Russia: Clock Running Out for Displaced Chechens in Ingushetia(Moscow, December 26, 2002) — Russian authorities must not close tent camps housing tens of thousands of displaced Chechens because there is still nowhere safe for them to relocate, Human Rights Watch said today. For the past month, Russian officials have been intensifying their campaign to pressure displaced Chechens in Ingushetia to abandon their tent camps and return to Chechnya. With the closure earlier this month of the "Iman" tent camp in Aki Yurt, housing about 1,700 people, five camps remain in Ingushetia, housing more than 20,000 people displaced by the Chechnya conflict. Russian officials claim to the international community that all returns to Chechnya are voluntary, and that they may provide some alternative housing in Ingushetia to tent dwellers. But Human Rights Watch researchers on a recent field trip to Ingushetia found that migration officials have placed enormous pressure on displaced persons to leave the camps, and that most relocation alternatives in Ingushetia were nonexistent. The 11-day mission also documented escalating abuses inside Chechnya, which most displaced persons cited as the main reason they chose to remain in Ingushetia. "Forcing internally displaced persons to return to the conflict zone, where human rights abuses are the daily routine, violates international standards," said Elizabeth Andersen, executive director of Human Rights Watch's Europe and Central Asia division. "The fact that the Russian authorities chose the midst of winter for evicting these people, many of whom have no alternative housing, is barbaric." Pressure in the camps Every day, about 30 officials, representing the Federal Migration Service, Ingush migration authorities, the Chechen administration, and the Federal Security Service, make rounds in camps, going from tent to tent pressing people to apply for relocation and explaining the advantages of moving to Chechnya and the disadvantages of remaining in Ingushetia. They promise returnees space in new temporary accommodation centers that are allegedly being built in Chechnya, offer 20 rubles per person per day to those who plan to relocate in Chechnya's private sector, and free transportation back to Chechnya. They threaten those reluctant to leave with arrest on false drug and weapons possession charges, and warn them that vital gas and electricity supplies will be cut off to the camps. Human Rights Watch received from the Federal Migration Service a list of eighteen temporary resettlement alternatives in Ingushetia with the alleged capacity to accommodate 224 families. None of the tent camp dwellers interviewed by Human Rights Watch was aware of the list, or of the possibility of relocating to a facility in Ingushetia. Human Rights Watch researchers visited twelve temporary resettlement facilities in the Karabulak and Sunzha districts that appeared on the Federal Migration Service's list. With two exceptions all of them were either already occupied, uninhabitable, or simply did not exist. Returnees to Chechnya face similar problems. Human Rights Watch interviewed several returnees who had to go back to Ingushetia because the promised accommodation was either uninhabitable or already occupied. Denied any state assistance, they are now living off the kindness of neighbors. Migration officials emphasize to displaced people that the camps' days are numbered, and that tent dwellers would be better off leaving now rather than awaiting a forced closure of the camps. In late October, Russian troops were deployed near the camps, their presence understood by displaced persons as a threat of force should they choose not to leave "voluntarily." Some families have left the camps amid subzero temperatures. They told Human Rights Watch that they were unable to withstand the pressure from migration authorities and that they feared the consequences of staying: uncertain security and miserable living conditions. Some families expressed fear that their young children might not survive the freezing temperatures once the gas and electricity were cut off. The U.S. government, the European Union and the United Nations have all strongly protested the pressure on tent dwellers and the closure of the “Iman” camp. Yet, the Russian government has disregarded the concerns of the international community. Continuing violations in Chechnya Most families, however, remain in the camps, preferring to tolerate the deprivations of tent camps rather than face endangering their own lives and lives of their children in Chechnya. Migration officials dismiss the security threats that people continue to face in Chechnya. A Federal Migration Service official told Human Rights Watch that "people also disappear and are being killed in Moscow," and that the situation in Chechnya is returning to normal. But Human Rights Watch continues to document extrajudical executions, forced disappearances, and torture of noncombatants in Chechnya by federal soldiers, and has found no evidence that officials are seriously investigating or attempting to stop such crimes. Brief summaries of several of these cases are listed below. Human Rights Watch also continued to receive numerous reports of assassinations of Chechens working with the Russian authorities by rebel fighters. "The safety and welfare of the displaced seem to rank last among the Federal Migration Service's priorities," said Andersen. "It seems to want to get rid of the camps as proof that that the situation in Chechnya is returning to normal, whatever consequences that may have for the people." The fate of Aki-Yurt residents While the deadline for the closure of tent camps is unclear, the closure earlier this month of the Aki-Yurt camp leaves no doubt that Russian authorities are serious about dismantling them. The fate of the camps' 1700 former residents provides a good indication of what dwellers in other camps may soon expect. In early December, all of the tents in Aki-Yurt were dismantled, gas and electricity were cut off and all assistance to tent dwellers stopped. Several reliable sources told Human Rights Watch fewer than one third of the camp's 1700 residents moved to Chechnya. Witnesses told Human Rights Watch that former Aki-Yurt dwellers are still looking for housing in Chechnya, squatting near temporary accommodation centers that were already full or searching for space with Chechen villagers. Some of these people had returned to Ingushetia when they failed to find accommodation in Chechnya. The majority of Aki-Yurt families, however, remained in Ingushetia, trying to find accommodation in the private sector. Seventeen Aki-Yurt families continue to live in fourteen mud huts on the land where the camp once stood. They use the wooden floors from the removed tents as firewood, as the authorities have cut all gas and electricity. They receive daily threats from the authorities that the mud huts are illegal and will be bulldozed in the near future. The authorities are offering no alternative accommodation. Human Rights Watch calls on the Russian government to stop pressuring internally displaced persons into returning to Chechnya and to ensure that they continue to enjoy protection and humanitarian assistance in accordance with international law. It also urges the relevant international agencies involved in the region to protest any measures that may endanger the lives and well-being of thousands of internally displaced people residing in Ingushetia. Human Rights Watch calls on the international community to send observers to Ingushetia to monitor and report on the situation of the internally displaced persons. Some recent cases of human rights violations in Chechnya (documented by Human Rights Watch in late 2002):
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