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UN official hopes for successful cooperation on Chechen refugees Interfax. Sunday, Jun. 20, 2004, 3:17 PM Moscow Time MOSCOW. June 20 (Interfax) - Chechen refugees living in Ingushetia should have a choice of whether to return to Chechnya or stay in Ingushetia, Denis Blair, deputy representative of the UN High Commission for Refugees in Russia, told Interfax on Sunday. A number of problems have been encountered in dealing with this group of refugees, and the UN is working together with Russia to resolve them, the official said, adding that these people's return to Chechnya should be voluntary and safe. The UN High Commission for Refugees is working with the Ingush migration service and other agencies to assist Chechen refugees willing to return to their homes, he said. Blair said that the UN High Commission for Refugees and some other organizations, including the Danish Refugee Council, are planning a trip to Ingushetia to study possible options to make it easier for Chechen refugees who have decided to stay in Ingushetia to obtain accommodation and find jobs. Ingushetia was recently home to six tent camps for Chechen refugees. The last camp, Satsita, was closed on June 10. Ingushetia is home to about 50,000 Chechen refugees. The Chechen government announced plans to adopt a program aimed at accelerating the return of refugees to the republic 2004-06-21 17:45 PACE office declines the idea of urgent debates on situation in Chechnya STRASBOURG, June 21 (RIA Novosti) - The PACE office has declined the idea of holding urgent debates on the situation in Chechnya which was proposed by the Assembly's rapporteur on the Chechen Republic, Andreas Gross. "PACE will discuss the situation in Chechnya at the beginning of October, this year, as a matter of an ordinary procedure," Mikhail Margelov, the head of the international committee of the Federation Council (Upper Chamber of Russian Parliament) told RIA Novosti. He noted that soon elections will be held in the republic, and it would be illogical to discuss this problem now. In his conversation with a RIA Novosti correspondent, first deputy chairman of the international committee of the State Duma (Lower House) Leonid Slutsky attracted the attention to the fact that apart from Andreas Gross, proposals to discuss the Chechen theme had come from former rapporteur on Chechnya Lord Judd and the group of the parliamentarians who still come out for submitting the Chechen dossier for the discussion at the Assembly. "The Assembly believes that the PACE office will, most probably, send a commission of observers to the presidential elections in Chechnya, scheduled for August 29," Leonid Slutsky said. On the whole, the Russian delegation regards the rejection of the proposal to hold urgent discussions on Chechnya as a great victory. In August, mid-term presidential elections will take part in Chechnya, because of the death of President Ahmad Kadyrov on May 9, this year, as a result of a terrorist act on the Dynamo Stadium in the capital of the republic, the city of Grozny.