Raid on Satsita refugee camp - details

A large-scale search was conducted early in the morning of March 6 at the Satsita refugee camp in Ingushetia, one of the two remaining Chechen tent camps in the republic.

According to Satsita residents, the camp was surrounded by four tanks and eight armored personnel carriers. The operation was carried out by federal soldiers as well as members of some unknown Chechen law enforcement units who arrived in 17 UAZ jeeps.

Despite the early hour, many refugees were out for morning prayers. All of them were detained. Meanwhile, searches were conducted throughout the camp.

According to residents, soldiers entered tents and began checking documents, claiming they were looking for guerrillas and weapons.

"They kept one barely clad girl on the street during the search," said a camp resident Malika Tovsultanova, whose 5 year-old daughter was so frightened that she nearly fainted.

One local policeman tried to protect the refugees and was beaten.

Seventeen men were herded onto a bus that was parked behind the camp, and, according to Ruslan Dzhamsayev, who was among them, they were told a computer was needed to properly check all their papers. "But no computer was on board; only one man was in there, carefully observing us," said Dzhamsayev.

However, these men were eventually released due to the clamor and insistence exerted by their wives.

The search ended around 10 a.m. And by mid-day Ella Pamfilova, chairwoman of the Russian presidential human rights commission, was airborne from Moscow to find out all about this incident in Satsita.

Pamfilova said this search was intentionally carried out by the local officials. "Such an order could not have come from above," she said.

According to Chechen human rights defenders, there was no specific reason for the search. "It was simply an act of intimidation aimed at forcing people to leave the camp, and carried out according to a usual scenario," stated Ruslan Badalov, chairman of the human rights organization Chechen National Rescue Committee.

Editors note: See also the article "Law-enforcement/security operation in refugee camp Satsita, Ingushetia".