A group of such children arrive in the Crimea to receive resort treatment financed by Moscow Mayor

Over 200 Chechen refugee children arrived on board a train from Nizrani to Simferopol last Tuesday. Previously, they had been kept inmates of Ingushetia screening camps. Their accommodation at Yevpatoriya’s Prometei resort was paid by the Moscow Mayor’s Office via Moscow-Crimea Foundation operating on the peninsula to enhance cultural and historical ties between Russians in the Crimea and those in the Russian Federation. Their rail fare was paid by the Majlis Russian Public and Political Association.

Even before the train stopped by the platform the journalists pounced on Reza Shevkiyev, President of the Crimea Foundation, asking what were all those Crimean Tatars doing there meeting the Chechen children en masse; what was there in common between them and the Chechens. Mr. Shevkiyev said that the Chechen and Crimean Tatars had been befriended by common history and destiny; both had been purged and deported by the Soviets. “The Chechen people,” he pointed out, “is subject to real genocide even now, because the [Russian] troops have destroyed their homes, turning the entire people into so many refugees. For the most part these children are either orphans or have lost one parent.”

Luba Aliyeva, one of the female instructors accompanying the children all the way from Nizrani, told The Day that most of the children are orphans, indeed. They have no livelihood, and among them is a large group of victims of the Ossetian-Ingush conflict, waifs who lived in abandoned railroad cars for the past seven years, denied an adequate living, not to speak of school enrollment.

Mary Tangiyeva, 12, one of the visitors to the Crimea, says that she has long lived in a discarded railroad car. She can’t even say for how long, because she does not seem to have ever had any other abode, not as long as she can remember. Nor can she remember her parents.

Liza Akhildova, another accompanying instructor, says there is a large group among the children from Grozny suburbs; their parents are dead, many killed before their children’s eyes. The youngsters learned what war was all about at the age of 10 to 14. They had to flee Chechnya last September or October. And they have since lived in tents and abandoned railroad cars, so this trip to the Crimea is a godsend. This way they will be relieved of emotional stress and will get medical treatment to cure their mental wounds. Ms. Akhildova also says that there are many among the Chechen children with physical injuries, but that they could not go to the Crimea and are being treated in Ingushetia.

Liza Zapraliyeva, the group leader, told journalists the children have not seen the world around them for the past seven years; they do not know all those simple joys of normal childhood. She said she hopes that Russia’s new President Vladimir Putin will finally put an end to the bloodshed. Safinar Djemileva, Chairperson of the Crimean Tatar Women’s League, addressed a brief rally [at the railroad station], saying that the Crimean Tatar women are offering up their prayers for putting the Russian political leadership on the right course and stopping this shameful war.

Aleksei Melnikov, head of the Moscow-Crimea Foundation, and his deputy Aleksandr Chernobai say they do not agree with the assumption that the Crimean Tatars “made a political show out of the humanitarian project of getting those children adequate rest and recreation” on the peninsula. Mr. Melnikov says his foundation handles such projects as a matter of course; in fact, between 500 and 700 children from Russia’s “affected areas” like Daghestan, Budenovsk, Volgodonsk, et al., are accommodated that way every month. It is just that they have never dealt with Chechen children. His Foundation daily spends up to $4,000 on such children’s treatment in the Crimea...

The Crimean Tatar Women’s League arranged for the Chechen children to be accommodated by local Crimean Tatar families after the end of their treatment, where they will stay until the end of summer. Currently, the league is working on arranging adoptions for Chechen orphans. Here the main obstacle is their Russian citizenship, meaning a lot of paperwork to be done by the Majlis jurists. As it is, a League spokeswoman says over 200 Crimean Tatar families have submitted adoption applications.