Chechnya’s offer to shelter Ossetians not taken heed of
Dzokhar-Khala/Agency Caucasus – The announcement of the Russian-backed administration of Chechnya that it would be ready to shelter 1 000 South Ossetian refugees was not evidently taken heed of by the refugees. South Ossetian refugees were sent out to several republics of the Caucasus, except for Chechnya. South Ossetian refugees did not want to take shelter in Chechnya, a human rights organization worker told Kavkazky Uzel: “So far as I know, South Ossetian refugees did not want to go to Chechnya temporarily; however, some of them went to our neighbouring republics, especially to Dagestan and Kabardino-Balkaria.”
There are thought to be two possible reasons for this: One is connected to the Beslan school hostage crisis that took place in North Ossetia in 2004 and the other one is the fear among the South Ossetians that Chechens may unwelcome them because of the fact that Ossetian troops in the Russian army took part in military operations of ‘ethnic cleansing’ in Chechnya during the first as well as second wars between Chechnya and Russia. The Chechens are, however, against using the past events as an excuse for being hostile towards South Ossetians at a time when they need help. “The Chechens have never rejected those in need of help,” said Salavdi Suleymanov, 68, who is from Dzokhar-Khala. “How can we ever have a face-off with the civilians who are not different from us at all, whether they be from Ossetia, or from Ingushetiya, or from Russia? The normal civilians have got nothing to fight about; it is, as usual, only ‘the seniors’ that do the fighting about things of little or no importance instead of fulfilling their responsibilities duly. I was also a refugee and I perfectly know what it means to lose everything in one hour only.”
As the Chechen administration announced that it would shelter the refugees, 400 young Chechens donated blood for those injured in South Ossetia. Additionally, the administration of Chechnya sent 67 tones of food and beverage in humanitarian aid to the refugees in Vladikavkaz, capital of North Ossetia.
