20 January 2005, 23:57
Chechen villages become deserted
The war in Chechnya has entailed no only many victims among civilians. Escaping from air and artillery bombardment, people have left their houses in dozens of settlements situated in the mountainous part of the republic and moved to other, relatively quiet districts in the valley and in the north of Chechnya.
Subsistence farming is typical of mountainous districts. Houses are heated with firewood. It is dangerous to go to the forest for it as well as to gather hay. Forest tracts are strewed with mines. Russian special operations units act in the forests. They search for rebel bases and dislocations. Any man they find in the forest takes the risk of being killed or missing.
"Russian soldiers purposefully extrude people from mountainous districts of Chechnya in order to, as they say, "undermine the support base of rebel groups" since main bases of the Chechen resistance forces are situated in the mountains," an activist of the Human Rights Center Memorial said.
Author: Sultan Abubakarov, CK correspondent
