Four thousand Chechen refugees who have been living in boxcars in Ingushetia will be moved this week into 200 large tents, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said Tuesday.
The tents, with wooden flooring, gas and electricity, were set up near the town of Severny, where the refugees have been living in the train wagons, said UNHCR spokesman Kris Janowski. Each tent can house about 20 people.
The Severny tent village can shelter up to 12,000 refugees as part of a relief effort led by the UNHCR and the Russian aid group EMERCOM.
Also, repair work will be carried out on a number of facilities housing refugees ahead of winter, said Janowski.
A total of 160,000 Chechens who fled fighting in the Russian republic remain in Ingushetia and many thousands more in Dagestan and Georgia.
Most of them refuse to return home due to sporadic fighting between separatist rebels and Russian troops and the desperate living conditions in many of the towns and cities of Chechnya.
Russia launched a massive crackdown on Chechnya in late 1999, saying the drive was an "anti-terrorism operation" aimed at wiping out separatist guerrilla fighters.
Civilians, however, have paid a heavy price in the violence.
Since September 1999, the UNHCR has dispatched 108 convoys of humanitarian aide to the North Caucasus, including 83 to Ingushetia, 10 to Dagestan and nine to Chechnya proper, said Janowski -- GENEVA (AFP)
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