One year after the Kremlin's troops launched a big assault on Grozny to crush rebel Chechnya's independence drive, the city stands as a frigid, devastated memorial to the brutal fighting. Thousands of homeless people are shivering through a second winter in basements, bomb shelters or other makeshift homes, testaments to unfulfilled promises to restore the city. The labyrinth-like bomb shelter housed about 250 people at the height of last January's onslaught, when Russian planes and artillery pounded the city centre to try to smoke out rebel fighters. Now only the unluckiest refugees remain. The cellar's reeking cement-walled rooms are littered with food tins and dirty, torn matresses.
Light comes from burning bits of cotton and other garbage.
Tamara cooks over a open fire on the now snowy ground in sub-zero temperatures, the main course usually rice or bean handouts from humanitarian aid groups. The family mongrel, Boars, which means 'wolf' in Chechen , limps around on three paws, himself a invalid from a shrapnel wound suffered during the bombardment. Now you see how we live. Russian President Boris Yeltsin has said Grozny and the Chechen economy will be rebuilt, but there are few signs. Tamara said she went to the new Russian-installed Chechen government dozens of times but gave up after officials were unable to offer any help whatsoever.