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Situation of Prigorodny refugees causing concern to human rights defenders

By Umalt Chadayev

NORTH CAUCASUS – Human rights defenders are urging international organizations to direct attention to the situation of displaced persons from the Prigorodny district of North Ossetia, who for fifteen years have been unable to return to their homes and are now being forcibly resettled from the village of Maysky to Novy, a new village that is being created.

Aslambek Apayev, head of the Committee for the Protection of the Rights of Displaced Persons, has written a letter to international organizations asking them to assist in addressing the problem of these settlers, as there remains no other way to draw the authorities' attention to the refugees’ plight.

"The Ossetian-Ingushetian conflict, in which tens of thousands of people suddenly lost their homes and hundreds were brutally murdered and went missing, took place in 1992. However, neither the federal nor the local authorities are taking any real steps to bring about the return of people to their places of residence in North Ossetia’s Prigorodny district, to compensate them and solve other social issues,” says Apayev.

 "For all these years, people have really been living in conditions that are inhuman. They cannot obtain identity documents, and are denied residence permits. The children of  displaced persons are deprived of the opportunity to study, enrol in universities and so forth. The local authorities and the leadership of the Southern Federal District have more or less washed their hands of these problems. Instead of helping people they now move them from one temporary refugee camp to another, by violent means. That way, of course, the problem is not resolved. It’s merely driven inwards. But sooner or later some solution will have to be found," the human rights defender says.

"Dozens of people appeal to us daily for help. People want only one thing – to return to their homes, to live where they lived before the tragic events. Yet despite the fact that Moscow has adopted several decrees and resolutions for the need for the return of displaced persons to their homes, the local authorities do everything they can to stall this process. Moreover, there is the absurd idea that Ossetians and Ingushes can’t live together. That’s a lie, because ordinary citizens can do nothing. It’s being done by all sorts of officials and politicians who are making money and reputation out of the wretchedness and suffering of other people,” he says.

"My appeal, which is addressed  to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the President of the International Helsinki Federation, the President of the Moscow Helsinki Federation, and indeed all people of goodwill, is prompted above all by a desire to draw attention to this problem. Perhaps now these organizations will finally take some part in the deciding the fate of these unfortunate people people, since the countries of which they are citizens are more or less disowning them them, and depriving them of the rights and freedoms guaranteed by the Federal Constitution," Apayev said in a an interview with Prague Watchdog’s correspondent.

(D/T)

  RELATED ARTICLES:
 · Ossetian-Ingush dispute: old conflict, new fears (PW, 28.7.2006)
 · Northern Caucasus on the brink of a new conflict (PW, 4.11.2004)
 · The Ingush-Ossetian powder keg (PW, 17.9.2004)