UN resumes its work in Chechnya September 09, 2002 Posted: 14:23 Moscow time (10:23 GMT)
Military conflict in Chechnya. (TRJ)
MOSCOW - The United Nations said it was resuming its humanitarian programs in Chechnya on Monday after a six-week suspension that it had announced to protest the kidnapping of a Russian aid worker.
The United Nations halted its relief operations in the war-ravaged region on July 29, following the kidnapping of Nina Davidovich, the head of Druzhba, a Russian non-governmental organization that works with the international organization.
"Starting today, we have resumed our operations in full," said Viktoria Zotikova, spokeswoman for the U.N. office for humanitarian affairs in Moscow. "Talking with people in the North Caucasus, we saw that the needs now are so great that we must resume work."
During the suspension, the United Nations continued its program to provide clean water to residents of Grozny, the Chechen capital, because it was considered too vital to suspend. However, food aid and health care and education programs were halted.
Zotikova said U.N. officials had held consultations with the Russian government on security issues and reevaluated and improved its own security efforts. She said the United Nations was reiterating its call for the immediate release of Davidovich and Arjan Erkel, a Dutch employee of the aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres who was kidnapped last month in Dagestan, a Russian region located next to Chechnya.
Following Erkel's kidnapping, MSF, known in English as Doctors Without Borders, also suspended its operations in the North Caucasus region around Chechnya - work that was aimed primarily at assisting refugees from the Chechen conflict.
Meanwhile, Gen. Anatoly Kvashnin, chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, was in Chechnya to inspect troops, hear reports from commanders there and meet with civilian officials, the Interfax-Military News Agency reported.
Kvashnin's visit began Sunday and was connected to the recent increase in rebel attacks, the agency said, citing an unnamed source in the military's headquarters in Chechnya.
The Aug. 19 downing of a huge Russian helicopter by rebels spotlighted the military's continued vulnerability in Chechnya. The military has said 119 out of 147 on board died.
On Monday, forensic experts in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don said they identified the body of a serviceman who was not on the flight roster. Russian media had reported that there were as many as 152 people on board the Mi-26 helicopter.
Col. Vladimir Shcherbakov, head of the military's forensic laboratory in Rostov, said experts had identified the remains of Lt. Yevgeny Solovyov. He said all of those killed who were on the flight roster had been identified, and the body of one other serviceman not on the list remained, bring the total killed in the crash to 121.
Associated Press
_________________________________________________________________ Send and receive Hotmail on your mobile device: http://mobile.msn.com