Chechen refugees under relentless pressure

On June 2, head of the Ingush Interior Ministry's migration department Lieutenant Colonel Ivan Pomeshchenko and officials of the Interior ministry who accompanied him demanded that Chechen refugees living in the camp in the village of Yandare in Ingushetia should immediately dismantle the tents and leave the camp for Grozny, Nazran or any place they want. This camp is under the patronage of the Society for Russian-Chechen Friendship. It consists of re-equipped cowsheds and 12 tents. These very tents became a target of the attack on the part of the Interior Ministry's officials. Chairman of the regional branch of the Society for Russian-Chechen Friendship Imran Ezhiev got into touch via mobile phone with Ella Pamfilova, chairwoman of the Russian President's Human Right Commission, and Lyudmila Alekseyeva, chairwoman of the Moscow Helsinki Group and a member of the same commission. The situation seemed to have been settled after talks between Mr Pomeshchenko and the members of the presidential commission. The official assured Ms Pamfilova and Ms Alekseyeva that no pressure was being put on the refugees.

However, on June 4, Ivan Pomeschenko told the refugees that if they did not dismantle the tents by 3 p.m. local time, the OMON special police force would be involved in the situation. After chairwoman of the Russian President's Human Right Commission Ella Pamfilova had interfered one more time, Ivan Pomeshchenko told the refugees they could carry their tents under the roof of the destroyed farm situated one hundred meters away.

Imran Ezhiev has commented on the situation: "The behavior of Mr Pomeshchenko is blackmail. There is no stabilization, therefore they want to create its outward appearance. By any means. Not taking people into account."

Meanwhile, officials of the Ingush migration department did not allow journalists of NTV TV Company that came to the refugee camp in Yandare to shoot on the territory of the camp. The migration officials demanded that the journalists should immediately leave the camp and explained their demand by the lack of a permit. But places where internally displaced persons temporarily live are not closed places and all restrictions on the work of journalists on their territory are at variance with the Law of the Russian Federation "On the Mass Media".