20/6/2003
Victims of conflict in Chechnya receive EU help

The European Commission has approved a €16.5 million humanitarian aid package to support victims of the ongoing conflict in Chechnya. The recipients will include internally displaced persons (IDPs) and vulnerable groups in central and southern Chechnya and IDPs in Ingushetia and Daghestan. Funds are being allocated via the Humanitarian Aid Office, ECHO, a service of the European Commission under the responsibility of Commissioner Poul Nielson. Assistance to vulnerable groups will be provided in the following sectors: food and non-food items, medical support, shelter and water/sanitation, education, psychological assistance, mine awareness, protection and security. Programmes will be implemented by international agencies operating in the region. Since the beginning of the current crisis in autumn 1999, ECHO has allocated over €110 million to the victims, making the EU the largest donor in the region.

Commenting on this latest financing decision, Mr Nielson said: “Civilians continue to be the main victims of this conflict, and many people are entirely dependent on humanitarian aid. I call on the Russian authorities to take more seriously the obligations to secure access for aid workers to the innocent victims of this crisis. Despite a highly insecure environment and difficult working conditions, our partners are doing all they can to ensure that vital assistance reaches those who need it most in Chechnya, Ingushetia and Daghestan”.

Continued violence has led to widespread physical and psychological destruction, the displacement of an estimated 100,000 IDPs into neighbouring republics, notably Ingushetia and Daghestan, and has caused the internal displacement of approximately 150,000 people within Chechnya. The conflict has completely disrupted all economic activity and the socio-medical infrastructure inside Chechnya.

This additional financial support will help alleviate the nutritional, health, physical and psychological needs of more than 600,000 people, and provide basic and supplementary food for the most vulnerable. The decision will also fund primary and mother and child health care, and support surgery, traumatology and rehabilitation services for the war-wounded and disabled. It will help create child-friendly spaces in Grozny and provide basic and vocational education, psychological assistance and mine-awareness training. The funding will ensure that IDPs have access to decent shelter and water/sanitation facilities, and will help to protect the civilian population.

It should be noted that the implementation of these programmes largely depends on the will of the Russian and Ingush authorities to let ECHO's implementing partners answer the needs, especially in the shelter sector. ECHO-funded agencies are currently prevented from building much-needed shelter for vulnerable IDPs in Ingushetia. Houses already built with ECHO funds have remained empty for four months, and vulnerable families continue to live in appalling conditions in worn-out tents.