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Chechen refugees left without bread
MOSCOW, Jan. 12 (UPI) -- Thousands of Chechen refugees who found shelter in the neighboring province of Ingushetia have been left without bread, possibly deepening the crisis there.
A local bakery halted bread supplies to refugee camps because of the bills that have not been paid for months by Russia's Nationalities and Migration Policy Ministry, RTR television network reported Saturday.
The network carried a report from a refugee camp located near the town of Nazran in Ingushetia's Sunzhensky district, stating that the refugees had not received bread supplies for three days.
According to a federally-funded program, the refugees are entitled to half a loaf of bread daily, but even that amount has become too costly for the local bakery which has been delivering about 5,000 loaves daily, running into debts in recent months because of unsettled payments.
In February, the report added, the bread factory will cancel the contract it has with federal authorities. Other businesses in the area that provide food, gas and electricity supplies could follow suit, RTR said.
"Today, the outstanding payments for bread deliveries make up 80 million rubles ($2.6 million)," Magomet Gireyev, a provincial head for the Russian Nationalities and Migration Policy Ministry.
"The overall amount owed by federal authorities to the businesses that provide food and accommodation to displaced persons makes up over 200 million rubles ($6.5 million)," added Gireyev.
Ingushetia harbors some 150,000 officially registered Chechen refugees and an additional 20,000 are believed to be residing in the province without proper registration.
Most of the refugees fled their homes in the fall of 1999, when Russian troops rolled into Chechnya to quell the rebels who made frequent incursions into neighboring Dagestan.
Many homes and public bulidings throughout the breakaway province were devastated by the Russian troops' heavy shelling, urging Moscow to fund the construction projects restoring the public sector and providing housing for those who fled Chechnya.
Meanhwile, a team of financial inspectors and auditors arrived Saturday in the Chechen capital, Grozny, to review the provincial government's spending of federal funds transferred for supporting construction projects, Interfax news agency reported.
The commission is made of Interior Ministry, Federal Security Service, Tax Ministry and Tax Police employees, the report added.
According to Chechnya's government head Stanislav Ilyasov, a "transparent program of the building works' financing has allowed us to control the spending and ensured fulfillment of building contracts."
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