Chechnya rules hit NGOs already mired in red tape
MOSCOW, July 21 (Reuters) Russia has slapped further restrictions on aid workers in Chechnya, adding to difficulties from new rules that require non-governmental bodies to produce paperwork such as the death certificates of founding members.
The new rules mean NGOs (non-governmental organisations) have to get approval by security services for their staff movements weeks in advance, and report to police on their trips when they leave Chechnya.
''This is terrible. We are checking what these regulations are.
They will make work impossible,'' said a worker at one foreign NGO active in Chechnya, who asked not to be named.
Meanwhile, NGOs have until mid-October to register under a new law, which sharply increased state monitoring of foreign and local organisations and sparked controversy when rushed through parliament last year.
NGOs active in the North Caucasus were diverting resources to pulling together the paperwork required by the new law when they suddenly received the new rules about their Chechen operations.
They must officially accredit, report to the authorities on arrival and check all local staff with the security services.
The rules sent to NGOs this month, in an interior ministry letter dated June 2, add strict controls on movement, requirements to give notice of all staff movements weeks in advance, and to report to the ministry on departure.
NGOs provide food, medical care, psychological help and other services to Chechens, whose homeland has been wrecked by 15 years of separatist war against the central government.
Other NGO workers contacted by Reuters also asked not to be named, citing the sensitivity of attempts to secure registration, but said the regulations clearly gave the lie to Kremlin statements that the Chechen war is over.
''SO HYPOCRITICAL'' ''It seems so hypocritical that after so many statements that the counter-terrorist operations are over, such a thing comes out,'' said another aid worker.
Western leaders have criticised President Vladimir Putin for allowing the liberties of rights groups and NGOs to be eroded.
One aid worker said it was necessary to provide passport details for all people on the original founding document of the NGO ''and death certificates, if they are dead''.
Another described having to have documents officially translated and repeatedly sent back and forth between their organisations' home country and Moscow. ''It's like Kafka's wet dream. There's this many documents,'' the worker said, indicating a thick file with two hands apart.
Stephen Tull, head of UN humanitarian coordination agency, said he would raise the NGOs' concerns with the government.
''This Monday, we had the first UN convoy in two years to be turned back. We go in on a regular basis, but we were told on a couple of checkpoints we did not have the right papers. Our convoy leader decided to turn back.'' REUTERS DKA ND1746


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