UN refugee agency to resettle displaced Chechens in new winterized camps
14 November -- As the brutal winter months approach in the Russian Federation, the United Nations refugee agency is set to begin moving thousands of displaced Chechens in Ingushetia from makeshift camps to new tents equipped with gas, electricity and wooden floors, a spokesman for the agency told reporters today in Geneva.
The first 4,000 displaced Chechens are expected to be moved later this week to the new camp built jointly by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Ingush chapter of EMERCOM, Russia's relief organization. The new site will eventually accommodate a total of 12,000 people.
Meanwhile, the Ingush government is trying to ensure that some of the makeshift settlements, where large numbers of people still reside, are also winterized, the UNHCR spokesman said, adding that the agency had already contracted the International Rescue Committee to do renovation work in some 55 spontaneous settlements. EMERCOM and various international organizations are also helping in the rehabilitation effort.
Since September 1999, UNHCR has delivered 108 convoys with humanitarian assistance to the Northern Caucasus - 83 to Ingushetia, 10 to Dagestan, 9 to Chechnya, 3 to Karachevo-Cherkessia, 2 to North Ossetia and 1 to the Stavropol's Kuskay district.
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