How people survive in Sernovodsk (Chechnya)

Action contre la Faim in Chechnya : to act and to testify
Implementing programmes for displaced Chechen, first in Ingushetia, since last January, teams of Action contre la Faim have been able to start food and hygienic items distributions, in West Chechnya villages, since March 2000. The first distribution took place in mid-March in Assinovskaia (Achkhoy-Martan district), targetting about 15,900 Internally Displaced People (IDPs) surviving in difficult conditions. On April 8-18 2000, the organisation carried out a second distribution for 14,286 IDPs in Sernovodsk.

Being the only organisation involved in large-scale food distributions in Chechnya, Action contre la Faim was asked, on Tuesday, April 4, 2000, to testify on humanitarian needs and activities inside Chechnya, at a congressional hearing before the US Senate.

30 displaced families interviewed in Sernovodsk

The following document is the report of the Sernovodsk distribution monitoring conducted by Action contre la Faim in Chechnya. In order to monitor the food distribution, and to understand better the humanitarian situation of displaced people, 30 families of IDPs, living in the private sector (i.e. people taken in by local inhabitants) in Sernovodsk, were visited and interviewed during the first week of May 2000.

This report gives the main conclusions of these interviews, focusing on the plight of displaced people, their vulnerability, the way they survive, their access to food as well as their plans for the future.

1 - Movements of people since October 1999

30 families of IDPs were visited and interviewed by the Action contre la Faim Monitor. Of these 30 families, 27 were from Groznyi, and three were from nearby villages in the Urus-Martan district: Komsomolskoe, Goiskoe, and Alkhan-Kala.

At the beginning of the present conflict, in September-October 1999, many people began to arrive in Sernovodsk, mostly to stay with their relatives. On 14 October 1999 the Federal forces began bombarding Sernovodsk. Virtually all the people there (local residents and IDPs) fled the village for Ingushetia, where they spent a period of time between one and four months.

Among the interviewed families, five had come to the village from their homes in Groznyi before the bombardments in Sernovodsk; they then left the village with their host-families, and subsequently returning with them to Sernovodsk, when the locals residents started returning to the village.

The other 25 families came to the village later, during the period between December 1999 and April 2000, i.e. when Sernovodsk as well as Assinovskaya was declared by the authorities to be a Safety Zone for IDPs. Sernovodsk is close to the border of Ingushetia (considered a safe place for IDPs from the Chechen Republic) and still has gas, electricity and water, though not everywhere.

When the bombardments started throughout the Chechen Republic, people left their homes and moved to different parts of the Republic. Only 7 interviewed families came to Sernovodsk directly from their own homes (5 families were from Groznyi, 1 family was from Komsomolskoe and 1 family was from Alkhan-Kala) to stay with their relatives or friends.

The other 23 interviewed families stated that they first had been in some other villages in Chechnya or in Ingushetia before coming to Sernovodsk. In Chechnya the people interviewed first went to stay with their relatives in the following villages: Goity, Kulary, Alkhazurovo, Komsomolskoe, Urus-Martan, Alkhan-Yurt, Achkhoi-Martan (Urus-Martan and Achkhoi-Martan districts of Chechnya). In Ingushetia some interviewed IDPs lived in the following villages/towns: Karabulak, Malgobek, Nesterovka, Sleptsovskaya, Nazran, Barsuki and Yandare. Whereas in Chechnya the IDPs always lived for free, in Ingushetia some of them had to pay rent. At least 8 interviewed families stated that they lived in rented houses and paid money (rents quoted were 1000 rur, 1500 rur, 2200 rur, 100 usd). They stayed in Ingushetia an average of 3-4 months.

All families of IDPs stated that at the moment they lived in Sernovodsk for free.

Among the 30 interviewed families, 20 families were staying at the houses of relatives or friends; the other 10 families didn't know anybody in Sernovodsk prior to arrival, but had just come to stay in the Safety Zone for IDPs. 19 families of IDPs were living with the host families in the same courtyard/household, either in the same house or in a separate one; 11 families lived in households alone without the owners. The local inhabitants of Sernovodsk greatly helped the arriving IDPs with different items: furniture, bed sets, dishes, clothes, food, etc.

All the interviewed IDPs stated that they had left their houses because of the bombardments in their villages/towns. At the beginning, as stated, some IDPs had gone to different places, but later they moved on to Sernovodsk for different reasons :

- bombardments started in the villages where they had gone at first;

- lack of money to pay for the rented houses in Ingushetia;

- poor economic situation of the host-families in Chechnya;

- information that Sernovodsk was declared a Safety Zone and that the IDPs would be provided with humanitarian food aid;

- no income at all: no money, no food;

- overcrowding in the place they had been before.

Several families stated that they had managed to take their personal possessions from their homes to the villages of their relatives, but later they lost everything when they were forced to flee a second time from the bombardments.

