Human Rights Center "Memorial"

Situation of Internally Displaced Persons in the Republic of Ingushetiya, Spring 2001

(As was done in the last references, those who were forced to abandon the Chechen Republic are called refugees for the sake of expediency.)

The rough number of refugees from Chechnya who passed through the migration office of Ingushetiya since the renewal of war efforts in the Autumn of 1999, consists of 308.050 persons.

The manner in which the number of refugees changed in the last half year, according to data obtained from the Ministry of Emergency Situation (MES), is as follows:

29 September, 2000 – 141.348 persons,
08 December, 2000 – 142.791 persons,
15 February, 2001 – 144.375 persons,
02 March, 2001 – 148.273 persons,
06 April, 2001 – 148.933 persons.

Thus, the influx of the population from the territory of Chechnya into the territory of Ingushetiya continues. The cause of the influx is the same as previously: no safety guarantees, unlawful acts committed by representatives of the federal forces, especially during the ever so common "cleansing operations", lack of elementary living conditions (lack of gas, light, water and food).

Out of the 148.933 refugees, 53.890 people reside in refugee camps (called "areas of compact settlement"), the rest live in the private sector.

Today, those who are responsible for accommodating the refugees at MES and the Ministry of Federal Affairs are constantly bringing up this issue of returning the refugees to Chechnya.

A survey was conducted amongst the Chechen refugees in Ingushetiya by the UN Administration of the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Coworkers of the organization "Vesta" gave the survey to 624 families (4370 persons), living in private residences, camps and settlements which appeared spontaneously throughout Ingushetiya. Nearly 24% of the surveyed families said that some or all members of their family are planning to return to Chechnya this year. About 75% of the families are not planning to return this year if the situation remains the same as is currently, 9% of the families do not intend to return to Chechnya in any circumstance. Based on these results, UNHCR came to the conclusion that the forced settlers, on the most part, are not ready to return to Chechnya.

However, since the 13^th of April, 2001, registration of settlers from the Chechen Republic with form No.7 has been curtailed by the decision of the territorial administration of the Ministry of Federal Affairs. The Minister for Emergency Situtations of Ingushetiya, V.Kuks, declared that registration will be curtailed for approximately a month while a new form is introduced.

At the end of February, 2001, a meeting between the President of the government of Ingushetiya, A. Malsagov, and the Primeminister of the Republic of Chechnya, S. Ilyasov took place. At the meeting, they discussed the question about how to work out a common position concerning the return of the refugees to Chechnya. As a result of this meeting, a department was created in the government of Chechnya to coordinate work with international humanitarian organizations. The task of this department is to assist refugees in returning voluntarily to Chechnya from Ingushetiya.

This department, jointly with the Danish Committee for Refugees, planned throughout March and April to gather lists of families whose homes were partially or totally destroyed. The lists are supposed to be handed to the MES of Ingushetiya, which in its turn, guided by these lists, will allocate tents, and depending on the scale of destruction, materials necessary for rebuilding, to families who have decided to return to Chechnya. The government of Russia is supposed to allocate the funds for carrying out these programs.

The leadership of the MES of Ingushetiya called on international humanitarian organizations working on the territories of Chechnya and Ingushetiya to join in and offer whatever financial support they can toward this program. The Danish Committee for Refugees has already agreed to deliver 500 tents for those returning to Chechnya. The Red Cross is also ready to allocate tents for this purpose (the number of tents to be disbursed has not been decided). In other words, all conditions should be fulfilled for returning and accommodating people in permanent places of residence during the spring/summer period.

The UNHCR and the Czech fund "People in Misfortune" are working on a partnership agreement with the aim of working towards restoring houses in Chechnya. The fund "People in Misfortune" plans to reconstruct 2659 houses in Grozny and 350 in other settlement points (Agishty, Alkhazurovo, etc.) situated in the central districts of the republic. Materials for repairs and restoration of houses will be delivered to the homeowners.

The Danish Council for Refugees, at the present moment, has already restored 1470 partially destroyed houses in Achkhoj-Martan, Gudermes, the village of Kurchaloi and Urus-Martan. The Danish Council for Refugees is concurrently continuing to gather lists of citizens, whose homes were partially or totally destroyed.

