15:55, 23 May 2005

Refugees for 14 years

For more than 14 years 10,000 refugees have lived in North Ossetia's Prigorodnyi district in conditions actually unfit for habitation. They are chiefly former Georgian citizens, ethnic Ossetians, district administration head Pavel Tedeyev told Regnum news agency.

He said local potential is limited in this respect. Budgetary spending provided for this year is 327.4 million roubles, with local earnings at just 54.4 million roubles. Such funding prevents from solving problems of forced migrants and other citizens, in Tedeyev's view. There is a need for effective assistance from the republican and federal government.

"Private investors do not want to put up in the area. Businesspeople are afraid to create new jobs because of proximity to the restless administrative border with Ingushetia, the district administration head emphasised.

The large number of refugees from South Ossetia in the Prigorodnyi district is also a factor that hinders the return of Ingush refugees to the district where they were resident before the 1992 Ossetian-Ingush conflict.

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