13:33, 5 April 2004

Satsita tent camp to be dismantled by end of April

Main efforts of the agencies engaged in problems of the return of IDPs [internally displaced persons] to Chechnya have been aimed at the liquidation of the Satsita tent camp since 2 April, a source at the Chechen governmental committee for displaced persons in Ingushetia told the Caucasian Knot correspondent.

"Now subdivisions of the Chechen Interior Ministry's migration department and our committee are working to return the refugees to their homeland," said Salman Dadayev, the committee's leading specialist. "At the same time, we don't fix certain dates for closing the camp, the work will be done until last refugees leave it."

The Satsita tent camp in the village of Ordzhonikidzevskaya, Ingushetia's Sunzha district, was established in 2000. As of 1 April 2004, there are 400 tents in the camp, which are home to up to 2 thousand IDPs from Chechnya, according to the Sunzha migration department of the Ingush Interior Ministry. President of Chechnya Akhmad Kadyrov told journalists recently the camp inhabitants were to be returned to their homeland by the end of April.

Editors note: See also the article "Sputnik refugee camp dismantled in Ingushetia".

Author: Malika Suleymanova, CK correspondent

Source: Caucasian Knot