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10 December 2003
[BBC Monitoring]
A group of Chechen rights champions have appealed to UN Secretary- General Koffi Annan, criticizing the United Nations' attitude to the plight of Chechen refugees in Azerbaijan. They said that in distributing aid, the UN and other humanitarian organizations ignore the fact that there are over 7,500 Chechen refugees in Azerbaijan. Some of them are forced to return to Chechnya, where the fighting is still going on, and risk their lives because the Russian authorities persecute and physically eliminate those returning from Azerbaijan and Georgia, the rights champions said. They called on Koffi Annan to help and support the Chechen refugees in Azerbaijan and promised assistance over this issue. The following is a text of report by The Chechen Times web site on 9 December: An open letter to the UN Secretary General, Mr Koffi Annan. Mr Secretary General! We understand from open sources of information that you have called upon sponsor countries to allocate 62m dollars to the aid of Chechnya and neighbouring republics. We would be extremely pleased if this aid reached the suffering people of the Chechen Republic, but, unfortunately, we have to say that this money will almost exclusively end up in the pockets of unscrupulous officials of the government of [pro-Russian Chechen President Akhmat] Kadyrov, as has already happened more than once. If this happens, then the public can only interpret your move as one of trust in the so-called president Kadyrov and an attempt to legitimize the unlawful puppet authorities in Chechnya which remain in power by force of the bayonet. And Russia, as human rights organizations and journalists acknowledge, is waging a genocidal war in Chechnya and slipping further and further into authoritarianism. We are also surprised by your move in view of the end to compensation payments to the people of Chechnya. How could you possibly not be concerned that the Russian government has ceased these payments? In view of what has happened the only sensible thing would be to send direct aid to the people who are suffering, bypassing the corrupt government of Chechnya, but since you have no appropriate institutions in place there, this means that any money that you allocate would simply be embezzled and would cause palpable harm to the reputation of the United Nations. At the same time, we are quite amazed that in distributing aid the UN and other humanitarian organizations do not take account of the Chechen refugees in Azerbaijan, who number over 7,500, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. Why is this? We just cannot understand how you can ignore the fact that there are so many unfortunate people. Or perhaps you feel that the aid for the Chechen refugees allocated by the UNHCR in Azerbaijan - an average of about six dollars per person per month - is sufficient? Mr Secretary General! Let us make this clear to you. Because the local office of the UNHCR is unable to provide sufficient aid to the Chechen refugees, some of them are risking their lives by returning to Chechnya where the fighting is still going on. We wish to inform you that there exists a secret law of the Kremlin authorities to persecute and to physically eliminate the refugees returning from Azerbaijan and Georgia, because the Russian special services are convinced that these refugees support the freedom and independence of the Chechen Republic. These tragic incidents are not isolated, and we have informed the UN and other human rights organizations about them. Mr Secretary General! We beg you to look at the facts we have brought to your attention and in allocating your aid take into account the plight of the Chechen refugees in Azerbaijan to whom you would be able to render organized assistance and support via the local office of the UNHCR. And for our part, we, the Council of Non-governmental Organizations of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria [CRI] in Azerbaijan, are prepared to assist you and the local office over matters of organization concerning the Chechen refugees. We sincerely trust that you will listen to our appeal and not abandon these suffering people. With respect and gratitude, Members of the Council for Non-governmental Organizations of the CRI in Azerbaijan: Ruslan Zelimkhanov, chairman of the Council of NGOs of the CRI in Azerbaijan and chairman of the League for the Protection of the Rights of Children of the CRI; Mayrbek Taramov, director of the Chechen Human Rights Centre; Raisa Khamzayeva, chairman of the Disabled Persons' Society; Musa Mutsayev, chairman of the Extraordinary Council of Refugees of the CRI; Magomed Tepsurkayev, chairman of the Tuberculosis Patients' Society. Baku, Azerbaijan. 8 December 2003.
Brussels blasts closure of Chechen refugee camp 10 December 2003 The European Commission expressed deep concern Wednesday at the planned closure of a camp for Chechen refugees in the neighbouring Russian republic of Ingushetia. "I am deeply concerned by the closure of yet another camp in Ingushetia, especially during the harsh Caucasian winter," said EU aid commissioner Poul Nielson, referring to the "imminent" closure of the Alina camp. "It is the third camp to be closed in Ingushetia in twelve months, in addition to the closure of a camp in Chechnya last year," he said, adding that Chechen refugees had the right to protection and assistance" in Ingushetia. He recalled that the the European Commission is the main donor of humanitarian aid to the victims of the conflict in Chechnya, with more than 120 million euros (145 million dollars) allocated since the beginning of the second conflict there. The EU executive's aid branch ECHO has spent at least 150,000 euros for infrastructure at the Alina camp, as well as funding the distribution of food, hygiene items, bed items and firewood for the winter, he said. The president of Ingushetia, Murat Zyazikov, last month denied that Chechen refugees were being forced out of tent camps in his republic on war-torn Chechnya's western border.
