10 May 2004 17:42
Chechen refugees in Georgia go on hunger strike
TBILISI. May 10 (Interfax) - Some 60 Chechen refugees in Pankisi Gorge, Georgia, went on a hunger strike Monday in
protest of harassment by the Georgian authorities.
A group of human rights activists and journalists left for the gorge on Monday to meet with the refugees.
She said the refugees on hunger strike in Pankisi are being
pressured by "masked people in uniform who are very likely
"The refugees want the Georgian authorities to stop persecuting them, to stop abducting men and to stop secretly
deporting them to Russia," Nana Kakabadze, head of the organization Former Political Prisoners for Human Rights,
told Interfax.
officers of the Georgian State Security Ministry."
She said the refugees also criticize the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees for failing to stand by its
promises.
The refugees demand that the Georgian authorities give them an opportunity to leave the country to places where they
won't be persecuted.
Kakabadze said she would meet with the refugees, look into their problems and try to protect their rights. [GG EUROPE
EEU EMRG POL] ml aw
[Interfax] |
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