| Chechen refugees leave Georgia An interdepartmental group of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Ministry of Emergency Situations and the Federal Migration Service of Russia and the government of Chechnya is completing its two-week work in Georgia. In the coming days, 81 Chechen refugees will return to their homeland. 187 applications for return have already been submitted. The documents of 106 applicants will be additionally checked to confirm Russian citizenship. A Vremya Novostey source at the Russian Embassy in Georgia reported that this week the time and route for the return of refugees - by plane or buses - will be determined.
Now there are about 300 Chechens in Pankisi; a few years ago there were about eight thousand. According to a representative of the Russian diplomatic mission, “almost all the refugees were ready to return, but the Pankisi Wahhabis are trying to disrupt this process, many got scared and took their applications back.” Our interlocutor said: “When the Russian delegation began working on the spot with the lists, these bearded men even blocked the police station in Duisi (the largest of the 16 villages of the Pankisi Gorge, considered its “capital” - Ed. ), where we were receiving refugees. Then the police pushed them back, but they still grouped nearby, intimidating people. There was a case where they even beat a Chechen woman, but on the second day she still brought an application to return.”
The Georgian authorities are happy to finally close the issue of the Pankisi Gorge, which not only significantly damaged relations with Moscow, but also caused reproaches from US allies for patronizing terrorists. Just four years ago, the Georgian authorities admitted that up to 900 militants from Chechnya and international terrorists were hiding in the gorge.
When the gorge was cleared of the “breadwinners”—humanitarian aid was received in Pankisi from various organizations during the militants’ stay there—ordinary refugees began to return home. Those who remain exist mainly due to the support of ethnic Chechens - the Kists - who settled in Pankisi back in the nineteenth century. Providing jobs for Kist residents became a headache for the Georgian authorities. Some are taken into the Ministry of Internal Affairs in order to better control the situation on the spot. Mikhail VIGNANSKY, Tbilisi |
|
