Many of these refugees have spent days waiting to cross the checkpoint

November 5, 1999
Web posted at: 9:56 a.m. EST (1456 GMT)

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From staff and wire reports

CHECHNYA-INGUSHETIA BORDER, Russia (CNN) -- With Russian warplanes still pounding suspected rebel targets in Chechnya, Russian authorities on Friday pledged "full security" to refugees who returned home to "liberated Chechen villages" in the war-town region.

But for every refugee waiting on the Chechnya-Igushetia border to go back home, 10 more waited in the cold rain on the other side to flee their shellshocked homes.

They fled fighting between Russian troops and Islamic militants who have operated out of Chechnya since the 1994-1996 war that left Chechnya essentially in their control. Russian officials said planes had made more than 100 sorties in the last 24 hours, killing 100 rebels and damaging their bases and camps.

With the Russian army now in control of the northern third of Chechnya, Emergency Situations Minister Sergei Shoigu urged Chechens to return home.

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"The government will guarantee full security to people who return to liberated Chechen villages," he said, adding that Russia planned to set up well-protected camps to accommodate the returnees.

The Russians insist they are not targeting civilians, but on the road into Ingushetia, 10,000 refugees filled a seven-kilometer (four-mile) line to safety.

"It's impossible to stay in the village," said Tatyana Durchiyeva from the village of Arshty. "You can't let your cow out. The (Russian) soldiers steal everything ... They drink vodka and trample our vegetable plots with their tanks."

Russian troops are engaged in a full-scale offensive against the militants who have twice invaded the neighboring Russian republic of Dagestan. Russia's aim, it says, is to crush the rebels -- whom it also blames for a series of deadly bombings in Russia -- and bring Chechnya fully back into Russian control.

Chechnya gained de facto independence following the 1994-1996 war, which ended with a humiliating Russian withdrawal from the breakaway republic.

As the fighting continues, the number of refugees continues to grow

Some 200,000 people have fled the region since the Russian offensive began September 30, the vast majority into impoverished Ingushetia, where overburdened authorities are nearly unable to accommodate them.

A spokesman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said the agency is planning to send more convoys of aid to the area, including shipments of winterized tents.

"It looks very much like some of these people will be spending the winter in tents," said Kris Janowski.

Ingushetia President Ruslan Aushev toured the border checkpoint with Shoigu on Thursday, where they were accosted by angry refugees who wanted to return to Chechnya in search of missing relatives.

Russia closed the checkpoint last week and reopened it on Wednesday. Russia insisted they had relaxed the border restrictions, but CNN's Steve Harrigan reported that crossings were slow and tedious. Russian soldiers called out the names -- one-by-one -- of those who would be allowed to re-enter their homeland.

After several hours Friday morning, only three or four buses had crossed into Ingushetia, and three or four others into Chechnya, Harrigan said, reporting from the border.

Correspondent Steve Harrigan, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report, written by KC Wildmoon.

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