Work of humanitarian organizations and the Federal government. Providing IDP's with food and articles of basic needs

In September, 2000, the Committee of the Ministry of Federal Affairs, working on the territory of Ingushetiya, came to the conclusion that, as of 23.09.00, 122.451 internally displaced persons from Chechnya were registered according to form No.7. This is considered the official figure which will be sent to the Ministry of Finances of the Rus.Fed., which will in its turn, based on its calculation, designate and allocate funds for the IDPs. But the given figures hardly correspond to reality, in particular, since they do not put into consideration the increase in the flow of refugees from Chechnya before the winter period.

For the Republic of Ingushetiya, the standing problem to this day is financing and extinguishing its debts. At the beginning of March, 2001 the federal administration owed around 500 million rubles towards the territorial administration of the Ministry of Federal Affairs and Migration Politics of the RF on the territory of Ingushetiya. The debt for the food needs of the refugees alone stands at 171 million rubles. And those figures are constantly increasing.

Since 28 February, 2000, the government of the RF stopped to transfer money for the needs of refugees from Chechnya. Consequently, since then, the refugees did not receive basic provisions, i.e. hot food and free bread, from the government of the RF.

(See the previous reports: In Expectation of an Autumn. Forthcoming Catastrophe. The position of forced migrants in the territory of the Republic of Ingushetiya and ….)

At the beginning of April, bread and hot food stopped being given in the camps for forced settlers. An assistant for the President of the government, Vislan Yusupov explained that the current situation was caused by interruptions in receiving funds from the federal budget. If in earlier similar situations, it was the humanitarian organizations that largely aided in providing food stuffs in the camps, the situation has now changed. Starting from April, the distribution of packages of humanitarian goods in the camps for forced settlers has been curtailed. Thus, for instance, in the camps "Alina", "Bart", "Bella" and "Sputnik", in April, the settlers received only bread (1 loaf a day for 2 persons) from the Russian Red Cross (RRC). The exception is the camp "Satsita", which is fully provided for by a humanitarian organization from Saudi Arabia, where each person gets a box with food stuffs once a month, regularly. As of this day, forced settlers are, in principle, getting by on food stuffs received from humanitarian organizations in March.

The reason for the absence of humanitarian aid from NGO's in April is related to the suggestion by the Ingushetiyan MES, to redirect humanitarian organizations to the private sector.

On the 30^th March 2001 at a coordination meeting, the Minister of MES of Ingushetiya, V.P. Kuksa, declared that from April 1, the resolution of the government of the RF No.163, adopted on March 3, 2001, will come into force. Its article 2 reads as follows:

MES Rep.Ing expressed its concern regarding the resolution No.163 by the government of the RF. According to the Minister of the Ingushetiyan MES, V.P. Kuksa, a large number of IDPs living in the private sector (more than 100 thousand), will not get assistance from the federal government.

In article 3 of the decree of the Ingushetiyan MES No.452, adopted on the 19^th March, 2001, which was done in reaction to resolution No.163, it says that

The Min.Fed. of the Rus.Fed. will deal with spontaneous settlements and other places of temporary accommodations.

4-6 Tanya Abrams Tanya_Abrams@Brown.edu ; tanyaabrams@hotmail.com

Deputy Minister of the Ingush Republic Emergency Situations Ministry, Ruslan Koloev, explained that re-orientation affects only basic foodstuffs for adults. Humanitarian organizations will still be able to supply the camps and small towns of forced migrants with baby food, clothing, etc., just as they did earlier.

Humanitarian organizations, working on the territory of Ingushetiya, regard this directive with skepticism. All are convinced that sufficient funds from the federal budget to guarantee food and refugee housing in places of temporary settlement will fail to be allocated.

