INGUSHETIA: REFUGEES CONTINUE TO ARRIVE FROM CHECHNYA

(12 Nov 1999) Russian/Nat

Refugees continue to stream into Ingushetia from war-torn Chechnya.

Sometimes as many as four thousand Chechens cross the border each day, fleeing the war in Chechnya.

Cold and frightened refugees were waiting at the border on Thursday, pleading to be allowed to cross as guards slowly checked papers and vehicles.

Meanwhile, a delegation from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe arrived in Moscow on Thursday for meetings with Russian officials, after touring refugee camps in Ingushetia.

At one of the few checkpoints refugees can pass through, a traffic jam has built up stranding people for over a week.

One refugee fleeing from Chechnya described the situation she left behind.

SOUNDBITE: (Russian)
"People and cars are backed up beyond the checkpoint at least four kilometres. They've been there for a week or more in winter conditions, children and babies too."
SUPER CAPTION: Lemka Egieva, Refugee

While many are struggling to get out of Chechnya, a trickle of people are moving back.

About 800 per day are returning to their homes to search for relatives still stuck in the war-zone.

Some say they're going back because the conditions in Ingushetia are even worse than those in Chechnya.
Some refugees who finally make it over the border are sheltered at a nearby refugee camp in Slepsovskaya, in an abandoned railway station.

The refugees are despondent and say their plight is being ignored by the Russian government.

One refugee who left Grozny said it was the relentless bombing that forced him to leave.

SOUNDBITE: (Russian)
"There was no gas, water or electricity. But still we could have managed if they weren't bombing us. They are bombing the residential neighbourhoods."
SUPER CAPTION Said Abulev, Refugee

Many have left their homes and sometimes family members, and now they're struggling to survive.

SOUNDBITE: (Russian)
"I left my husband and my son in Chechnya and I have tears in my eyes night and day. But my tears do not help me."
SUPER CAPTION: Leila Basheyeva

Some 200-thousand refugees have fled the fighting in Chechnya since September, most of them to Ingushetia.

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