24 February 2004 00:08
Russian minister, UN official discuss helping Chechen refugees
Moscow, 24 February: About 1,200 Chechen families are still living in tents in Ingushetia, Stanislav Ilyasov, the
acting minister for Chechen affairs in the Russian government, told journalists today.
He said that during his meeting today with UN Resident Coordinator in Russia Stefan Vassilev "we discussed a
possibility for the UN to provide humanitarian aid to the refugees". Thus, the UN is proposing that refugees who
"do not want to live at the temporary resettlement sites or in the private sector in Chechnya, should receive
prefabricated houses", Ilyasov said. "They could be installed at a private plot of land and they could
simultaneously rebuild their destroyed houses," the minister said.
Ilyasov said that the positive aspect of that "could be the fact that these houses will be assembled on Russian
territory, in the Caucasus". This will make it possible "to reduce the price of this humanitarian aid and to
create new jobs," Ilyasov said.
He also said that "there has been rapprochement in the positions of Russia and the UN (on the Chechen
issue)". The Chechen government has already started to look for premises for the UN representative offices in
Groznyy.
Ilyasov said that "security will be guaranteed" to representatives from various UN institutions who would
like to move to Groznyy.
[ITAR-TASS news agency] |
RUSSIA IN FACTS
