FM Alert, Vol III, No. 21
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Date: Tue, 1 Jun 1999 18:42:35 +0300 (EET DST)
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Subject: FM Alert, Vol III, No. 21
From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>
Original sender: Paulette Layton <[email protected]>
FM Alert, Vol III, No. 21
FM Alert, Vol III, No. 21
May 27, 1999
REPORT: DISPLACED DIFFICULTIES IN CHECHNYA
A draft report by the Russian Human Rights Commission says conditions
for displaced persons in Chechnya are becoming increasingly desperate
because of law enforcement difficulties. "The situation is becoming
more difficult due to the fact that the Chechen Republic is
effectively not a subject of the Russian Federation," the report says.
The Human Rights Commission says that accurate information on
migration and demographics in Chechnya is lacking. According to
estimates, the renegade autonomous republic's population contracted
from 1.08 million in 1989 - the year of the last Soviet census - to
792,500 in 1998. The ethnic Russian population in Chechnya has
decreased from over 269,000 in 1989 to about 60,000 in 1998. Russia's
Federal Migration Service (FMS) has officially registered 152,939
former residents of Chechnya, most of them ethnic Russians, as being
displaced persons. The Commission, citing the FMS, says that many
Russians remaining in Chechnya come from "socially unprotected,
vulnerable groups of the population, including disabled and retired
people. These people very often don't have means and health to flee
from Chechnya."
FMP PROPOSES EFFORT TO ADDRESS POTENITAL PROPERTY RIGHTS QUESTIONS IN
KOSOVO
The Forced Migration Projects (FMP) have drafted a proposed annex for
any potential peace agreement for Kosovo, aiming to stimulate rapid
voluntary return by creating a mechanism for the timely resolution of
property and tenancy rights issues. "The conflicts in the former
Yugoslavia, most notably Bosnia and Herzegovina, indicate that less
obvious issues may have a profound effect on repatriation, such as
property rights arrangements," FMP Director Arthur C. Helton wrote in
a letter addressed to the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor
at the US State Department. The draft annex, which notes "concerted
efforts" to destroy identity and property-related documents of Kosovo
refugees, calls for the early establishment of a database that can be
"relevant to proving ownership or lawful possession" of real property
in Kosovo. Such a database could be instrumental in constructing a new
property register for Kosovo. The proposed annex seeks to emulate the
best practices of Bosnia by "establishing an international mechanism
with legal supremacy on property rights issues." The FMP go on to
propose the establishment of a $10 million fund to facilitate real
estate transactions and compensation activities. The International
Organization for Migration could act as the lead international actor
in supporting the proposed Kosovo Property Commission's activities,
Helton suggested.
(For additional information see FM Alert of May 14 and April 30).
FMP PUBLISHING COMPENDIUM OF ARTICLES ON CITIZENSHIP ISSUES IN THE
FORMER YUGOSLAVIA
The Forced Migration Projects (FMP) are publishing selected conference
papers concerning citizenship issues in the former Yugoslavia. The
compendium appears in the Croatian Critical Law Review (Vol. 3, No
1-2). "The construct of citizenship defines a crucial legal
relationship between individuals and the state, and affects the rights
accorded to the individual," FMP Director Arthur C. Helton writes in
the compendium's preface. "Citizenship can be a guarantor of
individual rights, and thus is relevant in diverse spheres including
property rights, employment and military obligations. The papers,
which reflect "a spectrum of viewpoints on citizenship issues," tend
to focus on the various social and legal repercussions arising out of
the collapse of the former Yugoslavia. Many papers touch on the theme
of statelessness. The papers were presented an FMP-sponsored
conference, On the Citizenship Status of Citizens of the Former SFR
Yugoslavia after its Dissolution, held in Zagreb, Croatia, in February
1997.
(For additional information see FM Alerts of April 2 and January 15).
For more information contact:
The Forced Migration Projects
400 West 59th Street, 4th floor
New York, NY 10019
tel: (212)548-0655
fax: (212) 548-4676
e-mail: [email protected]
website: www.soros.org/migrate.html
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