The Chechen Times

Angelina Jolie shown a "Potemkin village"


On August 22 prominent American actress Angelina Jolie visited the Republic of Ingushetia. The Oscar-winning guest 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. It is an open secret that for the last four years Chechen refugees, who fled from the war, have been living in the terrible conditions of extreme poverty.

But this time the pro-Moscow authorities of Chechnya and Ingushetia followed the well known scenario: as soon as Angelina Jolie arrived, local officials and heavy armed bodyguards encircled her. In a thick circle of bodyguards the Hollywood actress was taken to the Bella tent camp located in the outskirts of the settlement of Sleptsovskaya in the Sunzhensky district of Ingushetia.

After the cortege arrived at the camp, the actress was invited to visit one of the most comfortable tents to "meet the people," of course, selected in advance and properly instructed people. The bodyguards, 30 heavily armed men, cordoned off the refugees who tried to tell Angelina Jolie about the true picture of the life in the refugee camps.

Then the guest attended a concert by the children's dance group ("Marsho"), which was probably supposed to demonstrate a comfortable life of the residents of the tent camp. After an hour and a half visit to the "Potemkin village" Angelina Jolie left for Nazran to meet the public. In the evening on that day the actress met the President of Ingushetia Murat Zyazikov, who decorated the Hollywood star with the highest order of the republic for unclear reasons.

I watched this well-staged show on TV and thought: are the foreign guests, prominent people so naive and unable to do what they really want? Can't they insist on visiting places they choose but not the "places" recommended by the "accompanying officials." Maybe they do not want to? What is the point of their visits then?

[30.08.2003 9:49] A.Sugaipov, our correspondent