The Chechen Times

6 March in Nazran at a humanitarian bread distribution point run by Migration Service of the Home Ministry of Ingushetia, Chechen refugees were requested to fill out a consent form to taking part in the Referendum on the Constitution of Chechen Republic. Those who refused to fill out the form were automatically denied their bread. The blackmail is the doing of Ingushetia Migration Service. During the last quarter its officials have struck off the bread lists a large number of
refugees. The reason why people are taken off their food allowance remains unexplained.

Long queues outside the Migration Service gates have already become a familiar sight. All refugees manage to see is indifferent faces of the security guards. If somebody does manage to get inside the building, it's no further than the computer department where the refugees receive confirmation that their names are not on the database.

Migration Service officials refer to Chechen Government Refugee Committee or, as people call it "Kadyrov's Committee". According to their words, the Committee checks up the presence of people in refugee camps and private accommodation and makes up lists which they use to eliminate their names from the Migration Service's database. In its turn, the Committee blames the Migration Service stating that it has no influence on Migration Service's policies.

Petimat, a woman from "Centre-Kamaz" refugee camp in Nazran, told the following: "19 February a group of people came to us and checked the documents of all the family members. And only recently I've found out that I and my family have been struck off the register and restored only due to the warden. And we were restored, as the warden said, for a large sum of money, and now I have to give him back what he paid for our family. I don't know yet how much I owe him but I am not going to give him the money. What do I owe him for? I've been here without leave since 1999, why did they strike me off?"

There is hardly anyone who can give a sensible answer to Petimat's question. If she pays the money she will be able to receive bread, unlike refugees from a camp on a sand-pit territory near the town of Karaboulak, who despite the money they paid still haven't been restored on the food allowance list. For each family member, including children, they paid 200 roubles to the warden, who was supposed to put them back on the food allowance lists; but as it turned out, a Migration Service official called Khanifa, had unexpectedly disappeared. So they found themselves no whit the better. And now, the desperate people have a straw to clutch at: if they want bread they have to fill out the form and live on happily. Refugees in the village of Yandare are forced to take part in the Constitution Referendum under the threat of being deprived of their registration. 4 March Migration Service officials brought blank request forms to include the refugees into the lists of participants in the Chechen Constitution Referendum. A strong recommendation to sign the form was accompanied by a threat: those who don't fill out the forms would be struck off the Migration Service register along with their families. And this effectively means no food aid and no registration in the temporary place of residence.

[11.03.2003 21:14] Leila Lilieva/Prima News Agency