Chechnya citizens still pressured

Not only has the condition of citizens of Chechnya not improved over the past year, but it has worsened considerably, Svetlana Gannushkina, leader of the Migration and Law Network of the Human Rights Centre Memorial, said at the presentation of a report titled The Condition of Chechnya Residents in the Russian Federation. June 2004 - June 2005.

Residents of the republic continue to be deported from both Chechnya and their refuges in other regions where they also face extremely inimical attitudes on the part of representatives of local governments and law enforcement agencies.

Outside Chechnya, there are 23,900 people according to official information as of 15 April 2005 quoted in the report, while the total number of internally displaced persons is 210,800. However, the authors of the report indicate the actual number of residents of Chechnya that may be referred to as internally displaced persons is much higher. They all are in extremely difficult living conditions. About 100,000 families of internally displaced persons currently remain registered. Out of them, 49,100 families have been recognised as needing homes. "If housing proceeds at the same rates (2,000 families per year), it will take 25 years to provide homes to all forced migrants," the report indicates. "Realizing that, the government chooses an easier way to solve the problem and deregisters 120,000 forced migrants a year."

Fewer and fewer internally displaced people from Chechnya remain in temporary accommodation points. They have to return home because of pressure exerted on them. Along with difficult social conditions, Chechnya residents also face extremely negative attitudes towards them which have become especially exacerbated after the events in Beslan. Meanwhile, the government's position with regard to residents of the republic by no means facilitates improvement of their condition, but on the contrary encourages law enforcement agencies in discriminatory actions, according to Ms Gannushkina.

The Human Rights Centre Memorial has more than once registered abductions of civilians in the armed conflict area in the North Caucasus and opening of fabricated criminal cases against them. Residents of Chechnya have absolutely no rights in the republic, says Svetlana Gannushkina. Meanwhile, their attempts to apply to a third party for help are intercepted. Four cases of persecution of Chechens who lodged complaints with the European Court of Human Rights over the disappearance or murder of their relatives have been registered over the last year alone, Memorial lawyer Kirill Koroteyev remarked. Afraid of the life and future of their children, Chechens do not want to go back to the republic where military action still goes on. For them, however, there is no alternative to settle in other regions either, the authors of the report believe.

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