14:06, 29 January 2004

Human rights activists are anxious about ecological situation in Chechnya

Activists of Russian human rights organizations have raised their concern about the ecological situation in Chechnya. "Ecological conditions in Chechnya today are very bad, which is a result of the hostilities," Aleksandr Cherkasov, an activist of the Human Rights Center "Memorial", said in Strasbourg.

According to his data, a sizeable part of the Chechen territory is polluted with petroleum refining wastes, many areas have been deforested for heating, and the problem of removing household rubbish from settlements have not been solved for several years.

Aleksandr Cherkasov added that the problem of clearing the territory of Chechnya from mines was also critical. "There are no maps of land mining. Specialists of international organizations engaged in humanitarian mine clearing do not work in Chechnya, and local authorities pay little attention to this problem," the human rights activist said.

If cooperation between the republican government and NGOs became more active, it would contribute to the improvement of the humanitarian and ecological situation in Chechnya, Aleksandr Cherkasov stated.

Source: Interfax News Agency