13 April 2005, 07:35
IDPs number 210,000
The highest outflow of refugees occurred in 2001, says Mompash Machuyev, chairman of the Internally Displaced Persons Committee at the government of Chechnya. Their number was then 369,000. Every third Chechnya resident had to leave his home, including 198,000 who moved inside Chechnya, 149,000 going to Ingushetia and 22,000 to other Russian regions. The number of IDPs who have come back to Chechnya over all these years is 235,000. All tent camps in Chechnya and Ingushetia have been dismantled.
The current number of those with an IDP status is 210,000, including 186,000 in Chechnya and 24,000 in Ingushetia, Grozny-inform says. An estimated 198,000 internally displaced persons are in Chechnya currently.