Since January 2001 weekly coordination conferences have been held in the office of the World Health Organization (WHO), located in Nazran. The goal of these conferences—monitoring the situation of medical service for refugees in the republic. In one of the aforementioned conferences, WHO associate Azamat Kumykov reported that the WHO, at the present time, is collecting data on the condition of health care in Chechnya and is also holding consultations with humanitarian organizations on the question of the creation of a coordination system for health service programs in Ingushetiya. Azamat Kumykov reported that in February humanitarian NGOs covered 7 "white spots"—places of compact residence of a large number of refugees and remote populated areas in the southern regions of Ingushetiya, where more than 2000 refugees from Chechnya live, untouched by medical help programs. Nevertheless, in the Nazran and Sunzha regions there still remain 5 "white spots", where 11555 refugees live. These are the settlements of Dolakovo, Gazi-Yurt, Gamurzievo, Ekazhevo, and Alkhasty. Mr. Kumykov appealed to the NGOs to broaden the scope of medical help programs, in order to embrace the above-enumerated points. In March, a mobile medical group of the Russian Red Cross began activity in the village of Ali-Yurt in the Nazran region. In the past, the activities of medical help programs have not covered this site, in which 1174 refugees live.

In the Ingush Republic, there are 64 medical establishments, all of 1095 hospital beds. In November 2000 a field tuberculosis hospital (in the village of Barsuki) was launched by the "Zaschita" ["Protection"] All-Russia Center for Emergency Medicine and began work. As was announced by the head doctor of the field hospital, Director Nazarova, since November hospital doctors have led 8933 fluorograph tests in camps and spontaneous settlements of refugees. 146 tuberculosis-infected patients were evacuated to treatment in different regions of Russia—in Kursk, Rostov, Moscow, Ryazan. In Ingushetiya, "Zaschita" also organized the work of a group of pediatric surgeons and a field hospital in the village of Sleptsovsk with 50 hospital beds. The new hospital, working in close cooperation with the Ingush Republic Health Ministry, has already taken 3500 patients. However, its capacity is not sufficient to manage the influx of stationary patients, and "Zaschita" plans to increase the number of beds in the hospital by 30-50. In March, the "Zaschita" All-Russia Center for Emergency Medicine is planning the opening of a field pediatric hospital with 50 beds at the Gudermes Central Regional Hospital. At the present time "Zaschita" is forming a group of patients (with oncological and other difficult illnesses) to be directed for treatment to other cities. The number of such patients, appealing to the hospital, is extremely high.

At the conferences the many cases of denial of medical treatment for refugees by medical establishments in Ingushetiya were discussed more than once. Refugees are not supplied with free medicines in hospitals or polyclinics. Deputy Ingush Republic Health Minister, M. Ozdoeva, recognizes the existence of a deficit of medicines and funds in the republic's medical establishments. She noted that the Ingush Republic Health Ministry is in an extremely difficult situation related to the sharp increase in the number of ill people in the republic. Director Ozdoeva assured those present that all cases of denial of medical treatment were being investigated by the Health Ministry.

Recently, many cases of diarrhea have been observed in the following spontaneous settlements – Ptitsestantsiya, a poultry farm, Novaya Podstantsiya, MTF-2 (a dairy plant at the village of Troitsk), MTF-2 (a dairy plant at the village of Altievo). Water samples, taken from containers for water in the settlements, revealed the presence of a diarrhea-causing flora. It was impossible to disinfect the containers effectively due to the particular construction of the containers.

Nevertheless, the overall situation with medical service for forced migrants in the Ingush Republic may be characterized as satisfactory. First aid is available practically everywhere. However, a solution to the problem of providing medical help to those with chronic illnesses has not been found. The specific features of chronic illnesses, like, for example, diabetes, oncological illnesses, different forms of epilepsy, etc., demand expensive medicines and supplies. Neither the Ingush Republic Health Ministry nor the many medical humanitarian organizations have the resources to provide the chronically ill with expensive medical treatment in a consistent manner.

As earlier, particularly difficult is the problem of medical service for so-called risk groups - children, breast-feeding mothers, and the elderly.

2000-2001 - this is the second school year that children from Chechnya are spending away from home. Whereas as far back as last year attempts were being made at organizing lessons in tent schools in the major camps, 75% of children from the private sector did not attend.

In the new school year, the picture has changed. Schools in Ingushetiya accepted all children who wished to attend. For that reason, 37 schools in the Republic were forced to adopt a regime of working in shifts, sometimes 3 or more.

In the refugee camps the tent (field) schools are working. Of course, these schools differ from standard ones. They lack elementary educational equipment, classes are overburdened, and textbooks and notebooks are often lacking. However, thanks to these schools, children are able to study.

