Public of Ingushetia calls for preventing revision of the law "On Rehabilitation of Repressed Nations "

In the opinion of representatives of public in Ingushetia, Ossetia continues its attempts to have the law "On Rehabilitation of Repressed Nations" amended.

In particular, they want to remove from its text certain articles connected with the territorial rehabilitation of repressed nations. This causes serious concern and indignation among Ingushes. In this connection, deputies of the National Assembly and representatives of Ingushetia intellectuals, and also forced migrants from the Prigorodny district of North Ossetia have again applied to the country's leadership with a request to prevent infringement on the rights of Ingushes to territorial rehabilitation.

"We have learnt that the North Ossetia parliament is preparing an address to RF State Duma with an attempt to invalidate the law "On Rehabilitation of Repressed Nations." We consider such attempts immoral in the face of the nations which suffered from Stalin's genocide. All repressed nations of Russia are united in protecting their legitimate rights and interests incorporated in the law "On Rehabilitation of Repressed Nations." One should not fight for the rights of one nation while infringing on the rights of other nations," runs the address of the Ingushetia National Assembly deputies to the Russian President and heads of the federal authorities.

"There is no reasonable and moral alternative to the return of Ingushes to their traditional places of residence. Any palliative steps or, equally, attempts to avoid solving the problem will only aggravate the social and political situation and inter-ethnic relations and will not ensure peace and concord either in the two neighbouring republics or in North Caucasus as a whole," state the deputies.

Forced migrants from the Prigorodny district also draw the attention of the country's leadership to the fact that "in a multi-national state, all nations must be in equal constitutional and legal conditions." "In October-November 1992, about 60,000 Ingushes, citizens of North Ossetia, were expelled from their native places, hundreds of civilians were killed, about two hundred people are still missing. But each time when relations seem to become warmer there appear those who want to maintain instability. This time it is the same. The Russian President has given an instruction to resolve the problem of returning all citizens to previous places of residence by end of 2006. Instead, there is another attempt to aggravate the situation in the republic," they write.

According to them, "the mere fact of raising the issue of invalidating the law means support of Stalin's repressions, which is inadmissible in the conditions of a democratic Russia." In their address to Boris Gryzlov, leader of RF State Duma, the refugees express hope that the deputies will not allow this.

For reference, earlier, representatives of the two nations had already raised the issue of a possible moratorium on articles 3 and 6 of the law "On Rehabilitation of Repressed Nations." In the second half of the last year, the North Ossetia parliament applied to the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation with a request to give a legal assessment to the correspondence of the law "On Rehabilitation of Repressed Nations" to the country's Constitution. In December of the same year, the Court declined the request of Ossetia MPs.