GEORGIA: PANKISI CHECHENS HEAD HOME
Returning Chechen refugees leave behind them a hard life in Georgia, but have
little hope of finding a better one back home.
By Jokola Achishvili in the Pankisi Gorge
"There is nothing good for my family here. There will be nothing good there [in
Chechnya] either. But if I don't leave now, when they [Russian officials] are
taking us, I won't be able to do it later. I have no money. Maybe I will be able
to find a job. In any case, there is nothing here."
Lela Margoshvili, a 35-year-old teacher, has lived as a refugee for almost six
years in the village of Jokola in the Pankisi Gorge - a portion of northern
Georgia, next to the Chechen border, which is home to a large number of ethnic
Chechens, or Kists.
Like thousands of other Chechens from Chechnya proper, Lela found shelter here
after the start of Russia's second military campaign in 1999.
Later this month, she, ...
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