http://www1.gazeta.pl/swiat/1,34180,1632696.html (translation by M.L.)

wj 24-08-2003 17:27

American movie star, 28 yrs old Angelina Jolie visited Chechen refugee camps in Ingushetia

The actress was appalled when she saw living conditions of refugees, but she didn't have many chances to talk to them - her every step was accompanied by FSB officers. For her own good - secret service agents were asserting. Inspite of this kind of guard, she heard rumors about  the announced for this fall forcefull move of around 100,000 refugees from Ingushetia to Chechnya. - That's inadmissible - she told that to Russian vice-minister of Foiregn Affairs Yuri Fedotov in Moscow. He agreed with her and promised that nobody will be dispaced forcefully.

Angelina Jolie since 2001 is representing a Goodwill Ambassador by the UN High Commisariat for the Refugees. She has already visited  refugee camps in Sierra Leone, Cambodia, Pakistan, Kosovo.
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ANGELINA JOLIE VISITS REFUGEE CAMPS IN NORTH CAUCASUS

MOSCOW, August 24, 2003. /From RIA Novosti correspondent Alexei Bogdanovsky/--American actress Angelina Jolie, who is visiting Russia as a Goodwill Ambassador representing the UN High Commissariat for Refugees /UNHCR/, has taken advantage of a Moscow press conference to thank the Russian government for its effort to accommodate temporarily displaced persons.

The conference was preceded by a meeting with Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Yury Fedotov, during which the sides discussed the problems of forced refugees from Chechnya who found shelter in neighboring republics.

"I was very glad to hear they won't be forced to return in any case," Ms. Jolie reported.

The American guest told journalists she was planning another visit to Russia. "It's my first visit here, but I'm planning to come back in a few months. Maybe I'll be working and shooting a film here," she said.

During her trip to Ingushetia and North Ossetia, Ms. Jolie visited two Ingush tent camps, Bela and Sputnik, and the temporary accommodation center Gizel in the North Ossetian capital Vladikavkaz.

The actress's four-day visit to Russia ends on Sunday.

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Monday, Aug. 25, 2003. Page 1 The Moscow Times

'Tomb Raider' Star Visits Chechens

By Kevin O'Flynn
Staff Writer  

Tanya Makeyeva / AP

Photo: Angelina Jolie speaking with Chechen refugees Friday at the Bella camp near the village of Ordzhonikidzevskaya in Ingushetia.

Oscar-winning actress Angelina Jolie is currently in movie theaters all over the country as Lara Croft, the pneumatic computer-action figure whose missions require impossible feats and mind-boggling stunts.

On Sunday evening, the "Tomb Raider" left Russia after a four-day mission that required feats and stunts of a completely different -- some would say more impossible -- kind.

Jolie came for a whirlwind tour of refugee camps in Ingushetia and North Ossetia to raise awareness of the plight of Chechen refugees in her role as UNHCR goodwill ambassador.

She called on the government not to force the refugees at the Bella camp in Ingushetia to return to Chechnya against their will. "I think that it is a question we all need to raise now. If Bella camp is closed and people are not given an option of housing, then I would consider it forced. That is not voluntary repatriation," she said at a news conference Sunday.

"Those families that want to return are supported by the UN, but we have concerns for people who don't," she said. "I do believe that it  is a very dangerous place still in Chechnya. They should be given a
choice where to be housed."

At least 53,000 refugees remain in Ingushetia. Authorities say they will close down all the camps before the Chechen presidential election Oct. 5.

Speaking at the news conference, Jolie could have been any United Nations diplomat giving a report on the refugee crisis in Ingushetia. She spoke without notes.

The main difference was that photographers don't usually fight and swear at each other as they struggle to take pictures in Russia's UN office.

"I've worked for [the UNHCR] a few years and visited refugee camps all around the world. My concerns are humanitarian not political," said Jolie, after the photographers had calmed down enough for her to speak.

Jolie also called for the release of Arjan Erkel, the Dutch aid worker kidnapped last August while working for Medecins Sans Frontieres in the North Caucasus.

"I urge the people who are holding him to let him go immediately and return him unharmed to his family and friends," Jolie said.

Mike Solovyanov / MT

MOSCOW, Russia (Reuters) -- Oscar-winning actress and "Tomb Raider" star Angelina Jolie made a personal plea to the Russian government on Sunday not to force thousands of Chechen refugees in Ingushetia to return to their war-torn homeland.

Jolie, a Goodwill Ambassador for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, also added her voice to appeals for the release of a Dutch aid worker kidnapped a year ago in Dagestan, just east of Chechnya.

She was speaking at the end of a four-day visit to Russia, including Ingushetia, which is home to about 80,000 Chechens who have fled fighting and abuse from soldiers but are now under pressure from Moscow to go home for a local leadership election. "Voluntary repatriation is only if you've given people an option of housing and safety and you don't take away their food or shelter," Jolie told a news conference. "You give them an option and you ask them if they want to return home. I am asking you today to make sure they have that option," said the actress best known for playing action hero Lara Croft in the "Tomb Raider" movies.

Moscow has vowed to dismantle all refugee camps in Ingushetia before an October 5 election in Chechnya, a key part of a Kremlin plan to bring peace to the region after a decade of fighting between federal forces and separatist guerrillas. Officials say all those who return to Chechnya will get adequate housing while those opting to stay in Ingushetia will be barred from voting. They say no one will be forced to go.

But the UNHCR expressed grave concern this month over pressure on refugees, especially in the tented Balla camp in Ingushetia, to return to Chechnya or move elsewhere. "If Balla camp is closed and they don't give an option of alternate housing, then I would consider it forced," said Jolie.

She also raised the case of Dutchman Arjan Erkel, abducted a year ago by armed men while heading operations for international charity Medecins Sans Frontieres in the North Caucasus region. "I urge the people who are holding him to let him go immediately and return him unharmed to his family and friends," Jolie said.