May 07, 2003 Posted: 10:32 Moscow time (06:32 GMT)
SLEPTSOVSKAYA - A stone's throw from a refugee camp where thousands of Chechens
are waiting out their region's 3 1/2-year war in flimsy tents, 180 brand new houses
stand waiting for the most vulnerable families. But regional officials won't let
them move in and have ordered an international aid group to tear the houses down.
Officials in the Ingushetia region say Medecins Sans Frontieres built the houses
without the proper permits. But MSF accused officials Tuesday of playing bureaucratic
games as part of a campaign to force refugees to return to Chechnya against their
will.
The group, known in English as Doctors Without Borders, also questioned Russian
claims that refugees are returning voluntarily. In February, it surveyed nearly
every family living in the tent camps and found that 98 percent do not want to
return to Chechnya. Of those, 93 percent said they did not want to return because
they
feared for their lives and those of their families, according to MSF.
"They are driving us out of Ingushetia," said Aslanbek Shalimov, who lives in
a tent camp in the village of Sleptsovskaya, just meters (yards) away from MSF's
empty houses. "It is easier to evict us from tents than from houses."
Since last year, Russian officials have been encouraging refugees in Ingushetia
to return to Chechnya as part of broader efforts to show that peace is returning
to the region - despite daily fighting, frequent attacks on civilians and persistent
complaints of kidnappings and killings by the Russian military.
In December, a camp in the village of Aki-Yurt was unexpectedly closed. Rights
groups said 1,500 people were left homeless, but officials said most left voluntarily
and the rest were given alternative housing. Refugees and human rights organization
say officials have threatened to close the other camps and are using intimidation
and blackmail to convince people to return.
The alleged pressure appears to be working, and the camps are steadily losing
residents, MSF said.
"If the flow of refugees returning to Chechnya is growing, it is because people
are left without a choice," Anne Fouchard, director of communications for MSF's
French branch, said at a news conference in Moscow. "Forced return is a clear
violation of fundamental rights of civilians subject to violence."
Ninety percent of those families who told MSF they don't want to return said they
have no alternative shelter, but the group believes it is only a matter of months
before the camps are shut down. Gabriel Trujillo, head of MSF France's mission
in Russia, said there are persistent rumors that two camps that together house
nearly 1,000 families will be shut down in May.
Russian officials deny they are forcing anyone to return, but say the tent camps
are no place to make a permanent home. Aid groups agree, and that's why MSF began
building real houses last year. About 100 families who were living in makeshift
shelters moved into the one-room structures, which, though primitive, are warm
and dry. But the latest batch of 180 houses, funded by the European Union and
completed in January, have been standing unoccupied - "as if teasing us," Shalimov
said. Plans to build another 1,200 houses are in limbo.
"This is unacceptable. These rooms were meant to offer choice to the families,"
Fouchard said.
MSF provided journalists with a copy of a letter from a local prosecutor informing
the group that it must destroy the houses. The letter said the group did not have
construction permits. Ingush officials could not be reached for comment Tuesday
afternoon.
MSF refuses to comply with the destruction order and has been paying fines on
the houses since March. The group insists it had government permission and that
officials were originally enthusiastic about the project. It says officials have
refused to tell them how they can improve the structures to bring them into compliance
with Russian law.
Meanwhile, the aging tents are providing increasingly inadequate shelter, MSF
said. It said 42 percent of the tents leak, and five percent have no floor.
But refugee Raisa Shalimova, Aslanbek Shalimov's sister, said she is doing all
she can just to hold on to her family's place in the camp. If she angers the camp's
warden, her name will be crossed off the list of refugees and the police will
send her back to Chechnya, she said.
"My house has been ruined there, and there is no room for us in the temporary
shelters in Chechnya," she said.