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Chechnya Enters Zone of European Interests
// The EU promised to donate money for republic’s restoration
Humanitarian aid
Yesterday, EU delegation headed by European Commission Director for Eastern Europe Hugues Mingarelli visited Grozny. Chechen authorities made it known to the guests they were expected to do more than just offer humanitarian aid. Europeans promised to direct money to restore the republic’s social sphere, but did not name the amount.
Last time a foreign delegation of such high level visited Chechnya was in January 2004. At that time UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland visited Grozny. The result of that visit was the decision to move the office of the UN mission helping Chechnya from Ingushetia to Grozny on March 1, 2004. By this time Chechen authorities reported that all refugees from neighboring Ingushetia had been voluntarily displaced into the republic. However, representatives of the refugees, as well as workers of international humanitarian missions stated that residents of tent camps were simply forced to move, by having cut off their channels to humanitarian aid.
A scandal preceded the move of the UN mission to Grozny. Head of Ingushetia Migration Service Nikolay Pomeshenko accused missions of certain foreign humanitarian organizations in activities directed against stabilization of situation in Chechnya and Ingushetia. “Judge for yourselves,” Pomeshenko complained during winder 2003 to Kommersant, “the mission rents an office in Nazran for couple thousands of dollars, employs a large number of staff, who drive luxurious cars, and their whole activity comes down to providing water for showers of one of the camps. Nothing more!” The RF special representative on human rights control in Chechnya Abdul-Khakim Sultygov echoed that criticism suggesting “a need for thorough examination of sources of financing for private human rights organization, including those acting under the protection of international status, as well as their conformity to their stated rules, and goals.” As result a dozen and a half of 30 international missions were refused the right to any activity on the republic’s territory. Thereby Chechen authorities let foreign organizations know that Chechnya was in no need of humanitarian sops, but rather needed serious investments into the development of the social sphere of the region.
Europeans must have decided to respond to that signal. Yesterday, EU delegation headed by director European Commission Director for Eastern Europe of Hugues Mingarelli visited Grozny. “The main goal of our mission at the North Caucasus is to consider the possibility of transition from providing humanitarian aid to assistance in economic restoration of Ingushetia,” Mingarelli said. He added that the EU would continue to offer humanitarian aid, although, they “would like to help the process of economic restoration of North Caucasus outside the limits of the aid.” At the same time Mingarelli refused to name the concrete volume of money, which the EU is willing to share with the republic. “It is still too early to name any concrete figures, right now we are talking about preliminary research and analysis of the situation, and only after that it will be decided which is the most demanding field for this kind of aid,” he said. Mingarelli especially emphasized that the EU would direct its assistance in the priority area, determined by the republic’s authority – healthcare and education.
“This initiative deserves to be approved,” Chechnya President Alu Alkhanov said yesterday, emphasizing that he intended to discuss a number of commercial projects with the EU Commission. He told the delegation members that what was needed first of all was to construct new healthcare, education and sport institutions. To support his point, the European guests were taken on a little excursion around ruinous Grozny.
Chechens have no illusions about the intentions of the Europeans. “We’ve seen enough of these commissions,” provost of Grozny University Lema Turpalov told Kommersant yesterday. “They come, look, listen, and leave, and we are left to face our problems alone.”
Musa Muradov
All the Article in Russian as of Apr. 14, 2005
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