The Associated Press KARABULAK, Ingushetia -- Chechen refugees crowded around
a visiting European human rights official at a camp for displaced people
on Thursday, demanding to know when it would be safe for them to return
to Chechnya, while a politician who says he is rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov's
new envoy in Russia called for contacts aimed at ending the conflict.
Salambek Maigov told a Moscow news conference he hopes to establish contacts
leading to a "full-blooded negotiation process" between federal authorities
and representatives of Maskhadov, who was elected president of Chechnya
in 1997.
"This is a unilateral step by the Chechen side, aimed to achieve a peaceful
settlement of this long-standing conflict," Maigov said, challenging President
Vladimir Putin to seek an end to the war.
The initiative came despite repeated statements from federal officials that
they will not negotiate with Maskhadov, whom they call a terrorist and blame
for the October raid at a Moscow theater.
At the Bart refugee camp in Ingushetia, a tight cordon of federal police and security
troops surrounded Council of Europe human rights commissioner Alvaro Gil-Robles,
preventing some 300 refugees from speaking with him directly. There were
about 2,000 refugees at the camp.
"When will order be established in Chechnya?" called out some. "When will
our abducted relatives be released?"
Gil-Robles is evaluating conditions for civilians and refugees in advance
of a constitutional referendum next month that federal officials insist
will promote peace.
He met Wednesday with Akhmad Kadyrov, the head of Chechnya's Moscow- backed administration,
as well as the region's chief prosecutor and military officials, and told
them he had heard many complaints about the abduction of civilians by federal
troops.
"I hope you will conduct work on the facts about the disappearance of these
people," Gil-Robles said.
Many of the tens of thousands of refugees who have fled to Ingushetia to
escape war say federal authorities have pressured them to return to Chechnya
despite persistent violence, including abuse of civilians by federal forces.
The head of Putin's human rights commission, Ella Pamfilova, said in Moscow
on Thursday that during a visit to the region this month, refugees told
her they no longer feel the kind of pressure to return to Chechnya that
they experienced last year.
"They are now left alone, meaning that nobody is forcing them to move to
Grozny," Pamfilova said at a news conference.
But she said many refugees still fear returning because it is dangerous.
"Unfortunately, people still are going missing,'' she said. ''We have fresh
facts about disappearances and murders of people."
Two reporters who tried to speak with Gil-Robles outside the camp Thursday
were briefly detained and accused of not having proper press accreditation.
Radio Liberty's Moscow bureau said one of the broadcasting agency's Chechen
stringers, Aslanbek Dadayev, had been released from detention.