| Locals of Vedeno
district flee from their houses
Chechnya, November 24, Caucasus Times - The locals of Vedeno in Chechnya are desturbed by the situation in the district. The residents of the villages in the district prefer to leave their houses due to the rise of tension in the area, the locals told the Caucasus Times correspondent. "Bombings and shelling of the vicinity of our village, sweeps, raids with lots of young men seized go unabated in here. So far, we have not managed to get firewood for the winter season due to constant shelling of the forestland around here. We may encounter Russian commandos conducting their task operations in the forest any time and get in troubles as an alleged militant. I think, the Russians just want to force us outa here" says Movlady Yusupov, 35, a local man of Selmentauzen village. According to Russian command, the district turns out to be a base of Shamil Basayev's and Abu Al Valid's guerilla units who get shelter in villages and support of the locals. Therefore, Vedeno district has been the most restless region thus far in the republic. "The locals around here are either relatives or close friends, thus bind to support each other. There the mentality of Chechen people should be taken into account. The locals supply the militants with food, help to deliver weapon and ammunition, for the upcoming winter season when they used to have troubles. Actually, we target the militants' bases, weapon caches in our task operations to get them destroyed, at times by means of air forces and artillery. Well, we disturb the locals, but nothing doing. This the war, you know," an unnamed officer of Chechnya's military commandant's office said in his interview with the Caucasus Times correspondent. Meanwhile, several locals have been killed and wounded in a shelling of Makhkety village of Vedeno district by Russian military lately. The regional law-enforcement agencies neither confirm nor refute the civilian casualties report. Ruslan Adayev, Caucasus Times, Chechnya
2003-11-26 11:35 RIA Novosti The growing influx of Chechen refugees, and the accompanying problems, is becoming a source of concern in Austria. Russian emigrants mainly arrive in Austria from Poland and the Czech Republic, as a rule after applying for political asylum. However, although these countries' authorities speak out in support of "the Chechens' just struggle", they are unwilling to back up their words with actions and allow the Chechen political immigrants to stay. The press has frequently featured articles about the Polish and Czech authorities' heartless treatment of Chechens, who are allegedly forced to live in *special camps behind barbed wire. Under the pretext of this ill treatment, Chechen refugees abandon the sites assigned to them by these countries' governments and illegally cross the Austrian border. According to official data, over 3,000 asylum seekers, in the main from Chechnya, have arrived in Austria from Russia this year. A law prescribes that Russian nationals coming to Austria should be distinguished between "Chechen Russians" and "other citizens of the Russian Federation" in their registration documents. However, the Austrian authorities only register Chechens as citizens of the Russian Federation, thus ignoring their ethnic identity. The main reason for this is Austria's lack of Chechen translators and experts on Chechnya's problems. Consequently, this means that refugees cannot be identified correctly and their backgrounds cannot be checked. Austrian experts believe that the problem arose after the Austrian government adopted a law on "safe countries" in early 2003. This category includes the Russian Federation, with the exception of the Chechen Republic. Austria has assumed obligations to shelter political refugees of the latter. In this alpine country, situated on the River Danube, refugees receive state benefits and are accommodated in special camps or in private hotels and boarding houses. There are five refugee camps: Traiskirchen, Vorderbruehl, Raichenau (Lower Austria) and Bad Kreuzen and Thalhaim (Upper Austria). The camps can accommodate 1,300 refugees. The largest camp, Traiskirchen, can accommodate 850 people. Most Chechen refugees live in private inns and boarding houses. Out of the total of 149, 16 are in Vienna, 36 in Lower Austria, 21 in Upper Austria, 30 in Styria, 10 in Burgenland, 13 in Carinthia, 10 in Salzburg, 8 in Tyrol and 5 in Vorarlberg. The Austrian authorities do not rule out that there might be former warlords and criminals among the refugees, so they make various attempts to separate them and avert possible conflicts in the crowded sites. Interestingly, the situation is similar to events in the 1990s, when Austria received masses of Muslim refugees from Bosnia, Herzegovina and Albanians from Kosovo. Today, the Chechens can expect to face the same fate as the Bosnian and Albanian refugees, most of whom were not offered political asylum to the full extent in Austria and had to return home after the conflicts had been settled there. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- *That's ridiculous, no asylum seeker lives in any camp behind barbed wire in Poland and Czech republic. M.L. |