Furthermore, in one of the major camps in Ingushetiya "Sputnik" (Sleptsovsk), of 8880 people, 4302 are children. The school receives 11 tents: 4 for the beginning classes, 6 for the higher classes, and 1 as a sports hall. The Education Ministry has taken the funding of the beginning classes (teachers' salaries, school supplies) upon itself, the funding of classes 5 through 11 is supported by UNICEF.

In the "Alina" refugee camp, where 5400 people live, school-aged children number 1606. Two schools work here. The first, for the beginning classes, was built by an Austrian organization, "Hilfswerk." The second, built by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), has 1000 spaces for children in the upper classes.

6400 people live in the "Bart" refugee camp—2359 of them are children under 14 years of age.

Right now, only a school for beginning classes functions, which, besides children from this camp, children from Promzhilbaza, ZhBI, a ferro-concrete plant, and "Karer" attend. Instruction goes on in four shifts. The school is allocated 5 tents. The Salvation Army pays teachers their wages (by the hour). In the near future, the opening of a school for middle and upper levels is expected.

3335 people are living in the tent refugee camp in the village of Aki-Yurt, including 1503 children. The school has one small tent. A portion of the children attend the tent school, another - the local rural school, which is, of course, overcrowded.

In the refugee camp Goskhoz (in the village of Yandare), located on the territory of a state agricultural enterprise, 2136 people live. There are 800 children, of which school-aged ones are 430. A school does not operate since during winter vacation a homeless refugee family was sheltered in the school tent. True, the camp administration did this in the hopes of receiving a new school building, promised by the "Center for Peacemaking and Community Development" before New Year. However, there is no new building, and there is nowhere for the homeless refugee family to be relocated. Consequently, after the close of winter vacation, children did not go back to school. Now, children have the opportunity to attend the rural school.

Forced migrant camp MTF-1 (a dairy plant), in the town of Karabulak.

3675 people live here. The school, existing in a large part due to the best efforts of the Salvation Army, is attended by 700 children. Lessons are carried out in four shifts, from first up through tenth grade.

The reconstruction and expansion plan worked out in the summer of 2000 by the Ingush Republic Emergency Situations Ministry, the territorial administration of the Ministry of Federal Affairs, Nationalities, and Migration in the Russian Federation, and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees was not successfully fulfilled on schedule. The plan contained the establishment of new, well-equipped camps with 12000 places as well as the reconstruction and expansion of existing camps. Its implementation included three stages.

The first stage intended to create new camps for forced migrants: "Alina", "Bella" and "Satsita". The formal delays caused by the Ministry of Federal Affairs, Nationalities, and Migration in the Russian Federation, putting off the construction of the proposed camps, have been reported repeatedly in the preceding information. As a result, camp construction has been dragged out. Today in the "Alina" camp, there are 248 tents and, as of 1 April 2001, 5200 people have been registered. Construction and equipment of this camp is complete.

The refugee camp "Bella" is in the construction and expansion stage. As of 1 April, about 5400 people are living there. 450 tents are in place and, in the near future, an additional 200 are set to appear. From its inception, the camp was built for the relocation of forced migrants living in railroad cars in the city of Karabulak. However, the camp was forced in urgent circumstances to house people from spontaneous settlements and the private sector. Therefore, it became clear that space was lacking and the Ingush Republic Emergency Situations Ministry made the decision to increase the number of tents, and, accordingly, the originally supposed number of people in need of shelter.

The "Satsita" camp is still under construction, but it has already been settled. The camp is under the full patronage of the "Red Crescent Society" from Saudi Arabia and in general, no problems with the organization of people's everyday life and public services, are arising.

In the second stage of the plan, the reconstruction and expansion of exisiting camps was intended. There, people from spontaneous settlements and the private sector were to be settled. The reconstruction included establishments of new kitchens, medical service points and toilets. At the moment, the construction of a medical service point and showers is being completed in the camp Goskhoz (located in the village of Yandare, on the territory of a state agricultural enterprise). The construction in this camp is fininced by the Austrian organization "Hilfswerk". In this same camp, a kitchen started to work in March (whereas before there was no kitchen at all). In the camp SMU (village of Sleptsovskaya) a medical service point and toilets have been established. In the camp Rassvet (village of Sleptsovskaya), the Austrian organization "Hilfswerk" sets up toilets and a medical service point.

