Authorities blackmail refugees in Ingushetia

A group of refugees from the camp situated in the village of Yandare went to the Ingush Interior Ministry's Migration Department in Nazran on May 15 to get certificates of their registration as internally displaced persons (IDPs). As one of the refugees reported, in one of the rooms of the migration service, a police officer, whom the refugees did not know, offered them one after another to sign a document that they had allegedly found two self-made explosive devices on the territory of their camp and delivered them to the police. In case of their refusal, the police officer promised serious problems with registration to the refugees. Such an offer was received in particular by Husein Islamov, Akhmad Kharipov, Umar Ezhiev, Kazbek Abaev, and Vakha Vangaev. Only Vakha Vangaev gave in to the blackmail and signed the document. After it, he was given the registration certificate out of order. The other refugees did not get necessary documents. The lack of the registration certificate threatens a refugee with sizeable fines and the revocation of the right to get humanitarian aid.

Chairman of the Chechen-Ingush regional branch of the Society for Russian-Chechen Friendship Imran Ezhiev, who himself lives in the above-mentioned refugee camp, has commented on the situation: "We deal with a cynical and quite crude provocation on the part of security agencies. In my opinion, the authors of this forgery tried to achieve two goals. The first one is to continue intimidating refugees who don't want to return to Chechnya by obtaining a pretext to conduct a "special operation" in our camp. The second one is to put pressure on our pubic organization in order to hamper its legal activity. The camp in Yandare has been under the patronage of the Society for Russian-Chechen friendship since 2000, you know. Many employees and activists of the society live in it. We are waiting for new provocations now."

The refugee camp in Yandare was created by activists of the Society for Russian-Chechen friendship in the end of 1999. Approximately 700 refugees from Chechnya live here in tents and reequipped cow-sheds now.