Red Cross president to discuss Chechnya with Putin

The President of the Geneva-based International Committee of the Red Cross, Jakob Kellenberger (pictured) is meeting members of Russia's government this week, including the president-elect, Vladimir Putin, for discussions on Chechnya.

The President of the Geneva-based International Committee of the Red Cross, Jakob Kellenberger (pictured), is to hold a meeting in Moscow this week with the Russian government, including the president-elect, Vladimir Putin. Kellenberger’s meeting will focus on the humanitarian situation in Chechnya, where heavy fighting continues between rebels and Russian troops.

The ICRC is seeking access to Russian detention centres in the breakaway republic. Russian forces are holding large numbers of Chechens suspected of either being rebel fighters, or of supporting them. Part of the organisation’s mission is tracing those captured during conflicts, and ensuring they are treated well in custody.

International humanitarian aid organisations have faced difficulties in delivering help in Chechnya. Meanwhile, the fighting has led around 1,000 new refugees from the conflict to flee to neighbouring Ingushetia over the past week.

Ingushetia has taken in most of the approximately 250,000 refugees who have escaped Chechnya. Despite free transport offered by Russian forces to return the refugees to Russian-controlled areas in Chechnya, very few people have chosen to go home.

The ICRC pulled its international delegates out of Chechnya in December 1996, after six members of its mission were murdered there, at the end of the first Russian campaign in the republic. In November 1999 the humanitarian organisation also withdrew its local staff.

The ICRC spokeswoman, Suzanne Berger, said the organisation was extremely concerned by the events in Chechnya, and was looking for on-the-ground access in order to assess the situation and bring aid to both detainees and the population in general. However, she also said the ICRC needed guarantees from the Russian authorities that the security of its teams would be assured.

Berger said that any mission to Chechnya would be made up of local ICRC staff only, rather than international delegates. She also said the ICRC would work closely with the Chechen branch of the Russian Red Cross.

She confirmed that the Red Cross had requested a meeting with Putin prior to the Russian elections, when he was the country’s acting president. Putin was elected president last Sunday with 52 per cent of the vote.

Berger said that a high-level encounter between the ICRC and the Russian authorities was essential groundwork for a humanitarian mission in Chechnya.

swissinfo with agencies