Smoke without fire

The conflict between Chechen refugees and Ingush is exaggerated

For the fourth time in the last week, alarming messages have been received from Ingushetia. After Russian helicopters shelled civilians in the village of Arshty, wounded militants were found in one of the Ingush mountain boarding houses, then a Kamaz was blown up on the Rostov-Baku highway. Yesterday, news agencies, citing the military press center in Mozdok, reported that clashes (including casualties) between local residents and Chechen refugees have become more frequent in the republic. Allegedly, this is happening in temporary accommodation towns near the village of Sleptsovskaya and in Nazran itself, as well as in the Karabulak region. All these reports were immediately denied by the President of Ingushetia, Ruslan Aushev. By the end of the day, reports of clashes were no longer confirmed in Mozdok, and Rosinformtsentr replied that it did not have such information. The alarm turned out to be false.

“Clashes between local residents and refugees at the everyday level occur constantly, usually involving young people 15-17 years old,” says Akhmet Barakhoev, an employee of the local branch of the Memorial human rights center. “There is no smoke without fire, but of course there is no talk of any casualties.” Employees of the department of the Republican Migration Service in Sleptsovskaya, who work directly with the Severny and Sputnik camps, where about 9 thousand refugees from Chechnya are housed, also agree with him. “People are tense,” says one employee. - There are twice as many people here as there were before the war, only a few refugees are returning to Chechnya. And by winter they will stop leaving, after all, here there is at least a roof over your head.”

The appearance of reports of clashes between locals and refugees also raises eyebrows among the Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of Ingushetia, Isa Tamaskhanov. According to him, the situation in the refugee camps worries the republican security forces much less than the increasingly frequent incidents in the regions bordering Chechnya. Mr. Tamaskhanov says that the population is afraid of the republic being drawn into a conflict zone. “After all, civilians who had nothing to do with the shelling of Russian helicopters died in Arshty,” he emphasized. — The Ingush were not accused of anything this time. However, in most such cases, it is forgotten that the Asinovskoye Gorge, where militants from Chechnya mainly find themselves, is the area of ​​responsibility of the federal troops, and not the Ingush police.”

Ivan SUKHOV