North Caucasus: returns up, few leaving

Briefing notes

North Caucasus: returns up, few leaving

This is a summary of what was said by UNHCR spokesperson – to whom quoted text may be attributed – at today's press briefing at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.

31 March 2000

Over the past few days, the trickle of people leaving Chechnya has dried up while the number of those going back to Chechnya has increased. On Wednesday, some 700 persons went back to Chechnya - the highest daily return figure since last December. The day before, 260 people went back to Grozny's Oktryabski and Staropromislovski districts. On Friday (today), another UNHCR relief convoy with mattresses, blankets, tents and stoves arrived in Ingushetia's capital Nazran.

UNHCR has also supplied 150 tents to accommodate several thousand people recently displaced from southern Chechnya in a newly built tent city in the Ingush town of Karabulak.