Maaja
14th September 2002, 09:51
Disappointment for refugees returning to Chechnya
By Adlan Khassanov
Reuters
September 12, 2002
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/512638
GROZNY, Russia (Reuters) - When the Zhatakhanov family
left a refugee camp in Russia's south to return to
their native Chechnya, officials ushering them onto
trucks promised them rebuilt homes, food and a
peaceful life.
Instead, with most of the razed Chechen capital Grozny
still in ruins, Assia Zhatakhanova and her children
have lived in a cramped room in a half-restored hostel
since June, sharing a kitchen with 10 other families.
Basic aid has failed to materialise and the families
housed in the shabby 10-storey block of flats say they
live in constant fear of brutal Russian military
operations designed to flush out rebel fighters hiding
among civilians.
"They told us: 'We will give you groceries. Those with
destroyed homes will get new ones or compensation',"
Zhatakhanova said.
"They promised, but when we came, suddenly we were no
one's business. We have no water even to wash in,
nothing. What will we do in the winter?"
Zhatakhanova is one of many refugees who say they were
lured back to Chechnya to foster a false impression,
projected by the Kremlin, that life there is returning
to normal.
Pro-Moscow officials in Chechnya contend that
thousands of refugees are flocking back to the region
where they say a three-year campaign by the Russian
military to break separatist resistance is winding
down.
The mass return of refugees who fled across the border
would give weight to Moscow's claims that life is
flourishing in Russian-controlled Grozny.
But Zhatakhanova says life in Chechnya -- where
Russian troops and Chechen officials suffer daily
losses -- is far from "back to normal".
RUSSIAN SWEEP OPERATIONS
"The sweep operations happen every two or three days.
You are in the bazaar and suddenly they close it off
and start taking away 16-, 17-year-old boys. Mothers
are all afraid of this, that's why they won't come
back," she says.
"If I knew what to expect I would not have come back.
Here, you are never sure what the next hour will
bring."
In Ingushetia, the region to Chechnya's west where
tens of thousands of civilians sought refuge after
Moscow's troops returned to the breakaway region in
1999, refugees say they are slowly being forced out of
tent camps by officials who have cut their electricity
and water supplies.
Zainap Khadjimuradova, who came with her family to the
Kharabulak camp in 1999, says she will not return home
until life is safe, but fears she may be forced back
across the border before then.
"The new camp head has told us we have to go home.
They are sick of us here," she says, stirring a
bubbling pot of soup over a gas burner in her tent,
lined with rugs to keep out the damp from the dirt
floor. "We have no water. The toilets are
indescribable, simply scary. And our children are
preparing to spend a fourth winter here."
"Without people, you cannot build a republic. But it
seems no one needs the people," Khadjimuradova says,
as her grandson plays by her feet with a toy soldier.
According to an agreement signed in May between the
pro-Moscow Chechen administration and Ingush President
Murat Zyazikov, all refugees should leave Ingushetia
and return home by the end of September. Few, however,
say they are keen to return to their bullet-scarred,
destroyed towns in Chechnya.
CLOSURE OF TENT CITIES
The U.N. refugee agency UNHCR, which estimates some
110,000 Chechen civilians still live in Ingushetia,
says some 3,300 have returned to Chechnya since
Russia's Federal Migration service announced it would
close down the tent cities.
"They are saying people are preparing to go home, but
it is rubbish," says Ruslan, a refugee from the town
of Urus-Martan southwest of Grozny who has lived in
Kharabulak since 1998.
"They do not dare throw us out by force, but I would
rather they did, instead of this slow campaign, not
letting our children go to school without uniforms for
example. Where are we going to get 1,000 roubles
($31.50) for a uniform?" Ruslan says in the partition
of an abandoned barn that his family have turned into
their home.
Pro-Moscow officials deny they are forcing the
refugees to return home.
"Today, displaced people are returning only
voluntarily. If the water and gas is switched off, it
is just repair work ahead of the winter," Alibek
Khasimikov, head of a pro-Moscow Chechen
administration group which works with the Ingush
government.
"Anyone who says we are using cuts to force people to
return is just calling attention to himself."
But Ruslan Badalov of the Chechen Committee for
National Salvation says Russia is pressing camp
commanders to send refugees back over the border.
"More than three months have gone past since the
federal authorities decided to return people. Only the
refugees are not returning in the quantities that the
Russian authorities expected," he says.
"Though officials say they are not forcing people
home, from the spring they have stopped delivering
bread, the staple food for refugees. And we do not
know when deliveries will restart," Badalov adds.
