UN Wire

November 27, 2000

CHECHNYA: Situation Too Unsafe For Aid Workers -- UN

Chechnya's continuing conflict is making it impossible for large numbers of refugees to return and has created a situation too dangerous for UN aid workers to carry out repatriation efforts, UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Carolyn McAskie said Friday.

After returning from a fact-finding mission to the Chechen capital of Grozny, McAskie said that while conditions in the breakaway republic have improved, her trip also convinced her that the time is "not yet right for UN organizations to operate freely inside Chechnya."

McAskie said many refugees shared her security concerns and said they would only return if they thought it was safe.

"It's a war zone," she said. "The war may be over, but it's still a war zone. ... There's no way I'd encourage people to return."

There are 160,000 refugees living in the Russian republic of Ingushetia, which borders Chechnya. They are staying with relatives and friends or in tent villages and rail cars that lack basic necessities. A delegation from the Council of Europe, which has also recently returned from the North Caucasus, said the medical situation remains seriously inadequate despite improvements (Reuters/Russia Today, 24 Nov).

"The conditions are appalling, it is very cold, the children don't have enough warm clothes, and many of them are ill," said Swiss deputy Ruth-Gaby Vermot-Mangold (Agence France-Presse/Russia Today, 24 Nov).

While 90,000 refugees have returned home to Chechnya, conditions in the republic remain harsh. McAskie said aid alone cannot be used as an enticement to bring refugees back to Chechnya, and called for the two sides to negotiate a peaceful resolution to the conflict (Reuters/Russia Today).

McAskie had also urged UN member countries Wednesday to collect $45 million in aid for the troubled North Caucasus region (AFP/Russia Today, 23 Nov). The European Union Thursday approved a $4.7 million winter aid package for Chechen refugees, which will provide them with food, shelter, heating, winter clothing and medicine (AFP/Russia Today, 24 Nov).