Ingushetia: Authorities and human rights defenders agree to cooperateTimur Aliyev, North Caucasus – Ingush authorities and human rights defenders will actively cooperate on issues concerning human rights violations of refugees, according to an agreement reached in the Ingush capital of Magas on April 18, between Ingush President Murat Zyazikov and Chechen human rights and non-governmental organizations.
“We have the same goals----to prevent human rights violations in the republic,“ stated Zyazikov.
Zyazikov proposed that human rights defenders should now work closely with the Ingush Human Rights Commissioner. ”You will contact him in all matters regarding human rights violations.”
According to Zyazikov, this office was recently formed in Ingushetia.* “[Except for the Russian federal commissioner] nothing like this has so far existed in any Russian region.”
Mikhail Latyrov, head of the Ingush Immigration Service, was appointed to look into the cases of refugees who were removed from lists allowing them to receive humanitarian aid.
When Chechen human rights defender Ruslan Badalov mentioned unlawful arrests of refugees in tent camps, Zyazikov ordered Interior Minister Akhmet Pogorov to prepare a document and send it to Russian Interior Minister Boris Gryzlov. “It is necessary that arrests be made only with issued warrants … so that no one from our republic disappears without a trace,“ stressed the President.
Pogorov said that last year the Ingush Interior Ministry started 16 criminal proceedings concerning abductions of people from tent camps who allegedly participated in illegal armed groups. “This year, because I banned the issuance of such warrants [to members of the law enforcement agencies of the Chechen Republic], the number of disapperances decreased,“ Pogorov said.
Zyazikov assured the human rights defenders that Chechen refugees living in tent camps in Ingushetia would not be forcibly repatriated. “In Ingushetia there was not and will not be what is labelled ‘involuntary return.‘ Refugees will return only when and to where they want.“
* The Ingush Parliament passed the Act On the Human Rights Commissioner in the Republic of Ingushetia in mid-February. President Zyazikov signed it on March 24.
(T/E) RELATED ARTICLES:
· President meets human rights defenders (Press service of Ingush President, 18.04.03)
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