"This is genocide, the systematic elimination of the
Chechen people."
By Adlan Khassanov
Reuters
September 12, 2002
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/512638
GROZNY, Russia (Reuters) - When the Zhatakhanov family
left a refugee camp in Russia's south to return to
their native Chechnya, officials ushering them onto
trucks promised them rebuilt homes, food and a
peaceful life.
Instead, with most of the razed Chechen capital Grozny
still in ruins, Assia Zhatakhanova and her children
have lived in a cramped room in a half-restored hostel
since June, sharing a kitchen with 10 other families.
Basic aid has failed to materialise and the families
housed in the shabby 10-storey block of flats say they
live in constant fear of brutal Russian military
operations designed to flush out rebel fighters hiding
among civilians.
"They told us: 'We will give you groceries. Those with
destroyed homes will get new ones or compensation',"
Zhatakhanova said.
"They promised, but when we came, suddenly we were no
one's business. We have no water even to wash in,
nothing. What will we do in the winter?"
Zhatakhanova is one of many refugees who say they were
lured back to Chechnya to foster a false impression,
projected by the Kremlin, that life there is returning
to normal.
Pro-Moscow officials in Chechnya contend that
thousands of refugees are flocking back to the region
where they say a three-year campaign by the Russian
military to break separatist resistance is winding
down.
The mass return of refugees who fled across the border
would give weight to Moscow's claims that life is
flourishing in Russian-controlled Grozny.
But Zhatakhanova says life in Chechnya -- where
Russian troops and Chechen officials suffer daily
losses -- is far from "back to normal".
RUSSIAN SWEEP OPERATIONS
"The sweep operations happen every two or three days.
You are in the bazaar and suddenly they close it off
and start taking away 16-, 17-year-old boys. Mothers
are all afraid of this, that's why they won't come
back," she says.
"If I knew what to expect I would not have come back.
Here, you are never sure what the next hour will
bring."
In Ingushetia, the region to Chechnya's west where
tens of thousands of civilians sought refuge after
Moscow's troops returned to the breakaway region in
1999, refugees say they are slowly being forced out of
tent camps by officials who have cut their electricity
and water supplies.
Zainap Khadjimuradova, who came with her family to the
Kharabulak camp in 1999, says she will not return home
until life is safe, but fears she may be forced back
across the border before then.
"The new camp head has told us we have to go home.
They are sick of us here," she says, stirring a
bubbling pot of soup over a gas burner in her tent,
lined with rugs to keep out the damp from the dirt
floor. "We have no water. The toilets are
indescribable, simply scary. And our children are
preparing to spend a fourth winter here."
"Without people, you cannot build a republic. But it
seems no one needs the people," Khadjimuradova says,
as her grandson plays by her feet with a toy soldier.
According to an agreement signed in May between the
pro-Moscow Chechen administration and Ingush President
Murat Zyazikov, all refugees should leave Ingushetia
and return home by the end of September. Few, however,
say they are keen to return to their bullet-scarred,
destroyed towns in Chechnya.
CLOSURE OF TENT CITIES
The U.N. refugee agency UNHCR, which estimates some
110,000 Chechen civilians still live in Ingushetia,
says some 3,300 have returned to Chechnya since
Russia's Federal Migration service announced it would
close down the tent cities.
"They are saying people are preparing to go home, but
it is rubbish," says Ruslan, a refugee from the town
of Urus-Martan southwest of Grozny who has lived in
Kharabulak since 1998.
"They do not dare throw us out by force, but I would
rather they did, instead of this slow campaign, not
letting our children go to school without uniforms for
example. Where are we going to get 1,000 roubles
($31.50) for a uniform?" Ruslan says in the partition
of an abandoned barn that his family have turned into
their home.
Pro-Moscow officials deny they are forcing the
refugees to return home.
"Today, displaced people are returning only
voluntarily. If the water and gas is switched off, it
is just repair work ahead of the winter," Alibek
Khasimikov, head of a pro-Moscow Chechen
administration group which works with the Ingush
government.
"Anyone who says we are using cuts to force people to
return is just calling attention to himself."
But Ruslan Badalov of the Chechen Committee for
National Salvation says Russia is pressing camp
commanders to send refugees back over the border.
"More than three months have gone past since the
federal authorities decided to return people. Only the
refugees are not returning in the quantities that the
Russian authorities expected," he says.
"Though officials say they are not forcing people
home, from the spring they have stopped delivering
bread, the staple food for refugees. And we do not
know when deliveries will restart," Badalov adds.
"This is genocide, the systematic elimination of the
Chechen people."