The exchange of rotten tents is still a problem.

7-10 Steve Holt steve_m_holt@hotmail.com

The Sputnik camp, one of the largest in Ingushetiya in the village of Sleptsovskaya, houses 8880 people, including 4302 children. 456 tents have been erected, 260 of which need replacing. The Ministry of Emergency Situations has allocated 197 tents for this.

In Bart, a camp in Karabulak, where 5602 people (2464 children) live, there is a lack of tents. 277 tents have been set up. 331 need replacing but at present only 133 have been received.

In the remotest camp, in the village of Aki-Yurt in the Malgobeksky Region, there are 3335 people (1503 children). 2440 people are being accommodated in tents whilst 895 are housed in other premises e.g. the post office, the village hall and the mosque. 106 tents have been set up in the camp itself. A further 40 tents have been received from the Ministry of Emergency Situations, 25 to expand the camp and 15 as replacements.

Regarding the third stage, the reconstruction and preparation of accommodation in 66 Chechen refugee camps, work will, in all probability, continue for the course of the current year since the principal aim of this work is to provide accommodation suitable for winter. It is doubtful whether last winter will be the last one that many of them will spend in the camp.

As stated above, the date set for the fulfilment of the plan is constantly being changed. This is due to the strategy of trying to coerce the refugees back to Chechnya and insufficient funding on the part of the Federal Government.

3662 refugees from the Chechen Republic are housed in and around the village. 2440 people live in the camp itself and 895 live in other premises e.g. the post office, the village hall and the mosque. These figures are approximate as not all the refugees in the camp are registered. 106 tents have been set up in the camp. The Ministry of Emergency Situations has supplied a further 40 tents, 25 to expand the camp and 15 as replacements.

All refugees registered in Aki-Yurt receive humanitarian aid in the camp.

At the beginning of March, humanitarian aid to the refugees was cut in half. It must be noted that by the end of March aid organisations had stepped up their work in this camp. At the end of March aid was being distributed by the following organisations:

Ministry of Emergency Situations

Per person for ten days:
Chicken legs 0.5kg.
Butter 200g.
Tea 100g.
Vermicelli (noodles) 500g.

From 20-24 March the Danish Council handed out to each person, for one month:

Flour 13kg.
Sunflower oil 1 litre
Sugar 500g.
Salt 100g.
Rice 10kg.

On 10th March German Humanitarian Aid handed out one food parcel per three people consisting of:

Sugar 2kg.
Vermicelli 2kg.
Tinned fish 4 tins
Vegetable oil 2litres
Salt 1kg.

Those people registered 3 months ago were refused aid. Consequently, 110 families (442 people) , received nothing from the IRC. The remainder received one food parcel per person consisting of:

Fuel oil 500g.
Vermicelli 3 kg.
Rice 2kg.
Tea 500g.
Tomato puree 200g.
Tinned chicken 4 tins
Yeast 200g.
Cheese 2 packs
4 candles

Medicins Sans Frontieres (Belgium) supervise a first aid station in the camp. The station has all the equipment necessary for the provision of first aid. On top of this, MSF doctors hold a weekly surgery for the sick.

Ingushetiya's Education Ministry has erected a tent next to the village school to serve as a school for the refugees' children. Education is only available up to the fourth grade. Children older than this have no way of receiving schooling. There is a shortage of books and stationary but the teachers say they can teach with the resources available.

On the whole, the school teachers, doctors and refugees themselves rate the humanitarian situation in the camp as critical and unsatisfactory. Despite the conditions, nobody wants to return to Chechnya to live there permanently. In fact, there is always a certain number of people wishing to settle in the camp. However, due to the lack of tents, these people are not being registered. On 8th April, 108 tents were set up, including one to act as a first aid station, one as a school and also tents set up in the yard of the local mosque.

Many of the tents rotted during the winter and need repairing or replacing. 15-28 people live in some of the 20-man tents. The Ministry of Emergency Situations promised to put up extra tents and replace some of the older ones but they cannot be relied on to do this in the near future.

