NORTH OSSETIAN-INGUSH TALKS MARK TIME.

Governmental delegationsof the North Ossetian and Ingush republics, headed by Prime MinistersYuri Beragov and Mukharbek Didigov, met in Nazran to discuss therepatriation of the Ingush forcibly expelled from North Ossetia’sPrigorodnyi rayon in 1992. The Ingush side proposed a repatriationschedule whereby 7,000 Ingush would return to 16 formerly Ingushlocalities in that rayon, as a start toward the repatriation ofthe 60,000 to 70,000 Ingush refugees. The North Ossetian side,insisting on a more "gradual" repatriation to only 8localities, said it would not guarantee the safety of those returning,and would not commit itself to making housing available to returningrefugees, Interfax and Russian TV reported August 7 through 9.It is unlikely an agreement will be reached anytime soon. NorthOssetia, tacitly supported by Moscow, has stonewalled all alongon this issue. Boris Yeltsin’s 1994 decree on a pilot repatriationprogram, which would have relocated even fewer Ingushetians toonly 4 villages, has also remained essentially a dead letter,and last month’s meeting between the North Ossetian and Ingushpresidents, Akhsarbek Galazov and Ruslan Aushev, also ended withoutresults.

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