2 - Vulnerability of displaced people in Sernovodsk

According to the interviewed IDPs in the private sector, the situation of the IDPs taken in the collective centers (CCs) -the train and the Tekhnikum or technical school- is a little bit better than that of the IDPs living in host-families, in terms of vulnerability. The IDPs in the CCs receive food more or less regularly, every 7-10 days, though in very small quantities (one woman was registered in Tekhnikum; half of her family lived in the private sector and the other half lived in Tekhnikum, and she confirmed this point). As for the IDPs in the private sector, the last distribution they received was the Action contre la Faim one, on 9 April 2000.

- 13 interviewed IDPs families in the private sector lived and ate with the host-families;

- 6 families lived in the same household and ate separately, but the host-family shared some food with them;

- 11 families lived in separate courtyards and ate themselves, but the neighbours (who kept cows and poultry) helped them with milk, eggs, etc.

The local residents were in the same situation as the IDPs in private sector. On the 14 October 1999 the bombardments started and the local population evacuated Sernovodsk, most people not having time to take their winter food stock with them. After a few months when people came back to their houses they found that the village had been looted; these had taken not only valuable property but also food stocks. At this time people were short of food and money (they had spent everything in Ingushetia where they had to stay for several months).

3 - How people survive in Sernovodsk

The interviewed IDPs stated that they live mainly on the humanitarian aid they could get in the village. They had no income or possibilities to earn money at the time. According to them the humanitarian aid was neither sufficient nor regular. After the Federal Migration Service (FMS) reregistration in mid-March, during the period between 30 March and 15 May, they received from Emercom (Ministry of Emergency Situations/MChS) and FMS:

On 30.03.00:

- rice - 1,5 kg/person
- pearl barley porridge - 2 tins/person

On 08.04.00:

- flour - 1 kg/person
- tea - 100 gr./person
- tinned meat - 3 tins/person
- salt - 250 gr./person
- w. soap - 1 piece/person

These quantities are accurate as they are taken from the IDPs’ FMS Registration Cards, but at least five visited families did not receive all items or the full ration of food.

The IDPs also receive bread once every two days, half a loaf (350-400 gr.) per person; but the bread as a rule is not enough for all beneficiaries as it is delivered from Ingushetia through several checkpoints, and at each CP the soldiers take 10 or more loaves of bread from the FMS truck..

The interviewees were asked about the Action contre la Faim distribution that had started on 09.04.00.

27 families had received the full ration of the distribution:

- flour - 5 kg/person
- rice - 1,25 kg/person
- tinned meat - 2 tins/person (0,8 kg)
- veg. oil - 1 l/person
- sugar - 0,5 kg/person
- salt - 0,25 kg/person
- toilet soap - 2 pcs/person (0,2 kg)
- washing soap - 1 pc/person (0,3 kg)

3 interviewed IDPs families stated that they did not receive the Action contre la Faim distribution: 2 families were not reregistered at the time when the distribution was going on; the third family was from Alkhan-Kala (considered a "liberated village") and was refused registration, though they had lost everything in their village and had gotten official papers that their house was completely burnt.

The visited IDPs did not have much food in stock. Items noted in stock on average were:

- rice - 2 kg
- veg. oil - 1 l
- flour - 20-25 kg
- millet - 2 kg
- sugar - 500 gr.
- onions - 3-4 kg
- cabbage - 1-2 kg
- carrots - 1-2 kg

These quantities are given as an average per family, but it does not mean that all interviewed families have all these items.

In two families women stated that they were trying to stock some food to take back to Groznyi in the nearest future. Another woman stated that she had taken the last Action contre la Faim distribution to Groznyi where half of her family stayed; she added that she was staying in Sernovodsk waiting for the next Action contre la Faim distribution to have some food stocks to return to Groznyi, because humanitarian aid was the main source of food for her family.

In yet another family an old man borrowed some money, bought a bag of flour and sent it to Groznyi where a part of his family stayed.

The main sources of food inputs were as follows:

- Humanitarian aid from FMS, Emercom, Action contre la Faim (no other Non Governmental Organisation distribution in recent months);

- Assistance of local residents of the village;

- Limited help from relatives and friends from other villages/towns;

- Debts for food with small shopkeepers and in the market with stall owners;

- Debts (borrowed money from friends or relatives);

- Kitchen gardens: 8 families had planted some herbs, onions, garlic, radishes, and this was a good support for the family, as they could either sell or exchange some items;

- Sale of property: gold rings, earrings, watches; carpets; new clothes; TVs, VCRs, in order to buy food, medicines, and to pay for the rented houses (when they lived in Ingushetia).

6 - Availability of food and hygienic items

In Sernovodsk there is a small market at the entrance of the village. The market is working almost every day and different food and hygienic items are available in the market in small quantities. The products come to the market from Sleptsovskaya; the sellers buy the goods in the large Sleptsovskaya wholesale market, bring them to the village and sell them at a 1-3 rur markup.

The prices in the market have not changed at all recently, and remain stable. On May 11 a price monitoring was carried out in the Sernovodsk market:

Though all these items are physically available in the market, the abilities of local residents, much less of IDPs, to purchase food from the market are limited due to lack of money.

IDPs buy food on the market very irregularly, once or twice a month. As a rule they buy only basic and essential food items such as tea, sugar, vegetables, and hygienic items such as soap, washing powder, etc.