Interruptions in the gas supply create a constant problem for the refuges. They are often forced to endure long periods without heat and the capability to make hot food. It is impossible to solve this problem by using firewood as there is no forest or shrubbery near the camp from where they could procure wood.

The camp SMU-4 is in the grounds of a construction company in the village of Sleptsovskaya.

Refugees are housed in tents in the camp and in outbuildings. 1100 people were living in the camp on 1st April. There is a large number of people who want to be settled here but registration of the newcomers is not taking place. The general picture of the provision of humanitarian aid does not differ from other camps. Since 28th March bread has ceased to be handed out. Promises have been made since 15th April that bread hand outs will resume but this is not believed by the people in the camps who are concerned about this last development.

A French humanitarian organisation and The Christian Mission of Mercy from the republic of North Ossetia have recently visited the camp. The former distributed mattresses and bedding 3 months ago. CMM handed out warm, second hand clothes in the middle of March, which was a great help to many of the refugees.

There is no kitchen in the camp. Previously, the Russian Red Cross (RRC) had provided hot food once a day but since the end of May, the RRC has ended this provision. No explanation has been given.

The International Medical Corps supervises the first aid station. Every Wednesday from 10.00 to 13.00 they hold a surgery for the sick and administer any necessary treatment. But recently these doctors have also ceased their activities in the camp.

The refugees are concerned about the situation and try to understand the reason why hot food and bread is not being distributed and predict the consequences. The prevelant point of view is that these measures have an aim, namely to force them to return to Chechnya. However, in Chechnya the dangers for civilians remain extremely high.

The MTF camp is located on a dairy farm in the town of Karabulak.

On 1st April 3400 people were registered in the camp. This number includes refugees living in private homes in the vicinity of the camp.

In the camp itself, people are accommodated in sheepfolds and other outbuildings. There are also ten tents acting as a school.

One week ago, on the last Thursday in March representatives of the Danish Council for refugees visited the camp and handed out 10 kg. of rice per person.

At the beginning of March, the International Red Cross (IRC) gave out food and medical parcels. One food parcel was given to each person and consisted of:

Sugar 1kg.
Pasta 3kg.
Sunflower oil 1 litre
Rice 2 kg.
Peas 2 kg.
2 Candles

The medical parcels were to be shared between 2 people:

Washing up liquid 1
Washing powder 1
Shampoo 1 bottle
Toothpaste 1
Household soap 2 bars
Bathroom soap 3 bars

It should be noted that the last time the IRC was forthcoming with similar aid was in May last year.

An Australian humanitarian aid organisation has been distributing warm clothes to refugees listed by the Danish Council. The work, which has been taking place for four months already, is undertaken by age group. Up to now children from the ages of 3-13 have received aid.

But, as in all the other camps, bread has not been distributed since 31st March.

Since 1st April the camp's kitchen was closed meaning no hot food is being distributed.

Whilst these shortages exist it is important that camp is constantly provided with water and a working bath-house.

There is no first aid station, but doctors from the European Union visit every week on a Wednesday and Thursday. They have a mobile laboratory allowing patients to be analysed on site and receive qualified medical consultations.

Furthermore, doctors from the RDA (Rehabilitation and Development Agency) visit the camp once a week.

There is a school in the camp with the direct support of the Ingush Education Ministry and the Salvation Army. The school has insufficient stationary and text books. But on the whole the teachers consider that this isn't a problem and they are able to work with the children with the amount of materials they have. On 1st April, 358 children from the first to eighth grade attended the school.

The German charity organisation (HTT) brings hot food once a day for the school children. A lunch ration consists of: when lunch is a main meal (plov, porridge etc.), it comes with yogurt and a bread roll. If it is a starter (borsch, soup etc.), it comes with bread and fruit. This organisation has been carrying out such work since 1st March this year.

Originally the camp was built to rehouse those refugees living in railway wagons in the town of Karabulak. But refugees from other settlements and also from the private sector have begun to settle in the camp. As a result it has become clear that there are not enough places to completely re-house the people from the wagons in Karabulak.

At the moment the camp is being built and expanded.

5400 were being accommodated in the camp on 1st April. 450 tents have been erected and a further 200 tents are projected to be put up in the near future.

