the Chechen
capital Grozny traveled to two camps outside the village of Sleptsovsk
on the border between Chechnya and Ingushetia, said Ruslan Badalov, chairman
of a group called the Chechen Committee for National Salvation.
The authorities, accompanied by military officers, told residents that both
camps will be closed by Dec. 20 and that they will be sent to Chechnya, Badalov
said by telephone.
The warning appeared to be part of a campaign by the Russian government to
return refugees from eight years of war in Chechnya to the region, which
is still plagued by violence.
The campaign has been widely criticized by aid organizations and human rights
groups, who say the refugees are being intimidated into returning to Chechnya.
Russian officials and representatives of Chechnya's Moscow-backed administration
deny refugees are being forced to return. They say temporary accommodation
is being provided for the refugees who return to Chechnya and to those few
who choose to stay behind in Ingushetia.
The U.N. refugee agency says 18,500 refugees are still living in camps in
Ingushetia, and another 110,000 are living in private homes, dormitories
and makeshift shelters there. Ingushetia has absorbed the bulk of the refugees
from Chechnya's two wars in the last decade.
Skirmishes and rebel attacks occur daily in Chechnya, and Russian soldiers
continue to conduct large-scale security sweeps in the republic, rounding
up people suspected of rebel activities. Human rights groups say the operations
are rife with abuses, including illegal detentions, rapes and killings.