WHITHER HUMARITARIAN AID?

Publication: North Caucasus Weekly Volume: 2 Issue: 23

On June 3, NTV reported that humanitarian aid from both international and Russian charitable organizations is arriving in Djohar (Grozny) almost every day. Twice a week, the staff of the Russian military commandant’s office in Leninsky District of the capital is assigned to escort these aid convoys. According to one of the officers, Vyacheslav Makarov, this aid consists of such large items as “several hundred cubic meters of timber, over 500,000 roofing slates, and tens of thousands of foodstuffs.” What happens to the aid once it is delivered? Makarov “does not know where it all goes once it is unloaded.” Apparently, the aid is not used for the purpose for which it has been donated but, rather, is illegally appropriated and then sold for a profit in the market places of Djohar (NTV International, BBC Monitoring, June 3).

On June 7, E.P. Gusarov, deputy Russian minister of foreign affairs, met in Moscow with the leader of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s Assistance Group to Chechnya, Aleksandru Cornea of Romania. The two diplomats solved a number of problems connected with the speedy return of the OSCE Assistance Group to Chechnya. The group will shortly be based in the village of Zamenskoe, Nadterechny District, and office space has already been readied for it. The group will be protected by a special armed unit attached to the Russian Ministry of Justice. Questions of transport and communications–including satellite communications–have been agreed upon. The group could move to Znamenskoe as early as next week (Department of the Press and Information of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, June 7).