ReliefWeb

Ruslan Isayev, North Caucasus - The Ingush police detained thirteen Chechen refugees on Wednesday, suspecting them of being involved in crimes committed in Ingushetia at the beginning of this year. The refugees lived in a dairy farm at the outskirts of the town of Nazran.
The arrest was carried out early in the morning. Armed people wearing camouflage uniforms burst into the farm, housing more than a thousand people. Witnesses reported that without providing any identification whatsoever, the policemen were entering rooms and conducting away young people - simply everyone that happened to be in sight. Then they ordered all of them, without even allowing them to put some warm clothes on, into the military jeeps and took them to the district police station.

The Ingush police suspect the Chechens of killing two traffic officers two days ago and kidnapping a local woman on December 30. The police were taking the refugees' fingerprints and interrogated them for hours. Despite the promises to let the young people go by noon, they have not been released by 2 p.m.

The relatives of the detained Chechens consider the whole affair a provocation. A young woman named Roza thinks that the refugees were arrested because of their nationality. "Once you are a Chechen, they automatically see you as a bandit and killer," she said. According to the inhabitants of the farm, all the thirteen people are construction workers, toiling away at construction sites. (P/T)