Khashiev: Chechen refugees not to be evicted from Ingushetia

Families residing in the territory of Promzhilbaza (industrial dwelling centre) in the town of Karabulak, will not be evicted. This was told to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent by Isa Khashiev, Deputy Chief of Russia's Federal Migration Service of the Republic of Ingushetia, who on September 21 within the committee visited refugees' temporarily accommodation centres (TACs).

According to the official, yesterday a scheduled meeting with the families living in the TACs was held. "The meeting was aimed at finding out and solving the current problems of refugees," he said and continued: "No possibility of eviction was mentioned."

"They are poor people who have lost everything they had in Ingushetia and Chechnya," told Isa Khashiev to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent and continued: "We visit these camps to find out what the refugees particularly need at the moment."

According to the official, the panic with respect to possible eviction of refugees could be caused by the recent speech on television of Yunus-Bek Evkurov, the leader of the Republic of Ingushetia, in which he mentioned the necessity to eliminate the refugee camps with improper living conditions.

"The Promzhilbaza was built for foreigners engaged in construction in the country on the offshore zone programme; thus, it fits still more or less to live in," explains Isa Khashiev and continues: "However, there are family who live in the barracks, which were built in 1992 and which are completely unsuitable for living now. These people need to obtain proper living conditions."

According to the official, the funds were already allocated for that purposes. "Local administrations will have to rent housing for refugees, to conclude contracts with owner until the refugees settle down completely," Isa Khashiev has noted and added that "the Ingush national mentality would not allow treating the refugees in any other way."

"More than 200 thousand of ethnic Chechens were not left in the streets in October and November 1999 - all of them were given a shelter," emphasized Isa Khashiev and continued: "No minister, no clerk would allow himself any illegal action with respect to these people and, of course, would not to leave them homeless."

However, according to the official, there are "alarmists" among the refugees, who "talk about unreal facts." "They believe that if the bring this problem to the media or anywhere else, then their fate will be better in the material sense," he said.

Residents of Promzhilbaza confirm the information that their fears of possible eviction failed to materialize. However, according to their story, during the yesterday's visit the officials requested that refugees named people who lodged complaints with the UN and the EU.

"We were told that on September 23 the commission would come to deal with this issue," says a resident of Promzhilbaza, who preferred to remain anonymous, and continues: "Refugees try to defend their rights by all available means, including appealing to the European institutions on human rights. Who can ban that?"

"As soon as we start to complain, they do not touch us," states Asya Khadisova and continues: "Now we await the commissions from the European Union and Moscow; we want them all to see with their own eyes. And we are told that we all complain and hope for someone and that those people for whose help we hope would not solve our problems - they would just exacerbate them."