Chechen Civilians Remain Stranded By Ron Synovitz Thousands of Chechen civilians remain trapped at the republic's border with Ingushetia, blocked by Russian forces. Thousands of Chechens remain trapped at the border with the republic of Ingushetia today despite Russian promises to let them pass. Moscow has said it had opened the border this week, but police have only let a few refugees through. Another 420 Chechens were allowed back into the breakaway republic.
Refugees also complain that they are being treated harshly by Russian soldiers.
Vladimir Kalamanov, the chief of Russia's Federal Migration Service, faced reporters in Moscow today to explain the discrepancies between what Moscow claims is happening at the border crossing and what correspondents are reporting. I will not comment on the conduct of the military at the Ingush border-crossing point. Our mistake was to allow the process of re-establishment of this crossing point to take too long. That's the problem. The problem is not that we do not want to let people cross this point in one or the other direction.