FEATURE - Chechen children versed in maths, history and mines
Date: 27-Dec-01
Country: RUSSIA
Author: Tara FitzGerald
Moscow's second post-Soviet campaign in the breakaway republic is dragging into its third year and land mines are all too often the weapon of choice for both Russian troops and separatist fighters.
And in a modest building in the southern Russian city of Vladikavkaz, Zhanna Tsallagova is trying to help young victims come to terms with their life-changing injuries.
Tsallagova, who is herself disabled and confined to a wheelchair, runs a rehabilitation centre dedicated to Chechen children injured in land mine accidents. She says it is the only such centre in the Northern Caucasus region.
"I remember one 16-year-old girl who came to us. She was walking with her mother when a mine exploded and her hand was torn off," Tsallagova said.
"She was suffering from shock and needed help from psychologists. And thanks to them, she has now returned to a more normal life."
Tsallagova says the centre is funded by the government and also receives help from the United Nations children's fund UNICEF. It is now equipped with items such as an ultrasound machine, a computer and a television.
She said the children are sent to her either from Chechnya itself or from refugee camps in the neighbouring republic of Ingushetia. They come in groups of 12 for a day at a time, during which they see doctors, psychologists and therapists.
They also get to play games and music in the centre, which seems more like a large house than a hospital.
UNICEF, and various other non-governmental organisations, also run mine awareness programmes in the region especially designed for children, involving theatre and puppet shows.
CHECHNYA MARKED OUT AS DANGER ZONE
According to Landmine Monitor 2001, an annual report on the weapon published by the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, there were some 15,000-20,000 new land mine victims in 2000.
The report says this is an encouraging decrease from its long-standing figure of 26,000 a year, but Chechnya is cited as one of the places where a significant number of new victims were recorded in 2000 and through to May 2001.
It also said Chechnya was one of the places where the most regular use of land mines by both government troops and rebels was likely to be occurring, although this had decreased since the height of the conflict in 1999 and early 2000.
Russia says it has control over the mostly Muslim province in its south, but its hold has been undermined by constant Chechen ambushes.
Its troops are forced daily to defuse mines and both Chechens and Russian troops die or are injured regularly in land mine explosions.
Last month, in the first publicly acknowledged meeting between the two sides since the current conflict flared in October 1999, an envoy for Russian President Vladimir Putin met a senior rebel leader. But the talks yielded little.
Russia is among several major land mine producers not to have not signed up to the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty, which rules out the use, stockpiling, production and transfer of anti-personnel mines.
The treaty has been ratified by 122 countries and signed by 142. Other glaring absences are the United States and China.
The convention requires member nations to destroy their stockpiles of anti-personnel mines within four years and remove all mines within 10 years.
The report says China leads the list of stockpilers with 110 million mines, followed by Russia with 60-70 million, the United States with 11.2 million and Ukraine with 6.4 million.
Boards mounted on poles in the tent camps warn of the dangers of mines and other unexploded ordnance. Black and white photos of those killed by mines stare out of the posters.
Inside a wooden school building in B Camp - one of four refugee tent camps at eastern Ingushetia's Sleptsovskaya site - paintings and charts line the classroom walls, but the mine awareness posters are a reminder of the world in which these children are growing up.
SCHOOL DAYS
And land mines are not the only