Desperate Chechen Refugees in Georgia

Desperate Chechen Refugees in Georgia

The Georgian government has not adequately protected the rights and security of the people who are living under refugee status in our country. Chechen refugees feel absolutely unprotected not only by the Georgian government, but also the UN High Commission for Refugees. The refugees blame the UNHCR in Georgia for ignoring their multiple requests and their basic human rights.

Recently, the Georgian government has committed violations regarding Chechen refugees. Russia detained two Chechens, Bekkhan Mulkoev and Husein Alkhanov, at the Georgian-Russian border on February 19, according to a February 25 Russian media report.

Mulkoev and Alkhanov, disappeared in Georgia after being acquitted by a Tbilisi court on February 6 of having violated border regulations and entering Georgia illegally.

Russia claims Mulkoev and Alkhanov are Chechen militants, who fought against federal troops in Chechnya.

The relatives of the two men feared that they may have been abducted and secretly handed over to Russia by the Georgian authorities. After a report about their detention was released, doubts about the alleged secret extradition increased. Georgian officials denied the speculations.

Mulkoev and Alkhanov were among a group of 13 Chechens arrested by the Georgian border guards in the late summer of 2002, five of whom were forcibly extradited to Russia.

The following is a letter from Mavsar Butukaev, one of the Chechen refugees, whose 24- year-old son was killed on January 23, 2004. He applied in as many lawful ways as possible for the administration of justice and the punishment of the murderer, but in vain. The UNHCR in Georgia did not consider the tragedy of his family.

Chechen Refugee Mavsar Nutukaev’s Letter to International Organizations

Dear Madams and Sirs,
The leaders of Important International Organizations,

I would like to greet you and address you in hope of your support and help regarding this letter.

The reason I address you is the tragic misfortune of my family. Times are hard for us, the Chechens, and for me especially now that my son has been killed.

First of all, I would like to inform you about the following:
On January 13, 2004 my sons Ruslan and Rizavdin were acquainting themselves with new information about Chechnya and the world in the Internet-café located at 12 Kazbegi St.in Tbilisi.

At about 5:00 or 6:00 p.m., two hooligans started quarrelling with Rizavdin (born in 1985; he is a second-year student at Tbilisi State University). Ruslan, who tried to break up the fight, was stabbed in heart area by the murderer who, as it turned out later, is the son of member of the Georgian Ministry of Justice.

The tragedy of my family was no accident. This is one incident in a chain of provocation that is applied to our people, refugees of war and violation. This action was the direct consequence of the fact that we are being treated in an inappropriate way by the UNHCR in Georgia. They did not render assistance to help us protect our basic rights. The original reason for our tragedy was their rude and humiliating attitude toward us, the lies that they told about us, and their failure to provide any help for our transition into life in another country.

The fault of the UN Refugee High Commissioners in Georgia in the death of my son can be proved by their last answer to my letters: “You have been in Georgia since May, 2000, and as far as we know nothing has happened to you during this time. The Georgian government considers you as a refugee and you are under the protection of the state, which has signed the 1951 convention.” In the minds of the UNHCR in Georgia, nothing that has happened to me in Georgia (police action against my family in 2002, my elder son Rizvan stabbed 4 times in December, 2001, constant threats towards my family…) is worth paying attention to. Their answer implies that they possessed certain information that something was going to happen to my family.

The murder of my son is a tragedy not only for my family bit also for the whole of my nation, because in my opinion, this was a targeted action directed at honorable members of my nation, where the best and the smartest are dying.

Ruslan Batukaev was born on September 8, in 1980. He had lived in Tbilisi since May, 2000, under refugee status. In 2002, he graduated from the poly-technical Institute of Georgia, in the field of Economics. In 2003, he entered the Institute of Asia and Africa, in the departments of Japanese Language and Economics, but because he lacked adequate funding, he was considered to be a free student, under an agreement with the management of the Institute.

He was fluent in English, Russian, and Georgian, and was doing well in Japanese.

Since we considered our son to be a gifted and promising young man, we tried to protect him from any kind of trouble. But we failed, in spite of the fact that when moving to Georgia, we had believed that this was a country that offered the opportunity for life, and the protection of honor.

A similar incident happened to my elder son, Rizvan, in December, 2001, when he was stabbed 4 times, but survived. Unfortunately, the doctors did not manage to save my other son. From the time we first arrived here, we experienced an indifferent attitude from the people who were professionally obliged to consider our problems. They were not worried about our deplorable conditions, conditions they were largely responsible for. In particular, the UNHCR ignored our multiple requests to support us in protecting our basic human rights.

There seems to be no end to our unhappiness. Until today, we have somehow managed to endure our deplorable conditions, but we are no longer able to bear the misfortunes that have happened to us.

The future of our children, their life in society, and their prosperity is very important to us. To have educated and well-bred children has always been a high priority in our lives.

All we asked for from the UNHCR in Georgia was to help make education available to our children, and to help people to recognize our basic human rights.

Our difficult life in Georgia was largely related to the difficulty in raising my children due to the constant threats towards my family. Because of this, I requested that the UNHCR in Georgia help us move into another country, where our human rights would be protected, but our request was not taken into consideration.

I would like to ask you, the leaders of international organizations, to listen carefully to the complaints of refugees in Georgia, and support us, in restoring our rights, which have been ignored by UNHCR in Georgia.

With Respect,

Mavsur Batukaev

Tbilisi, Georgia
January 21, 2004

Contact  Informations:
Phone numbers: (995 99) 90 33 18, (995 32) 42 04 08
e-mail: grozny35mm@hotmail.com, eco_congress@yahoo.com

Non-official translation