Refugees in Chechnya and Ingushetia to remain without support due to suspension of activity of Danish organizations

Forty thousand Chechen residents may find themselves on the edge of a humanitarian catastrophe due to the suspension of activity of the Danish Committee on Refugees.

This has been stated today in the interview to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent by Ruslan Badalov, head of the regional Public Movement "Chechen Committee for National Salvation" (ChCNS). He commented on the decision of the Chechen Government to suspend on the republic's territory of the activity of the Danish organization "Danish Council on Refugees." Khalid Vaikhanov, deputy-Premier on social issues, has sent an official notification today to Stephen Tall, head of the UN Office on Coordination of Humanitarian Issues in RF. Earlier, Ramzan Kadyrov, acting Chechen Premier, also made a statement to this effect.

"One should not connect a humanitarian organization with someone who infringed on moral norms and encroached on the Muslim sanctuary. There should be a civilized denunciation and a protest. But here we have a humanitarian organization which helps tens of thousands of people who are deprived of everything: dwelling, work and food! It is wrong to deprive these people of this invaluable help," says Ruslan Badalov. "The money allocated for helping refugees is not the money of the newspaper which published those caricatures; it is not the money of any specific persons. These are the resources allocated by the UN for helping people."

According to Badalov, the money was used by the Danish Council "to implement construction programs for refugees, in the temporary residence centres on the Chechen territory refugees were given food, provided with psychological rehabilitation, allocated money for individual businesses."

Badalov also states that this is not the first attempt to prohibit the activity of humanitarian organizations in Chechnya. "Now, after the adoption of a new law on non-government organizations, the Danish Council and other NGOs may be closed under the cover of the new law," says the human rights activist. "I think that the Chechen Republic authorities are fundamentally wrong. However, Ramzan Kadyrov is a ruler in the republic and if he takes a decision, everything will be his way."

According to the ChCNS, there are about 50,000 refugees on the territory of Ingushetia. So far, they are provided with all necessities. About 40,000 people live in temporary residence centres on the Chechen territory. "These people have neither house nor home. They were the main beneficiaries of the assistance, and now 40,000 people are placed on the edge of a humanitarian catastrophe," stresses Ruslan Badalov, head of the regional Public Movement "Chechen Committee for National Salvation", to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent. "The Chechen authorities never mentioned that, now that we deprive you of this help, we are going to help you ourselves, even better that the Danish Council. Alas, I have not heard a statement of this kind."