20 February 2006, 19:00
UN Commissioner amazed with disastrous situation of immigrants in Ingushetia
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbur was struck by the disastrous state of forced migrants from Chechnya and North Ossetia who are now sheltered by Ingushetia. The situation with temporary refugees was the central topic of Ms Arbur's meeting with President of Ingushetia Murat Zyazikov in the city of Magas. "Despite all the efforts obviously undertaken by the Republic and international organizations, these people live in extremely disastrous conditions. It is also obvious that they've been living in these conditions for a very long time already," the High Commissioner has added.
According to Ms Arbur, she is going to raise the issue of this situation during her meetings with high officials of the federal authorities in Moscow and St Petersburg, the RIA "Novosti" reports.
We remind you that on Monday, February 20, Louise Arbur, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, made a one-day visit to the Republic of Ingushetia. The aim of her visit was to get acquainted with the human rights situation in the region. In her travel over the Republic, the UN High Commissioner was accompanied by Ella Pamfilova, chair of the Council for Promoting Development of Civil Society Institutes and Human Rights under the President of the Russian Federation.
In the afternoon, the UN High Commissioner had meetings with representatives of the society and human rights organizations that work in Chechnya and Ingushetia. The participants of the meeting said to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that the activists told the visitor about the situation in this area. "Today, the office of the Human Rights Centre 'Memorial' in Nazran has hosted a meeting of Louise Arbur, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, with representatives of Chechen and Ingush human rights organizations. The meeting was also attended by direct victims of human rights violations and their relatives. Among the basic issues raised by us today, were the problems of extrajudicial executions and kidnappings, illegal arrests of citizens in the territories of Chechnya and Ingushetia, and many other issues," said the source.