(26 Jan 2000) Eng/Russ/Nat
The U-N says that thousands of Chechen refugees could die or fall seriously ill due to a chronic medicine shortage, sub-zero temperatures and atrocious living conditions.
In the overcrowded tent cities of Ingushetia, the situation is so dramatic doctors fear a flu or tuberculosis epidemic is about to sweep through the camps.
Meanwhile, U-N representatives in Ingushetia have admitted they've been slow to tackle the Chechen refugee crisis.
The onset of the Russian winter in the northern Caucasus with its sub-zero temperatures are adding to the difficulties faced by the refugees.
In Ingushetia's overcrowded tent cities, thousands are battling against flu and other common illnesses which would in other circumstances be easy to combat.
The living conditions are so bad, doctors here are scared of tuberculosis and flu epidemics may sweep through the camps.
For the Chechen refugees who have fled Russia's military onslaught in the rebel republic, the only treatment they receive is from a group of doctors and nurses based in a tent in the camp at Sleptsovskaya.
Said Visurov, a doctor from Grozny, has spent the last 3 months working for the charity Medecins du Monde in Ingushetia.
He told APTN up to 100 sick refugees visit his tent everyday.
Visurov says he and his colleagues are not receiving the medicines and equipment needed to treat their patients properly.
SOUNDBITE: (Russian)
"The people are living in huge numbers in the tents, concentrated in a great number and this is a suitable foundation for the spread of epidemics. If one of them gets the flu, then as a rule everyone in the tent gets ill. When they call the doctor to one sick person, you then have to examine just about everyone (in the tent)."
SUPER CAPTION: Said Visurov, doctor
According to Visurov's personal estimate, some 80 per cent of refugees in the Sleptsovskaya camp are suffering from some kind of sickness.
But his assessment is hampered by the lack of specialized equipment.
13-year-old Ruslan Amokov is from Servnovodsk.
He is suffering from appendicitis, but doctors here can't do much since they don't have the necessary equipment to diagnose this.
He and others must deal with their problems as best they can.
SOUNDBITE: (Russian)
"Some people use vodka or spirit as medicine, some people use hot tea, but some people are just lying there and waiting for the end. That's the situation here."
SUPER CAPTION: Timur Aliev, from Grozny
On Wednesday, Bhairaja Panday, the representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in the northern Caucasus, admitted the world's aid agencies have been slow to tackle the Chechen refugee crisis.
But he said, organisations such as U-N-I-C-E-F and the World Health Organisation, or W-H-O, are working to improve the situation.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"All this has been started now. The appropriate response mechanisms are being worked out. I think the W-H-O and UNICEF are getting to grips with that problem."
SUPER CAPTION: Bhairaja Panday, representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in the northern Caucasus
Most of the estimated 250-thousand refugees who have fled the fighting in Chechnya are in camps just across the border in Ingushetia.
A new decree from Moscow states that food and shelter should be withheld from those refugees from parts of Chechnya now under Russian control in order to try and force those people to return home.
But many Chechens are now too scared to leave the camps - even it means remaining here in Ingushetia.
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