VLADIKAVKAZ, Russia (AP) - The United Nations on Tuesday presented its latest plans for humanitarian aid to Russia's breakaway republic of Chechnya, estimated to cost about dlrs 25 million, while fighting continued throughout the rebel region.
The midyear review of the U.N.'s 2002 interagency appeal for the North Caucasus outlined priority humanitarian needs in Chechnya, according to a U.N. statement released in Moscow on Tuesday.
It focused on protecting and respecting basic human rights of civilians in Chechnya, assisting children and youth, helping local non-governmental organizations gain confidence and skills and preparing legal, health, education and other social structures in the war-ravaged region.
The U.N. statement emphasized the need for aid workers to gain wider access and freedom of movement inside Chechnya. The Russian authorities have allowed U.N. and other international representatives to visit the breakaway region, but placed tight restrictions on their travel, citing security concerns.
The United Nations also reaffirmed the need for "upholding the principle of voluntary return" of Chechen refugees, most of whom have settled in neighboring Ingushetia.
Russian officials, eager to announce the conflict settled, have repeatedly spoken of the need to relocate the refugees to Chechnya. But few refugees are eager to return, fearing security sweeps and violence as rebels have continued to mount daily raids against the federal forces.
At least four Russian servicemen have been killed and another 12 wounded in the latest series of rebel attacks and land mine explosions since Monday, said an official with the Moscow-appointed civilian administration for Chechnya who asked not to be named.
Federal forces launched security raids in several Chechen towns and villages, detaining at least 90 people on suspicion of being linked to the rebels, the official said.
International human rights organizations have criticized such security sweeps, citing witness accounts that they lead to disappearances, torture and summary executions of civilians. Federal authorities have said that cases of military abuses are rare and properly investigated.
Meanwhile, rebels have offered to exchange the captured crew of a Russian helicopter gunship that went down in February for 50 rebel prisoners, the Interfax-Military News Agency reported. The cause of the crash and fate of the crew has never been officially determined.
Russian forces pulled out of Chechnya after suffering defeat in a 1994-96 war, but rolled back in fall 1999, after rebels invaded neighboring Dagestan and after a series of apartment house bombings killed some 300 people in three Russian cities. Authorities blamed the rebels for the blasts.