Cecenia: Putin impazzito...

["F A B I O C C H I::" <eco_fabiocchi at tin.it>]

URL: www.gfbv.it/2c-stampa/03-2/030918it.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/chechnya/Story/0,2763,1051286,00.html

Cecenia
Richiesta d'aiuto dall'Inguscezia: il campo profughi "Bella" tagliato fuori
dal mondo!

Bolzano, Göttingen, 18 Settembre 2003

Mercoledì scorso il campo di profughi di Bella in Inguscezia, che ospita
fino a 1186 civili ceceni è stato isolato dal resto del mondo.
L'Associazione per i Popoli Minacciati (APM) rivolge un appello urgente ai
governi europei affinché si impegnino presso il governo russo a favore dei
profughi ceceni e tentino di evitare il rimpatrio coatto dei profughi. Già
durante i controlli dei passaporti i profughi erano stati messi sotto
pressione perché lasciassero l'Inguscezia; ora si teme che il campo profughi
venga eliminato lontano dagli occhi del mondo e che le persone vengano
costrette a tornare in Cecenia dove corrono seri rischi per la propria vita.

Secondo i dati forniti dall'Alto Commissariato per i Profughi dell'ONU
(ACNUR), in Inguscezia vivono ca. 98.000 profughi ceceni, di cui 17.000 in
tendopoli quali quella di Bella. Secondo l' Ufficio Migrazione ingusceto
nella tendopoli di Bella vivono 696 persone, secondo invece i calcoli degli
stessi profughi ci vivono 1186 persone.

Nonostante il grande impegno dell'ACNUR, Ahmed Kadyrov, il burattino di
Mosca in Cecenia, prosegue nel suo intento di eliminare con l'uso massiccio
della forza ogni apparenza di guerra in Cecenia, tra cui appunto anche i
campi profughi. L'amministratore che difende gli interessi russi in Cecenia
nonché unico candidato con possibilità di successo alle elezioni
presidenziali cecene del prossimo 5 ottobre, aveva comunicato già il 13
agosto all'agenzia di stampa Interfax che i campi profughi avrebbero dovuto
sparire entro il primo ottobre.


Terror reigns as Putin tries to force peace on Chechnya 

Nick Paton Walsh in Grozny
Sunday September 28, 2003
The Observer 

Russian troops broke into the Bela refugee camp near the border of Chechnya last week and cut gas, water and electricity supplies. The aim was to make the camp, which holds 1,200 people, uninhabitable in the coming winter. Three women who tried to stop the soldiers were pistol-whipped, putting them in hospital. 
The attack came after months of pressure to close the camp and others in Ingushetia. Troops, and now local police, have abandoned their tactic of threatening refugees with paperwork and benefit problems. Over the past few months groups of masked men have driven into the camps and abducted several men - killing one who resisted - in zachistkas, or clean-up operations. 

It is the brutal enforcement of a Kremlin plan to push the Chechen refugees back into the war-disrupted republic by 1 October, four days before elections imposed by Moscow to choose a new Chechen President. 

It comes in the week Russian President Vladimir Putin told the United Nations that 'developed nations' had a responsibility to ensure the will of the international community was carried out. 

After the week's events, Putin stands accused of hypocrisy. The UN has repeatedly expressed concerns at the plight of Chechen refugees in Ingushetia. The Kremlin wants the refugee camps closed because they represent evidence that contradict its claim that life in Chechnya - where Russian soldiers are killed daily and civilians face abductions and beatings in return - has 'returned to normal'. 

Next week's presidential vote, a vital step in a Kremlin plan to impose its brand of peace on the republic, has been denounced as a farce. All serious competitors to the head of the Chechen administration, Akhmad Kadyrov, have dropped out of the race. 

To outcry from human rights groups, Kadyrov, whose forces are accused of abuses in the republic, accompanied Putin when he addressed the UN last week. While they were away, aid groups found themselves barred from entering the camps, local authorities now requiring them to have explicit permission, citing a security threat. Human Rights Watch has denounced the abuse of refugees in Ingushetia as 'part of the same strategy - to move the Chechnya problem inside Chechnya and block outside scrutiny'. 

The capital, Grozny, is busier than it was a year ago, the streets now full of people where before only a few women scuttled between shell-shattered buildings. While many refugees are glad to return to their homeland, others have been forced back, lacking the papers to live elsewhere in Russia and fearing the persecution of the refugee camps. 

Some have been lured back with the offer of work on the Kremlin's promise to rebuild the city. However, locals complain that payments rarely materialise. Signs of a limp attempt at reconstruction adorn most streets, as do groups of angry Chechen police, a vicious law unto themselves. 

The state of martial law and threat of police violence make for a city with the feel of a Soviet-era prison camp. One local, Salim, said: 'However bad the conditions, people will try to live here. It is their home.' 

Local businessmen say the workers rarely see contracts they are promised. 'When pay day comes,' said one, 'the boss says "sorry, the money never arrived from Moscow, what can I do?" But the workers keep going because they don't want to lose their jobs. There have been no jobs in this city for seven years.'