Grozny, Russia
Refugees who fled the fighting in Chechnya over the past few years are now being forced back into the devastated province, the aid group Doctors Without Borders said this week. Moscow officials have been pointing to the return of thousands of refugees from neighboring Ingushetia as proof that the war between Russian troops and Chechen guerrillas is over and normalcy has returned. But the international aid group said Russian authorities have simply kicked the refugees out of the camps. “People have been returning to Chechnya against their will,” a Doctors Without Borders report said, “giving up under tremendous pressure and without other choice.” Most of Chechnya’s infrastructure was destroyed in the war, which killed more than 50,000 people and displaced more than 200,000.
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