Russian government promises money to refugees who will return from Ingushetia to ChechnyaТimur Aliyev, North Caucasus – Pursuant to a recent resolution of the Russian government, the Chechen refugees who will return to Chechnya will receive a daily allowance of 14 rubles for renting a place in the private sector and 6 rubles for food.
“This means that an average Chechen family will get 3,000 rubles (ca. 95 US dollars; editor´s note) per month for living in the private sector,” says Igor Yunash, First Deputy Chairman of the Migration Service of the Interior Ministry of the Russian Federation. The money will be sent directly to the returnees by postal money orders so as to avoid any potential misappropriation of funds, he adds.
Igor Yunash believes that the adopted resolution will facilitate the return of the refugees home. “It is not possible to leave them in the camps this winter,” he says. He claims that the decision to dismantle the tent villages was made in reaction to the possible outbreak of an epidemic of infectuous diseases.
According to Yunash, some 1,000 refugees will be repatriated to Chechnya from the tent camps in Ingushetia in the near future and will be placed in a new temporary accommodation center (TAC), the construction of which should finish by the end of this month. Five more TACs are to be set up during December. The Russian government allocated 360 million rubles for this purpose.
Since May 1, 2002, no hot meals have been provided to the residents of tent camps. “Those who are returning home will be compensated for this unfulfilled obligation,” Yunash states adding that humanitarian organization Danish Refugee Council will be helping the returnees by providing them with a three-month ration.
The problems that could arise in the process of repatriation will be dealt with by a joint task group established by the Russian minister for the reconstruction of Chechnya and former Premier of the Moscow-backed Chechen government, Stanislav Ilyasov. The group, headed by Igor Yunash, will comprise government representatives of Chechnya and Ingushetia, as well as a number of federal bodies.
Meanwhile, the refugees fear that they might be relocated back to Chechnya by force. One of the residents of the Satsita camp, Uvays Dombayev, recounts: “One woman left her tent, she went to the market. When she came back after half an hour, her tent was already dismantled by camp staff and they were taking away her mattress.”
The inhabitants of the Satsita tent village appealed in a letter to the Ingush President Murat Zyazikov. The refugees are pleading for protection from pressure by the camp administration who, as the authors of the letter state, claim that “according to the information of the Chechen Refugee Committee, 640 people from Satsita have returned to Chechnya and therefore you should not be here”. “Don’t let them tyrannize peaceful people,” the appeal reads.
(P/A,T) |
