(23 Feb 2000) Russian/Nat
Chechen refugees in Ingushetia have gathered to mark a day of national mourning in memory of the thousands of Chechens who died in Stalin's purges more than half a century ago.
February 23 marks the fifty-sixth anniversary of the mass deportation of Chechens to Central Asia.
Josef Stalin ordered the deportation after accusing the entire Chechen nation of supporting the Nazi troops.
No one knows how many thousands died on their way to the frozen steppes of Kazakhstan and later in exile.
The Chechens were allowed to return to their homeland only after Stalin's death.
Chechen refugees who escaped to neighbouring Ingushetia in the ongoing war in the region, took to the streets on Wednesday in commemoration and protest.
The anniversary coincides with the annual Russian holiday honouring the military, and Russian strategists had warned that rebels were planning terrorist attacks.
Soldiers sealed roads and banned all civilian movement between settlements in Chechnya amid fears of violence linked to Wednesday's anniversary.
Refugees trying to escape the breakaway republic were also forbidden to cross into Ingushetia, which has taken in nearly 300-thousand refugees since the start of the war in September.
SOUNDBITE: (Russian)
"It's even worse now then in those years (of deportation and exile). I was just a four-year-old child when we were deported and now they label me a terrorist - that's after working first for the Soviet Union and then for Russia for over forty years!"
SUPER CAPTION: Abukhasan Yelsayev, Chechen refugee
SOUNDBITE: (Russian)
"I can't even sleep in my own house any longer, you understand. Can't even pray to God where I used to. I expect to be fired upon every moment. All those helicopters flying above."
SUPER CAPTION: Ayemcha Zakrieva, Chechen refugee
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