GROZNY/MOSCOW. Feb 20 (Interfax) - A total of 47 Chechen residents have been abducted in the republic in 2004, the Chechen government told Interfax.

"In January, 33 people were kidnapped in Chechnya, 11 of them in Grozny and 22 in other districts. In the first twenty days of February, 14 people went missing. Two of them have been found," Chechen Deputy Prime Minister Movsur Khamidov, who is responsible for the government's ties with law enforcement agencies, told Interfax on Friday.

"The rate of abductions has been decreasing lately, and more significance is being attached to the problem. The screws are being tightened to put an end to abductions," the deputy prime minister said.

In 2003, 581 people were abducted in Chechnya, and 127 went missing, Khamidov said.

"Last year, 552 murders were committed in Chechnya," he said. He claimed that both law enforcement agencies and guerillas are behind abductions in Chechnya.

"The problem is military vehicles, which often travel around Chechnya without license plates," Khamidov said.

"There have been cases when people were kidnapped by criminals who put on military uniforms or used fake license plates. One such gang was recently detained in Chechnya's Shelkovskaya district. The gang included several policemen," he said.

Khamidov did not rule out the possibility that guerillas could be among those missing.

"There have been cases when somebody leaves for the woods [becomes a guerilla] and his relatives file a missing person report to cover themselves," Khamidov said. Meanwhile, human rights organizations cited the same figure of those abducted in Chechnya in January.

"By our information, 33 people were abducted in Chechnya in January. Of [those 33], 14 were released, one was found murdered, and 18 went missing," Dmitry Grushkin of the Memorial human rights center told Interfax earlier. The center's information concerning those kidnapped last year, however, differs from that cited by Khamidov.

Grushkin said 477 people were kidnapped in Chechnya in 2003, "of them 155 have been released, 49 were found murdered, and 273 went missing."

"We monitor abductions on 25%-30% of the Chechen territory, and the real scope of the problem could be larger," Grushkin said.

21 February 2004 

UN accuses Russia of forcing Chechen refugees to return home

- radio report [BBC Monitorig]

[Presenter] The UN has accused the Russian authorities of forcing Chechen refugees to return to their homeland from Ingushetia. Dariya Sakhnovskaya has the details.

[Correspondent] The UN's refugee agency claims that heating was cut off in winter in camps to try and force refugees to return to Groznyy. In an interview with Radio Svoboda, UN representative Kris Janowski said that in such conditions it was impossible to talk about the voluntary return of refugees. Meanwhile, a new centre for temporarily housing returning refugees opened yesterday in Groznyy. The Chechen authorities said that it would house people who leave camps in Ingushetia. Some refugees left Ingushetia and returned to Chechnya on 10 February. Twenty families left the Bart refugee camp. Head of the department for refugees Akhmed Tomov said that the increase in refugees returning to Chechnya was due to the fact that a special intergovernmental commission was working in Ingushetia. Officials are explaining matters to refugees. The commission's members explain to refugees that if they return home, their lives will not be in danger and that the republic's authorities will look after them and arrange for compensation to be paid for lost housing and property.

[Presenter] Akhmed Tomov said that the Bart camp would be closed down completely on 1 March. All housing and utility services have already been warned about this.

CNO,[BBC Monitoring]

Chechen refugees ask Russia`s Putin not to close camps

It is impossible to return to Chechnya as there are no jobs and housing there, Chechen refugees living in Ingushetia have said in an appeal to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

They asked the Russian president not to close down the refugee camps in Ingushetia and accused officials of using open threats and blackmail to evict refugees and send them back to Chechnya.

The following is a text of report by the Public Council for Refugees published by Russian Council of Nongovernmental Organizations web site on 21 February.

Subheadings have been inserted editorially: The appeal of Chechen refugees living in the Republic of Ingushetia to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Refugees abused by officials

"Dear Vladimir Vladimirovich!

"We have been living in dreadful conditions in refugee camps and temporary accommodation centres for more than four years. Many of these camps are located on the territories of former cattle farms and other premises which are actually not suitable for habitation. We have only one problem: to save the lives of our children and prevent our youth from being involved in this bloodshed. We have succeeded in this to some extent.

"However, after the four years of living outside the motherland, we have now been deprived even of the right to return to our homes with dignity. Officials of various ranks are groundlessly accusing us nearly of ties with international terrorism and calling us accomplices of terrorists. Many of these officials are openly making a fortune on our suffering. This process of labelling started after numerous botched attempts to evict us from Ingushetia to Chechnya although there are no conditions there to receive and accommodate dozens of thousands of people who are now living in Ingushetia.

"We are not asking for any special conditions and privileges for ourselves, necessaries or the immediate restoration of our ruined houses and flats. We are trying to get one thing - a human attitude to ourselves and at least minimum assistance in solving our problems. We are asking officials not to tear our children away from their classes in the middle of the curriculum, include on refugee lists those who were groundlessly taken off these lists by the Ingush Migration Service and give us humanitarian aid, which we are entitled to and which has not been distributed in some refugee camps for 14-18 months.

In our opinion, this is a minimum range of tasks that can be fulfilled without great efforts and expenses, but still, this is not being done.

No housing and jobs in Chechnya

"At the same time, many of us have no housing to live in Chechnya, while temporary accommodation centres do not have enough room. Instead of helping people to restore at least one or two rooms in their ruined houses, officials prefer to waste huge sums of money on various projects that are not a priority for the republic. Both refugees and many residents of the republic would prefer to restore their houses themselves, rather than to shift the problem onto the state.

"The killings and disappearances of people, which are still continuing in Chechnya, are another serious problem which keeps displaced persons in Ingushetia. The overwhelming majority of these crimes are committed at night by people wearing uniforms and masks. If representatives of the authorities did not hide their faces under masks during clearance and other "special" operations, people would know who bandits and who law-enforcement officers are, and would resist criminals as much as they can.

We are ready to take an active part not only in the restoration of what has been ruined during the war, but also in fighting against kidnappers and other criminals.

"In addition, Chechnya is suffering from a scarcity of jobs, which means that displaced persons do not actually have a chance to make a living and maintain their families. All these problems require a serious complex approach, which unfortunately has not been used so far. Its seems that local officials are more concerned about one thing - to evict us from refugee camps as soon as possible and report that the refugee problem has been solved.

"Open threats and blackmail"

"In violation of all norms of law and of the rights guaranteed by the country's constitution, pressure is being constantly exerted on us, and sometimes it reaches open threats and blackmail. The Chechen refugees are denied even temporary registration in Ingushetia as if we are not Russia's full citizens. These and other measures of this sort cause people's distrust in power agencies and also, we believe, undermine the foundations of the constitutional system in our country.

"Officials' desire to gain favour, present the situation in a light which is advantageous to themselves and retouch the reality sometimes reaches an absurd point. It is being stated at various levels now that all the Chechen refugee camps in Ingushetia will be closed down by 1 March 2004, i.e. shortly before the presidential election although you have repeatedly stated that the process of returning refugees must be purely voluntary.

Probably, bureaucrats who are sitting in warm offices want to give you an original gift, but do not think about the negative side of this move.

"We appeal to you as the guarantor of the state constitution with an urgent request to end this arbitrariness. The refugees are already tired of constant lies and deception by officials, and want only one thing - a normal human attitude to themselves and to their problems."

[Signed] The Public Council for Refugees

[Council of Nongovernmental Organizations]