- Title: RUSSIA: CHECHEN REFUGEES URGED TO RETURN TO WAR-RAVAGED REPUBLIC.
- Date: 5th September 2002
- Summary: (EU) KARABULAKH REFUGEE CAMP, INGUSHETIA REPUBLIC, RUSSIA (RECENT) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. GV: TENT CITY WHERE CHECHEN REFUGEES LIVE 0.04 2. GV/MV: KIDS PLAYING IN TENT CITY; BOY LOOKING OUT TENT WINDOW (2 SHOTS) 0.15 3. GV/MCU: GROUP OF REFUGEES GATHERING TO COMPLAIN TO LOCAL OFFICIAL; LOCAL OFFICIAL ARGUING WITH REFUGEES (4 SHOTS) 0.36 4. GV/CU/MV: REFUGEES GATHERING WATER FROM RIVER (3 SHOTS) 0.56 5. MV: GIRL CARRYING WATER INTO SHACK WHERE HER FAMILY LIVES; FAMILY IN SHACK; KITCHEN (3 SHOTS) 1.11 6. MCU: (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) RUSLAN, REFUGEE FROM URUS-MARTAN, SAYING: "They turn off our water as soon as the weather becomes hot. They turn off our gas heating as soon as winter begins. I don't understand these people, have they never faced their own hardships?" 1.22 7. MCU: GIRL DRINKING TEA 1.27 8. GV: YOUNG BOY DANCING TRADITIONAL CHECHEN DANCE 1.36 (EU) GROZNY, CHECHNYA REPUBLIC, RUSSIA (RECENT) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 9. GV: RUBBLE AND BOMBED-OUT BUILDINGS IN CENTRE OF GROZNY (2 SHOTS) 1.46 10. MV: CHILDREN STANDING IN STAIRWAY OF BUILDING FOR RETURNED REFUGEES 1.53 11. CU/GV/MV: WOMAN IN COMMUNAL KITCHEN; WOMEN CUTTING WATERMELON AND SITTING DOWN TO EAT (4 SHOTS) 2.17 12. MV: (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) ASSIA ZHAVALKHANOVA, RETURNED REFUGEE, SAYING: "If I had realised what would await me here, then I never would have returned. Here you never know what the next hour will bring. We've even thought that all of us should go and write a petition asking to be taken back [to the refugee camps]." 2.34 (EU) NAZRAN, INGUSHETIA REPUBLIC, RUSSIA (RECENT) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 13. GV/CU: OFFICE OF THE CHECHEN COMMITTEE FOR NATIONAL SALVATION; POSTERS SHOWING MISSING CHECHEN CITIZENS (3 SHOTS) 2.47 14. MCU: (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) RUSLAN BADALOV, REPRESENTATIVE OF CHECHEN COMMITTEE FOR NATIONAL SALVATION, SAYING: "If anything can be called a genocide, then what is happening in Chechnya with the Chechen people is a genocide. They are killing Chechens based on their nationality. Tens of thousands have disappeared. Hundreds of thousands have died during the past two wars. What else do you need to call it this [a genocide]." 3.13 (EU) KARABULAKH REFUGEE CAMP, INGUSHETIA REPUBLIC, RUSSIA (RECENT) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 15. GV/MV: TENT CITY; KIDS IN TENT; FAMILY IN TENT; YOUNG BOY PLAYING WITH TOY SOLDIER (4 SHOTS) 3.38 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 20th September 2002 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: ARABULAKH REFUGEE CAMP, INGUSHETIA REPUBLIC, RUSSIA / NAZRAN, INGUSHETIA REPUBLIC, RUSSIA / GROZNY, CHECHNYA REPUBLIC, RUSSIA
- Country: Russia
- Reuters ID: LVABULH5T1HXAHKW3LRTZHDJU3L4
- Story Text: Russian officials are urging tens of thousands of
Chechen refugees to return to their war-ravaged republic along
the southern Russian border promising peace, food, and rebuilt
homes. But local human rights groups claim Russia continues to
carry out a "genocide" against the Chechen people, and most
refugees say they do not trust Moscow's promises.
The tent city of the Karabulakh camp is just one of
the places where over 200,000 Chechens took refuge during the
second Russian-Chechen war which began in 1999.
Now, the Kremlin says that its forces have restored order
in the breakaway republic and that is safe for refugees to
return. The Russian government and local officials
have agreed to close down the tent cities and help people go
home. But, the plan has many refugees worried and angry. In
Karabulakh, they surround officials with complaints and
questions.
Most do not want to return to Chechnya, and they accuse
officials of trying to force them out by making their lives
difficult.
The refugees complain water lines are being shut off and
that families must gather water from the rivers and streams.
Officials have stopped delivering bread.
Ruslan brought his family out of Urus-Martan, south-west
of Grozny, in 1998. He says officials have neither compassion
nor courage.
"They turn off our water as soon as the weather becomes
hot. They turn off our gas heating as soon as winter begins. I
don't understand these people, have they never faced their own
hardships?" says Ruslan.
Despite the official statements that the refugees must go,
Ruslan and many like him have chosen to do something that
Chechens have been doing for over a hundred years--saying "no"
to Moscow.
This is the correct decision, say many refugees who have
returned to Grozny.
When the Zhavalkhanov family left the Karabulakh refugee
camp they were promised a house, food, and a safe life.
Instead, they live now in a half-restored hostel, sharing
the kitchen with ten other families; they receive only a bread
ration, and they say they live in constant fear of brutal
Russian military operations designed to flush out rebel
fighters hiding among civilians.
Assia Zhavalkhanova says it was a mistake to bring her
family back to Grozny.
"If I had realised what would await me here, then I never
would have returned. Here you never know what the next hour
will bring. We've even thought that all of us should go and
write a petition asking to be taken back [to the refugee
camps]."
The situation in Chechnya is so bad, says Ruslan Badalov
of the Chechen Committee for National Salvation, that it can
be called a "genocide."
"If anything can be called a genocide, then what is
happening in Chechnya with the Chechen people is a genocide.
They are killing Chechens based on their nationality. Tens of
thousands have disappeared. Hundreds of thousands have died
during the past two wars. What else do you need to call it
this [a genocide]."
Meanwhile back in the Karabulakh refugee camp, the next
generation of Chechens appears to face a difficult choice - a
life of exile in a place where they are no longer welcome, or
the dangers of war.
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