Do refugee tent camps become closed zone?

On October 8, 2003, several foreign journalists managed to visit the camp of Chechen refugees "Satsita" situated on the outskirt of the Ordzhonikidzevskaya village in Ingushetia's Sunzha district. The foreign journalists began to talk with inhabitants of the camp and shot.

In a few minutes police officers arrived in a car. The journalists were detained and conveyed to a temporary interior department on the camp territory.

A police officer demanded from the journalists a "special permit" signed by acting head of the Ingush migration service Ivan Pomeschenko. As it became clear, visits to the refugee camps are not allowed without a sanction of this official. The "arm of the law" demanded that the journalists should leave the camp territory immediately.

To all appearances, there is a decision to fully isolate the tent camps of Chechen displaced persons from the outer world so as to lead their "free-will" liquidation later without serious problems.