Rights still abused in Chechnya, Ingushetia

Vladimir Shaklein, coordinator of the All-Russian public movement For Human Rights in Urals federal district, has summarised his recent trip to Ingushetia and Chechnya which he made with a view to studying the situation with the rights of refugees and their living conditions. According to him, many refugees in Ingushetia have to live in garages, in rooms at sand-pits or quarries, on farms, poultry farms, etc.

In Chechnya, they live in former halls of residence and uncomfortable buildings where up to several hundred families live together. Two hundred and nineteen families, a total of 1,285 people, live in 110 rooms in a house in Grozny. There are 34 such houses in Chechnya, according to Vladimir Shaklein. Besides problems with accommodation, people complained that they had been excluded from lists of humanitarian aid recipients and that it was impossible to obtain compensations for their destroyed homes. "Dozens of people came to complain about officials in each temporary accommodation point that we attended. Most refugees are unaware of the work in Grozny of the republican Commissioner for Human Rights, Memorial, and other human rights organisations," Mr Shaklein remarked.

• Refugee camp unheated