September 13, 2002	Friday	Rajab 5, 1423

GROZNY: When the Zhatakhanov family left a refugee camp in Russia’s south to return to their native Chechnya, officials ushering them onto trucks promised them rebuilt homes, food and a peaceful life.

Instead, with most of the razed Chechen capital Grozny still in ruins, Assia Zhatakhanova and her children have lived in a cramped room in a half-restored hostel since June, sharing a kitchen with 10 other families.

Basic aid has failed to materialize and the families housed in the shabby 10-storey block of flats say they live in constant fear of brutal Russian military operations designed to flush out rebel fighters hiding among civilians.

Zhatakhanova is one of many refugees who say they were lured back to Chechnya to foster a false impression, projected by the Kremlin, that life there is returning to normal.

Pro-Moscow officials in Chechnya contend that thousands of refugees are flocking back to the region where they say a three-year campaign by the Russian military to break separatist resistance is winding down.

The mass return of refugees who fled across the border would give weight to Moscow’s claims that life is flourishing in Russian-controlled Grozny.

But Zhatakhanova says life in Chechnya — where Russian troops and Chechen officials suffer daily losses — is far from “back to normal”.

In Ingushetia, the region to Chechnya’s west where tens of thousands of civilians sought refuge after Moscow’s troops returned to the breakaway region in 1999, refugees say they are slowly being forced out of tent camps by officials who have cut their electricity and water supplies.

According to an agreement signed in May between the pro-Moscow Chechen administration and Ingush President Murat Zyazikov, all refugees should leave Ingushetia and return home by the end of September. Few, however, say they are keen to return to their bullet-scarred, destroyed towns in Chechnya.—Reuters