The UN High Commissioner for Refugees Mr Ruud Lubbers began a series of talks with Russian officials today to try to relieve the situation of Chechen refugees in the south of the country, Russian media reported.
His meeting with Interior Minister Mr Boris Gryzlov was his first with a senior Russian official since returning from a day-long trip yesterday to Ingushetia, the Russian republic bordering Chechnya, where he visited tent camps and spoke with some of the 150,000 Chechens living there.
The UN envoy discussed with Mr Gryzlov the prospects for increasing humanitarian aid to the region and helping Chechen refugees and internally displaced persons to return to their homes, an interior ministry spokesman said, as quoted by the ITAR-TASS news agency.
The Russian authorities are keen to encourage the refugees in Ingushetia to return to their homeland in order to boost the impression that the situation there is normal.
Many refugees told Mr Lubbers yesterday that they were afraid to return to Chechnya because of Russian military abuses.
The Ingush authorities have pledged that no displaced Chechens will be forcibly repatriated.
Mr Lubbers was also due today to meet Emergency Situations Minister Mr Vladimir Rushailo, and before leaving Moscow tomorrow he is expected to have talks with Prime Minister Mr Mikhail Kasyanov and Foreign Minister Mr Igor Ivanov.
The humanitarian situation in Afghanistan will also figure on his agenda in talks with Russian officials.
In addition to Chechen refugees and displaced persons, Russia hosts some 21,000 recognised refugees and has given residential rights to 210,000 refugees from countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States, the loose grouping of 12 former Soviet republics.
AFP