Military

DATE=11/14/00

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

NUMBER=2-269206

TITLE=UNHCR / CHECHEN REFUGEES

BYLINE=LISA SCHLEIN

DATELINE=GENEVA

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: The U-N refugee agency says thousands of Chechen refugees in the neighboring Russian Republic of Ingushetia are moving to a new tent city. Lisa Schlein in Geneva reports the refugees are now living in boxcars and other temporary accommodations.

TEXT: The tent city is located next to a railway settlement in Ingushetia that is near the town of Severny. The refugee agency says the first four-thousand Chechens displaced by the war are expected to move into the new shelters this week.

U-N-H-C-R spokesman Kris Janowski says the new camp eventually will accommodate 12-thousand people.

/// JANOWSKI ACT ///

At the same time, we have actually got an agreement with the International Rescue Committee to rehabilitate many of the completely desolate sites where the people have been staying so far, like all kinds of old factory buildings, old barns, and so on and so forth. The new tented camp, for a tented camp, will be quite good with wooden floors and electricity in the tents.

/// END ACT ///

There are an estimated 150-thousand Chechens in Ingushetia, many of them living in makeshift shelters. The U-N refugee agency hopes the tents will ease the housing crisis.

In addition to the housing shortage, agency officials say tuberculosis remains an acute problem for the refugees from Chechnya and for the region as a whole.

A spokesman for the International Organization for Migration, Jean-Philippe Chauzy, says T-B has reached alarming levels in Ingushetia and in North Ossetia, which has about 50-thousand Chechen refugees.

/// CHAUZY ACT ///

The local authorities are stretched to the limit and have difficulties coping with this tuberculosis epidemic. Well, obviously the numbers we are getting and W-H-O are getting are very high. We are talking about levels affecting 125 per 100-thousand inhabitants.

/// END ACT ///

The International Organization for Migration has contributed laboratory equipment and supplies for better prevention and detection of T-B among the refugees and the rest of the population. (SIGNED)

NEB/LS/KL/RAE