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Sadaka Ogata reports "good" talks with Russian officials on humanitarian aid in northern Caucasus.

UN News Service

19 November -- The head of the United Nations refugee agency said in Moscow today that her talks with Russian officials on the northern Caucasus had laid the groundwork for future cooperation between the UN and Russia on humanitarian aid.

Sadaka Ogata, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), spoke by telephone to Secretary-General Kofi Annan who had sent her to Russia as his Special Envoy to look into the humanitarian situation in the region as a result of the Chechnya conflict.

According to Mr. Annan's spokesman, the Secretary-General was "grateful for the cooperation the Russian authorities have extended to his Special Envoy and looks forward to her report."

While in Moscow, Mrs. Ogata had held what she said were "good discussions" with Prime Minister Putin, Foreign Minister Ivanov and Minister of Emergency Situations Shoigu. Those talks, she said, had provided "a good basis" for future cooperation.

In addition to her meetings in Moscow, Mrs. Ogata traveled to border crossings and northern Chechnya, as well as to neighbouring Ingushetia, where she visited internally displaced, camps and hospitals.

In Ingushetia, Ms. Ogata visited a train settlement, where refugees live in tents and railroad cars, a UNHCR spokesman said today in Geneva. With Russian artillery and shelling rumbling in the distance, the refugees told Mrs. Ogata they wanted the fighting to stop so that they could return to their homes, the spokesman said. The High Commissioner found very difficult conditions on the ground, including problems of poor drainage, sanitation and basic necessities.

On Thursday, Mrs. Ogata flew by helicopter to the northern section of Chechnya under control of Russian forces where the authorities showed her possible centres that could be used for housing returnees. In her meetings with the Russian officials, Ms. Ogata detected more concern with the humanitarian situation and more willingness to accept international aid, the UNHCR spokesman said.