DATE=2/14/2000
TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT
TITLE=CHECHNYA - REFUGEES
NUMBER=5-45445
BYLINE=PETER HEINLEIN
DATELINE=KARABULAKH REFUGEE CAMP, INGUSHETIA
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: As the focus of the war in Chechnya shifts
from the heavily populated lowlands to the mountains,
Russian officials are encouraging refugees who fled at
the height of fighting to return home. But for many,
there may be no home to return to. Correspondent
Peter Heinlein visited camps in neighboring Ingushetia
and found a sharp difference of opinion among refugees
about whether it is safe -- or wise -- to go back.
TEXT:
/// SOUNDS OF ROOSTER CROWING - FADE UNDER ///
Life moves at a snail's pace at the Karabulakh refugee
camp. Just a few kilometers from the fighting in
Chechnya, the rooster's crow echoes across the rows of
tents where thousands of displaced Chechens are
waiting out the war.
A few children slosh through the pools of mud
surrounding the tents. Groups of men stand around
mulling over the latest news from the war zone, and
discussing rumors about what fate the Russian
government has in store for them.
The news this day is that one of the long trains of
railway carriages that have been transformed into
rolling refugee camps is about to be moved into
Chechnya.
For some, it is a welcome development. Forty-three-
year-old Ruslan Didigo has been counting the days
since he arrived at the Karabulakh camp last October.
He is eager to get back to his home in the capital,
Grozny, even though the city stands in ruins.
/// DIDIGO ACT ONE - IN RUSSIAN - FADE UNDER ///
He says he has been waiting two or three-months, and
by the end of the month, it should be possible to go
home. By then, he says, authorities should have all
the mines cleared and some order should be
established.
He says he wants to get back as soon as possible
because life in the refugee camps is getting worse as
authorities cut off humanitarian aid supplies.
/// DIDIGO ACT TWO - IN RUSSIAN - FADE UNDER ///
He says until last week the refugees were being fed.
But now, he says - we are told there is no money.
/// OPT /// Mr. Didigo, who worked 23-years as a bus
driver in Grozny, says the city must be rebuilt. He
insists Grozny will always be Chechnya's capital,
despite a declaration from Moscow that administrative
offices are being moved to the nearby town of
Gudermes.
/// OPT // DIDIGO ACT THREE - IN RUSSIAN - FADE ///
He says Chechens will build everything back themselves
if the Russians do not want to. Then pausing for a
minute, he says he has lived his whole life there, and
- I am going to live there if I have to put up a tent.
/// END OPT ///
But despite the hardship of life in the camps, most
refugees are still too scared to go home. Fifty-five-
year-old Grozny resident Lyoma Sultakhmedovich says
anyone who goes back risks death at the hands of
marauding Russian troops.
/// SULTAKHMEDOVICH ACT ONE - IN RUSSIAN - FADE ///
He says it is impossible to live in Grozny because
Russian soldiers are looting and killing. And he adds
- My aunt and cousin were killed in their yard.
Mr. Sultakmedovich says Moscow's aim is to have a
Chechnya without Chechens. He adds - All they want is
the land and the oil, not the people.
/// SULTAKHMEDOVICH ACT TWO - IN RUSSIAN - FADE ///
He says - let the Russians have this place if they
want it so badly. Give me some place else instead.
/// OPT /// Mr. Sultakhmedovich says he was born in
1944, during Soviet dictator Josef Stalin's mass
deportation of Chechens to the deserts of Kazakhstan.
His family's Grozny home was destroyed then, but
rebuilt when they returned after Stalin's death.
The house was again razed to the ground during the
last war in 1995, rebuilt and destroyed a third time.
After this latest war, he says he has no desire to go
back. With a scowl of sarcasm, Mr. Sultakhmedovich
says he thinks another Stalin-style mass deportation
would be more humane than forcing Chechens to return
to the uncertainty of life in their ruined homeland.
/// OPT SULTAKHMEDOVICH ACT THREE - RUSSIAN - FADE ///
He says he would be happy to leave - I have had enough
of Chechnya. /// END OPT ///
Despite Russian predictions the war will soon be over,
most experts believe fighting could drag on for years,
as rebels resort to guerrilla tactics that worked so
well for them in the previous conflict. And even if
the war ends, there is little hope the region will be
rebuilt.
Russia's representative to Chechnya this week
recommended that Grozny be declared a "closed city".
He said as far as he knows, there are no funds in the
federal budget earmarked for reconstruction.
(SIGNED)
NEB/PFH/JWH/RAE
14-Feb-2000 12:22 PM EDT (14-Feb-2000 1722 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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