DATE=2/11/2000
TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT
TITLE=CHECHEN REFUGEES
NUMBER=5-45437
BYLINE=PETER HEINLEIN
DATELINE=SPUTNIK REFUGEE CAMP, INGUSHETIA
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: As the war in Chechnya drags on, refugees who
fled to neighboring Ingushetia say Russia has quietly
started cutting back services to camps that are home
to tens of thousands of displaced people. Russian
officials have been urging camp resident to return to
their homes in areas they call "liberated Chechnya,"
even though the war is far from over and much of the
countryside lies in ruins. V-O-A's Peter Heinlein
visited the Sputnik Camp, a few kilometers from the
Chechen border, and found conditions that a few months
ago were described as deplorable have gotten
considerably worse.
TEXT:
/// SFX of water splashing into buckets,
then fade to...///
Water. Here at the Sputnik refugee camp, women stand
in line in a muddy field this freezing February day
for a chance to fill their buckets.
/// Tipsorkayeva Act in Russian, then fade
to...///
"Our feet are freezing", says Zina Tipsorkayeva, who
fled Grozny at the height of the Russian bombing
campaign a month ago. "But what can we do?" she asks.
"We can't survive without water."
Simply eking out a bare existence is getting to be a
challenge for Sputnik's 10-thousand or so inmates.
Until recently, drinking water was delivered by truck
to each block of tents. But that service ended
abruptly last week. Now the only available water
splashes out onto the ground from pipes connected to a
nearby industrial plant. Residents say they are not
sure the water is safe for drinking. But it is all
they can get.
Other essential supplies are disappearing too. The
soup kitchen that used to provide huge vats of warm
food once a day suddenly shut down a few days ago
without explanation. Even rations of bread, the main
staple of the refugees' diet, were sharply reduced.
Sputnik's medical staff say malnutrition, combined
with bitter cold and overcrowded conditions, make the
camps a breeding ground for disease.
/// SFX of doctor treating patient, then
under to...///
Dr. Omar Geydalishev treats a seemingly endless stream
of patients at the camp's medical tent. The 43-year-
old pediatrician, himself a refugee, says doctors are
doing the best they can, but have little to offer
patients suffering from multiple ailments caused by
lack of food and unsanitary living conditions.
He says Russia's Emergency Situations Ministry and a
few international aid agencies provide only the most
basic medical necessities.
/// Geydalishev Act in Russian, then to
voiceover...///
We are grateful for what they give us, but every
child here has at least two or three diseases,
and in the best case scenario, we have something
to treat only one of them. We have no
vitamins, and no medicines they need.
/// End Act ///
Dr. Geydalishev says conditions are reaching the point
of desperation. Some refugees who depended on daily
food handouts had to borrow bread from neighbors to
feed hungry children when food rations were cut.
/// Geydalishev Act in Russian, then to
voiceover...///
For the second week in row, we don't have food.
They hand out bread only every other day. We
should not complain, but there is nothing too
good to say. This is inhuman treatment. If
they can't give us bread, they should just come
and tell us they don't have any. This way, some
people wait all day, then have to borrow bread
from neighbors.
/// End Act ///
Sputnik camp officials were unavailable for comment.
The camp's headquarters tent, which previously had
been a center of activity, was tied shut. No one was
inside. The only person among the administrative
staff who could be found was a refugee who works as
the camp bookkeeper.
/// Begin Opt ///
The woman, who identified herself only as Amina, said
in the absence of official information, the camp is a
hotbed of rumors about more tough measures being
planned to further reduce the population.
/// Amina Act in Russian, then fade to
voiceover...///
Today, there was a rumor they're introducing a
special passport regime here. We Chechens have
had a problem with Russian passports for several
years. Some people lost them, some burned them.
If they start checking passports, I don't know
what will happen. There are a lot of young
people here who have never been issued Russian
documents.
/// End Act ///
Amina confirmed that conditions at Sputnik camp have
worsened to the point that refugees are trading food
for other desperately needed items, such as clothing.
/// Amina Act in Russian, then fade to
voiceover...///
So people when they get a loaf of bread, they go
to the market and swap it for socks for their
children. So that's how they're managing to
survive.
/// End Act ///
/// End Opt ///
Sitting in the chaotic medical tent wearing a neat
coat and tie under his white smock, Dr. Geydalishev
expresses anger at what he sees as the indifference of
the international community to the plight of refugees.
He says Chechens were particularly offended when the
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees paid a
brief visit to the camp last year, then told reporters
she would not describe conditions as a human
catastrophe since people were not dying.
"They are dying now," Dr. Geydalishev says bitterly.
"But," he adds, "these visitors see only what Russian
officials want them to see." (Signed)
NEB/PFH/GE/JP
11-Feb-2000 13:10 PM EDT (11-Feb-2000 1810 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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