Chechen refugees inform European delegation of their problems in Ingushetia
Organizations web site on 5 June headlined "A PACE delegation has met with refugees and human rights activists
in Ingushetia"
In the afternoon of 3 June, a delegation of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe [PACE], headed by
Rudolf Bindig and Andreas Gross, arrived in Ingushetia from Chechnya. The PACE representatives visited the Chechen
refugee Satsita tent village on the outskirts of Staraya Ordzhonikidzevskaya in Ingushetia's Sunzhenskiy District,
which the authorities are liquidating by "volunteer force" methods, and also of the Memorial human rights
centre in Nazran.
According to information from members of the Public Council for Refugees, during the meeting in the Satsita camp the
forced migrants told the PACE representatives about their problems. They explained to the members of the delegation that
the reason they were reluctant to return to their homeland was mainly because of the continuing large-scale human rights
violations in the Chechen Republic and the lack of housing in the country, and not for any political reasons as the
Russian and local authorities are trying to say.
According to members of the Public Council, those running the village thwarted an attempt by a number of refugees,
who were actively cooperating with representatives of the migration services, to depict the harsh conditions of the
forced settlers in an advantageous light for the authorities. The council members claimed that one of the refugees,
(?Lora Gunther) (who, they said, was already well known for having recently left the camp, but continues to be included
among those living in this camp and is receiving humanitarian aid for 17 registered people and calling herself first as
a Chechen Geshayeva, then as a German Gunther, and then as a Russian Dudareva), had told the PACE delegates that
everything in the camp was normal, and that the authorities had allegedly "carried out all the whims of the
refugees". However, those running the camp reacted with such indignation at this false claim that it was quickly
retracted.
Later, during a meeting between the PACE delegation and representatives of non-governmental organizations in
Memorial's office, this same Gunther and one Magzha Magomadova again stated that no rights of the Chechen refugees
had been violated in Ingushetia, and again thanked the authorities for their "invaluable help".
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