The occupiers evict mountain residents from the zone of secret construction activity in the Itum-Kale mountains The consequences of the tragic events which happened in the Itum-Kale area in October this year, about which the media reported, have found their continuation. Literally all inhabitants of Zums and Bugar villages have left their houses in fear of repeated punitive actions by the Russian occupiers, and these populated areas have become deserted. But the suffering of the inhabitants of the Chechen mountains didn't end here. In the course of 24 hours, from 30 November to 1 December, Russian bombers delivered missile and bomb strikes on the outskirts of Guha village in the Itum-Kale district. One of the inhabitants of this village, whose name we don't mention for known reasons, described the following: "Late at night, at 3 a.m., we heard a terrible explosion. The glass blew out of the windows of my house, the door was blasted out. I was thrown under a bed at the opposite wall by the shockwave. I was very afraid for my wife and the children, but, glory to Allah, all managed unhurt. I was slightly wounded by splinters of the window glass. The bombs came without doubt from Russian aircraft, others don't fly and bomb here. The attack aircraft made two more sorties and flew away. By pure chance, nobody from our village was killed, although some were seriously injured. It can't be that they want our floodlands? They probably want to spread fear. But why? Because of these incomprehensible bombing raids, the inhabitants of Zum and Bugar left their villages. The rumours go that it's our turn now. For some reason, the Russian troops are forcing the people to leave the Itum-Kale district. I've talked with one of the Russian officers recently, who came with cement to sell to us. He told me at a drinking binge that it is said that a secret structure is being built here, on the mountain, next to Dishni-Mohk. Now the local troops will slowly force us, the local residents, to leave the Itum-Kale district. This has already been planned, and it's because we border on Georgia. And according to the general plan of the Russian government, the mountain population of the republic will migrate to the lowland part of Chechnya. At that time I thought that this was a soldier's drunk delirium, but now I'm convinced that he told the truth." This information was confirmed by Colonel of the ChRI Armed Forces, Ahmad Tasuyev, who explained to the correspondent of the Ichkeria newspaper: "At the given moment, we are in possession of informations about the secret construction of underground complexes in the mountain districts of the Chechen Republic. I can't completely reveal all the facts at this point, since they are at the stage of thorough checking. I believe that, Insha-Allah, we'll soon describe this in more detail." Certainly, based on the story from the inhabitant of Guha village and according to the incomplete informations from the Chechen commander, we can't assert anything, but we can make a bold assumption of what is hiding behind this information. It is known that Chechnya's Itum-Kale district borders on Georgia, where stormy political changes have recently taken place. But with regard to the migration of the mountain inhabitants to the plains, a special plan had been developed at the very beginning of the second Chechen war, according to which all populated areas of the Chechen mountains along a line from Zandak to Bamut must end their existence. This is done because these regions alledgedly are the stronghold of the national liberation movement of Chechnya, and the local population always supports the fighters. But, as is known, the present Kremlin butchers aren't totally original discoverers in these tracts - they are only the followers of the executioners of the Chechen people, General Yermolov and the "leader of all peoples", Yosif Stalin. Siddik Bilto, for Chechenpress, 06.12.03 http://chechenpress.info/news/12_2003/2_06_12.shtml
[Translation by N.S.]
Kremlin backed
candidate wins vote in Chechnya Initial reports out of Chechnya on Sunday said Zavgayev actually won nearly 100 percent of the vote, but ITAR-TASS reported later that the figure was in fact 57.7 percent and that his closest competitor had collected 12.7 percent of the vote. ITAR-TASS did not explain the discrepancy between Sunday's and Monday's reported figures. The reported turnout was also far higher than the estimated 53 percent that showed up at the polling stations on Sunday across Russia has a whole, according to preliminary figures. In Chechnya's previous two Kremlin-organized elections this year -- a constitutional referendum in March and a presidential poll in October -- results had a distinct Soviet-era flavor. In October, for example, Moscow-backed Kadyrov won 81.1 percent of the vote on a reported turnout of 83.46 percent while the republic's capital Grozny was nearly deserted on voting day.
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