Last refugees left Bart camp in Ingushetia

Only several dozens of tents are left in Bart, a camp for Chechen refugees situated in the Ingush town of Karabulak. Inhabitants of this temporary accommodation center leave the camp under pressure of the authorities. Some of them depart for Chechnya, however many refugees prefer staying on the territory of Ingushetia and resettle to other temporary accommodation centers or to the private sector.

The process of the internally displaced persons' return has accelerated considerably after Deputy Head of the Russian Federal Migration Service Igor Yunash announced that the Bart camp would be closed beginning from March 1, 2004. "It is not economically viable for us to maintain tent camps with less than 1,000 tenants," he said.

Source: Infromation Center of the Council of NGO

Ekho Moskvy, 28 February 2004  [BBC Monitoring]

Chechen refugees being urged to move from tents to houses

[Presenter] Chechen refugees living in tent camps in Ingushetia may be moved to houses in March, the migration service of the Chechen Interior Ministry has said. Natalya Shapan has the details.

[Correspondent] Several thousand forced migrants currently live in three tent camps in Ingushetia. The Chechen authorities say the decision to move them into houses has been prompted by care for them because the conditions in the rundown tents are horrendous, according to deputy chairman of the Chechen government [responsible for housing], Movsar Khamidov.

He said more comfortable conditions in Chechnya had been offered to the refugees. The deputy head of the migration service of the Chechen Interior Ministry, Lema Bichuyev, has promised that in the next few days the Chechen authorities will open five new centres for temporary accommodation.

A total of 28 such centres are already in operation. However, human rights activists claim that the displaced persons are being forced out of Ingushetia with the aim of moving them to Chechnya.

The head of the Moscow Helsinki Group, Lyudmila Alekseyeva, agrees that an increasing number of people would like to leave Ingushetia, but only because, firstly, it is simply dangerous to live in the tent camps in Ingushetia now, and secondly, the refugees are promised compensation for their damaged houses and lost property only if they return to Chechnya.

[Presenter] According to official information, there are still over 65,000 migrants from Chechnya in Ingushetia, including 5,500 refugees in tent camps and over 35,000 in the private housing sector.

February 28th 2004 · Prague Watchdog

Flood victims rally in Grozny

Timur Aliyev, North Caucasus - About 50 people from the Oktyabrskydistrict of the Chechen capital Grozny, displaced by the Sunzha Riveroverflowing in June 2002, held an unauthorized meeting on February 26 todemand compensation for their homes destroyed by the flood.

“We have already been waiting two years - either for a new roof orsomething else. Some people lived in other people's houses ... and thensuddenly found themselves evicted,” said Zura Abdulayeva, one of theparticipants.

It seems that these houses were, indeed, originally built for the floodvictims; yet they’re now occupied by refugees returning from camps inIngushetia. According to an official explanation, the priority of theChechen authorities is now the refugees.

“However, the problem of the flood victims has not been forgotten. Therewill soon be a meeting to decide how much money is to be allocated tothe Oktyabrsky and Zavodskoi districts, both of which were hit by thefloods,” said Luiza Bibulatova, deputy of the Oktyabrsky district.

Approximately 500 houses were destroyed during the floods, a loss amounting to 450 million rubles. Collaborators shot a disabled person before his mother's eyes

Kavkaz-Center

Collaborators shot a disabled person before his mother's eyes

Daymohk news agency reported that armed collaborators from the gang formations of the Kremlin's main puppet Kadyrov committed another murder of a peaceful civilian. Our agency's source reported that February 20 in Chechen capital Jokhar a group of bandits at the city's central market called a young man passing by and ordered him to stop. But the man kept going and the collaborators yelled once again: «Stop I said!» After that the bandits shouldered their assault rifles all at once and opened heavy fire in the young man's back. Among the loud shouts of the civilians nearby, who witnessed the murder, a heartrending shout of a woman was heard: «He is deaf! He can't hear anything!» She was the mother of the young man who got killed. She ran towards her son's dead body laying in blood. Apparently, her son died on the spot. No other details of the murder have been reported.

Protest rally in Chiri-Yurt

Council of Non-Governmental Organizations reported that residents of the village of Chiri-Yurt, Shali District, conducted a mass protest rally on February 26. For several hours in a row the protesters were blocking the traffic on the Jokhar-Shatoi highway. The people were demanding the release of a young man kidnapped several days ago (name currently being established). The protesters were also demanding that night raids and 'cleansings' in their village are stopped.

The protesters said that over the past 2-3 weeks 5 locals were captured and taken away by the invaders' structures during night raids in Chiri-Yurt alone. 4 of the victims were released after undergoing brutal tortures and beatings. The fate of one victim is still unknown.

Invaders commit atrocities in Ingushetia

Press Service of Chechen Committee for National Rescue (CCNR) reported that February 21, 2004 in the village of Ekazhevo (Republic of Ingushetia) at about 5 PM a BTR armored personnel carrier and a UAZ jeep with Russian invaders on board drove up to the house located on Pervomaiskaja Street («May 1st Street»). The house belongs to Mr. Alaudi Albogachiyev.

The invaders broke into the house, started beating the head of the household with butts of their assault rifles, got him down on the floor and started searching the house immediately. But soon after that they were told over the radio that they arrived at a wrong address.

After that they broke into the house next door, where a Chechen woman, a refugee with little children, is living. The invaders conducted a search but did not find anything.

Invaders blow up Chechen peaceful civilians

Moscow-based ITAR-TASS news agency reported referring to the source in the press service of the invaders' headquarters of Russian aggressors in the Northern Caucasus (probably Russian colonel Shabalkin, spokesman for the war in Chechnya) that Chechen troops allegedly carried out a blast where a local of Achkhoi-Martan District of Chechnya was injured.

In this connection it must be mentioned that Russian terrorists have resumed the practice of terrorist acts against Chechen peaceful civilians in order to discredit the Chechen Resistance.

Let us remind that the other day Russian terrorists planted an explosive device near Assinovskaya railroad station, when six locals were killed and eight injured in the explosion. Four women were among the victims.

Russian concoctions, which the invaders have been using to this day, are no longer taken serious these days not only in Chechnya or Russia, but also in the Middle East, where the terrorists, who committed the terrorist act against Chechen Ex-President Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev, have been arrested.

Kavkaz-Center News

2004-02-29