Moscow
Tries to Allay Chechens' Fears over Repatriation
(Civil Georgia Sep.04, 2003)
Russia is intensifying its efforts to repatriate Chechen refugees back
to Chechnya as local presidential elections loom in the war-torn region.
A Russian delegation visited Georgia on September 1-2 to hold talks
with Georgian authorities on the return of Chechen refugees living in
Pankisi Gorge. According to the latest census held by the Georgian Ministry
for Refugees and Accommodation in cooperation with the UN High Commissioner
for Refugees, up to 3,800 Chechens are in Georgia at the moment.
"The Russian Government is ready to grant compensation payments for
housing and unemployment benefits in the case of repatriation," Stanislav
Iliasov, Russian Minister for Chechnya, said after a meeting with Georgian
President Eduard Shevardnadze on September 2.
Stanislav Iliasov said the Russian government has allocated 5 billion
rubles to reconstruct the houses of Chechen refugees.
"The homeless Chechens will receive 350 Rubles [up to USD 11,600] each,
while the houses, which were partially damaged, will be reconstructed
by the Russian Government itself," Iliasov said.
The Russian minister also said that a delegation of the Russian Ministry
for Emergency Situations will visit Georgia in late September and will
meet with the Chechen refugees in Pankisi Gorge.
"I am ready to meet with Chechen refugees living in [Georgia's] Pankisi
Gorge and convince them to return," he added.
Russian Deputy Minister for Emergency Situations Yuri Brazhnekov already
visited Pankisi Gorge in June and tried in vain to convince the Chechen
refugees to return. The Russian delegation intends to visit Pankisi
with representatives from the Russian-backed Chechen administration,
hoping the second try will be much more successful.
Despite Russian authorities' claims that the situation in Chechnya has
improved, many Chechens are cautious about the repatriation to their
homeland, where terrorist acts and armed clashes between Russian troops
and rebels still occur very often.
"Russia has numerously offered us to return to Chechnya, they even promised
to ensure our safety, but how can we return when Russian soldiers still
stay there [Chechnya]?" Jamila Agaeva, a Chechen refugee who lives in
Tbilisi, told Civil Georgia.
The Georgian authorities, as well as the UN Refugee Agency, support
the Chechen repatriation only on a voluntary basis.
"The Georgian authorities support the return of Chechen refugees only
in the case of security guarantees. Chechen refugees should return on
a voluntary basis in order to protect their dignity and safety," Georgian
Special Affairs Minister Malkhaz Kakabadze said at a news briefing on
September 2.
Many Chechens are seeking resettlement in a third country. "Chechen
refugees are asking the Georgian authorities and the international
community to help them leave for a third country. They think their safety
will be ensured there," says Baudin Itigaev of the Chechen Refugees
Committee in Georgia.
According to the U.N. Refugee Agency's latest report, the sharpest increase
in asylum applications was among people from Chechnya. Their numbers
rose by 54 percent, making them the largest group overall.
Some observers suppose that the recently intensified efforts of the
Russian authorities to repatriate Chechens are due to the upcoming presidential
elections in the rebel region, scheduled for October.
"With this move Russia wants to increase the legitimacy of the elections.
Russia wants us to take part in the elections. Then they will push us
out again," says one of the Chechen refugees, who lives in Tbilisi.
Russian authorities dismiss these statements as groundless. "Some say
that the Russian Government's willingness to repatriate Chechens is
connected with the elections. This is not true. They should return to
Chechnya some day. We wish Chechens to return to their homes voluntarily,"
Your Brazhnikov, Deputy Minister for Emergency Situations said on September
1 upon his arrival in Tbilisi.
However the Kremlin's move to announce the closure of refugee camps
in Ingushetia near the Chechen border and the return 60,000 to 80,000
Chechen IDPs to Chechnya before the election increased fears of international
human rights organizations that the Russian administration intends to
repatriate Chechens forcefully.
Amnesty International has complained to Moscow that the refugees are
being returned against their will, and that the region is plagued by
"gross human rights abuses, such as disappearances, torture and extrajudicial
executions."
Many Chechens have already left Georgia and moved back to Chechnya,
as their numbers almost halved after 1999, when up to 7,000 Chechens
fled from the second war in Chechnya.
Georgian authorities are interested in the Chechens' repatriation, as
refugees in Pankisi are perceived as one of the threats to the shaky
stability in the troubled gorge. Hundreds of Chechen militants found
shelter in Pankisi from 1999-2002; they infiltrated the region with
the Chechen refugees. Georgian troops are still deployed in the gorge
to maintain order in Pankisi.
But forceful repatriation of Chechens from Pankisi is hardly expectable,
as this kind of move from Tbilisi would be harshly condemned by the
international community.
By Goga Chanadiri
Chechenpress
Details about the murder of the administration chief of Chechen-Aul
village, Saipuddi Tsitsayev
Details of the murder of the administration chief of Chechen-Aul village,
Saipuddi Tsitsayev, have become known today. Inhabitants of the village
report that Russians and national traitors, who had broken into Saipuddi's
yard, forced him into the yard and shot him. The son of the administration
chief, who was in the house, opened fire on the killers with an automatic
weapon and wounded one of the attackers.
The aggressors took one of Saipuddi's household members hostage and
left the yard under this cover. They didn't free the hostage before
they had left the village. The inhabitants of Chechen-Aul are sure that
it was only the plan of the occupiers to blame the murder of Saipuddi
on the Chechen troops that saved Saipuddi's family from complete destruction.
Usually, after such resistance, the occupiers shoot everyone they find
in the house and spare neither children nor women.
04.09.03
http://www.chechenpress.com/news/09_2003/2_04_09.shtml
[Translation by M.L.]