7 - Coping Strategies

Though the possibilities for conducting business in the village were limited even for residents, several families of IDPs could find a way to earn money:

- In one family a woman borrowed some vegetable seeds from her neighbour (local resident) and sold vegetables in the market thus earning 5-10 rur per day for a family of 19 people. This was at the beginning of spring. They spent the money on food only.

- One woman was selling food in the local market. At the beginning of the conflict when she came to Sernovodsk she had money with her, and she decided to start this small business, as there was no other way to live. She bought food in the great Sleptsovskaya wholesale market, brought it back to Sernovodsk and sold it at a 2-3 rur markup. Her income was not regular, but varied greatly: sometimes from 30 rur to 70 rur per day, sometimes she earned only 5 rur per day, or even less, for a family of 6 members.

- Another woman was also selling small food items in the market. She did not go to Sleptsovskaya to buy food, but just gave her money to those going to the Sleptsovskaya market, who then brought her food back to Sernovodsk (she bought very limited quantities of items). Thus she did not spend money for the bus. She stated that she earned every day about 10-15 rur and she kept some food for her own family.

- One family received a cow as a gift from their grandmother in a neighbouring village, and it was a great help for the family as they could sometimes sell milk as needed.

- In another family a woman was selling sunflower seeds on the market and earned about 5-10 rur per day for a family of 5 people. With the money she usually bought tea and sugar in the market.

- In one family a man owed a large truck and twice managed to transport some belongings for people in the village and earn some money. Once he delivered food for the Action contre la Faim distribution from Nazran to Sernovodsk. One day he transported some belongings for one family to another village, but he had to pay 50 rur at each checkpoint, and he decided that it was not worth doing this job any more.

8 - Entitlement support

All the visited families were questioned about social support. Most of interviewed IDPs received nothing, though they had heard that a compensation of 360 rur for pensioners and child reimbursements of 58 rur were being paid in Groznyi and some villages/towns. However to verify this means to go there and back, i.e. to spend about 100 rur for the bus, and people were wondering whether it was worth going or not, as they were not sure if the payments were still going on.

However in one family one pensioner had received 360 rur as a compensation, not as a pension. In another family two old people went to Groznyi to find out the situation with pensions.

9 - Health care and sanitary environment

In Sernovodsk there are two types of medical institutions:

- a working District Hospital.
- two Medical Points for IDPs in the Train and Tekhnikum CCs.

Limited access to medicines

Some IDPs stated that they had been in the hospital to see doctors. The examination was free for all people; however the prescribed medicines have to be bought. The hospital has no stocks, and some medicines are expensive; the IDPs cannot afford the money.

In 3 families IDPs borrowed money to buy medications; in 2 families they did not buy any medicines at all and treated sick people at home as they could; in 4 families women said that they preferred not to go to the hospital at all, as they thought it was a waste of time due to the lack of medicines.

In 3 families IDPs living in the private sector stated that when they asked for some medicines in the hospital, they were sent to the medical points of the CCs; but in fact these medical points have no stock of medicines either. One woman said that she once received two tablets for free in the Tekhnikum medical point.

One man furthermore added that he had his tooth taken out in the hospital for 50 rur.

No direct water supply for part of the displaced population

Most of the village has running water in taps, but the part of the village that lies on the hill has no running water; the water cannot reach that level and the local residents there have to buy water. These people have built deep concrete-lined holes in their gardens, which they fill with water. A truck delivers the water to them; one truckload (4 tons of water) costs 70 rur.

At least 7 families of IDPs state that they take water from the wells in the private sector for free. In one host-family the owner of the house (not far from the Train CC) invites IDPs to take water from her well.

The situation with water for IDPs in train is not good. They take water from a pump-tap not far from the train and use it for all purposes: to cook, to wash etc. IDPs state that the water is salted and barely drinkable.

Sanitation: people state that the situation is a little bit better than during the winter. It is warm enough outside and they can wash and bath in the yards or in sheltered areas; however they are very short of hygienic products: shampoo, washing soap, washing powder, etc.

10 - Displaced people’s plans for future

All the interviewed IDPs' families had already been in their home villages/towns, and knew what had happened to their houses and flats.

- 11 families stated that their houses were destroyed to a certain extent, but they could be reconstructed or repaired.

- 19 families stated that their houses were completely ruined or burnt. 2 of these families had lost their houses for the second time.

- 17 families would like to return to Groznyi. They said that if they had one or two rooms ready to move in to they would return to their houses and would try somehow to build or reconstruct the rest.

- 6 families did not want to return to their homes, as they judged the situation in Groznyi unstable and unsafe for their children/teenagers (as a rule these do not have passports).

- 7 families of IDPs did not have any plans for the future at all, stating their plans would depend on the economic and political situation in the Republic. If the government started to pay reimbursements for the destroyed houses they would return to their homes, but at the moment they had no means for reconstruction. In the meanwhile they were planning to stay in Sernovodsk.

- 4 young mothers stated that they preferred to remain in Sernovodsk rather than to go back to Groznyi. They though that the ecological and sanitary situation in Groznyi was not good for their small children.