12 people were transferred from the railway wagons to Sleptsovskaya on 5th April. Although the refugees have not yet been housed in the tents, it is impossible to live in the wagons since there is no gas or electricity. Hot food cannot be prepared. Work on erecting additional tents is taking place slowly.

Since 31st March bread and hot food has not been handed out. People are managing on the supplies they had made in the previous months.

The first aid station is working steadily and the refugees have no complaints regarding the work of the doctors. The station deals with up to 70 people daily. The most common illnesses in the camp are: diseases of the upper respiratory tract, acute respiratory viral infection (ARVI), tonsillitis, laryngitis and pneuamonia. For several days a mobile machine for detecting tuberculosis was loaned to the camp by the organization "Medical disaster" which enabled the doctors to diagnose and register patients suffering from the disease.

Furthermore, the camp is periodically visited by doctors from the Russian Red Cross and from the American organisation "BIF" who hold surgeries.

Work on building the school, the bath house and first aid station is in full swing. Permanent wooden structures are being built rather than temporary buildings.

The camp is located in a poultry farm in Plievo with people living in the buildings of the farm. At the moment the camp is being broken up. The Ministry of Emergency Situations promised to transfer all the refugees from here to another poultry farm in Sleptsovskaya. On 1st April, 209 people remained in the camp.

In the past couple of weeks, the camp has been visited by the International Red Cross, who handed out a food parcel to each person. On 4th April the Danish Council for refugees distributed 10kg of rice per person.

The children remaining in the camp go to a tent school supervised by "People in misfortune" On 31st May this organisation handed out food for children up to the age of 6. They also provide hot food for the children once a day. The Ministry of Emergency Situations ceased handing out bread on 1st April and there has been no hot food since 28th February.

There is no shortage of water and it is delivered on time. There was a bath house but it is now out of action due to the refugees themselves who knocked out the glass and tore down the planks of wood. The bath house was provided by the International Rescue Committee.

On 3rd April the International Rescue Committee delivered trainers to children up to the age of 12 and also childs bath tubs, buckets, soap and washing powder.

The camp on the outskirts of Sleptsovskaya consists of 248 tents. In the coming weeks it is proposed that 25 tents will be transferred here from the neighbouring Bela camp.

On 1st April, 5200 people were registered in the camp.

Since 1st April hot food and bread has not been handed out. In the words of the camp warden, Mustafa Khamkhoev, the main reason for the cessation of food aid from the federal structures is a lack of finance.

The camp is wholly under the supervision of the humanitarian organisation Islamic Relief who are responsible for the distribution of aid to the refugees. After the Ministry of Emergency Situations announced that the work of aid organisations in the camps was to end, Islamic Relief stopped providing any form of aid. Many families are running out of food supplies. At present a lot of families have run out of many items e.g. sugar, tea, sunflower oil etc. The last time the population received food parcels from Islamic Relief was on 22nd March.

Each parcel consisted of the following:

Buckwheat 1kg.
Condensed milk 2 tins
Rice 1 kg.
Vermicelli 1 kg.
Tea 1 packet
Matches 10 boxes
3 candles

Each parcel was divided between 4 people and was to last 10 days. Representatives from the "Movement Against Hunger" organisation visited the camp in the first week of March and distributed baby food to children up to the age of 2. Each baby received 10 cans whilst each pregnant woman received 10 cans (1 per 250g.) of tinned meat and 10 cans (1 per 150g.) of tinned fish.

The first aid station has been built and is supervised by Islamic Relief. The station is open for the sick 24 hours a day.

The population of the camp are happy with the work of the first aid station. There is sufficient medication to provide adequate treatment. The camp has an ambulance which can take the sick to hospital when necessary.

The school was built and is supervised by the Austrian organisation Hilfswerk who teach pupils from the first to fifth grade. An English humanitarian organisation teaches 790 fifth to ninth grade pupils. In total, 1120 children attend the school. There is sufficient stationary and textbooks.

There are no problems with the provision of water and gas.

The International Red Cross built the bath house which works without any interruptions.

"An interdepartmental plan of action to create conditions for the return to Chechnya of temporarily displaced citizens and to discuss the restoration of social and economic spheres in the Chechen Republic."

Spring, 2001. Nazran-Moscow.