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#12
Financial Times (UK)
December 6, 2001
Russians push for normality in Chechnya
By Andrew Jack in Moscow

When a Council of Europe delegation headed to the town of Znamenskoye in the west of Russia's breakaway republic of Chechnya this week, there was at least one sign of progress.

The bullet-proof jackets that nearly a year ago had been hung over the windows of the buses to protect politicians and journalists from snipers' bullets were no longer needed.

But a contingent of Russian soldiers, complete with an armoured personnel carrier, was still deemed a necessary escort and dozens of troops lined the roads.

Members of the council's joint working group on Chechnya - the most active international group with an interest in the breakaway republic - wrap up their latest fact-finding mission on Thursday. It was designed to assess efforts to resolve the conflict, reconstruct the republic and end the allegations of human rights abuse.

The council, made up of politicians from western Europe, has been the most successful international organisation in lobbying Russia over Chechnya. Although it has no formal clout it is viewed with importance by newly democratic east European states.

After its previous visit, the political affairs committee, led by the British Lord Frank Judd, recommended that the temporary suspension of Russia's voting rights at the council should be lifted.

He argued forcefully that the only way forward was to support the Russian parliamentarians in their own efforts to push for change.

The Russian government is pursuing plans for the restoration of normal life, and ambitious programmes for the reconstruction of the ruined Chechen capital Grozny. But an atmosphere of continued tension and significant killings on both sides overshadow any progress.

Lord Judd and others on the latest delegation maintain they made the right decision, and that they have played a positive role over the past few months. In an unusual initiative, the council has two permanent officials stationed in Znamenskoye - the only expatriates to be based in Chechnya.

They work closely with Vladimir Kalamanov, appointed by President Vladimir Putin as his special commissioner on human rights within Chechnya. They are working against the odds in launching investigations requested by the local population, which has lodged more than 7,000 formal complaints.

Disappearances, attacks and harassment by men in masks and with unmarked cars continue.

By the end of December, the local administration says a small contingent from the Organisation of Security and Co-operation in Europe will also be installed in Znamenskoye.

A United Nations co-ordinating office is also set to open, to help distribute humanitarian aid to the tens of thousands of

local displaced persons.

Yet this is all in western Chechnya, which is traditionally very pro-Russian.

Local support for Russia, coupled with a heavy army presence, has helped bring some fragile stability to the region.

"I can now drive the 17km from here to my home safely after dark without any worries," says one local man.

Yet nearby, dozens of tents housing Chechens displaced from Grozny live in more difficult conditions, more than two years after the latest conflict began. With winter setting in, some tents are overcrowded and others are leaking.

Many inhabitants complain of meagre food rations and medicine, accuse local officials of corruption and say that they receive no financial support.

"I want to return to Grozny, but my house has been completely destroyed and it's still very dangerous," says one woman.

In a sign of the continued ambivalence between Russians and Chechens on the situation, one senior Russian politician says the refugees stay because their conditions are comfortable and because "they are mainly the wives of rebels who are fighting against us in the mountains".

For Lord Judd, who has helped push the Council of Europe's line that any long-term solution to the problems facing Chechnya requires political negotiations including with rebel leader Shamil Maskhadov, the refugee camps represent a sign that some things have not improved in recent months.

Such conditions are "simply unacceptable", he says, pointing out that while he has seen worse in Africa and elsewhere, "this is in Europe".

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