Andrei Sakharov Foundation Forums

Grozny, once one of the most beautiful cities in the North Caucasus, now lies in ruins. Our school buildings, hospitals, homes, universities and libraries, as well as the infrastructure necessary to support urban life, have been destroyed.But even now, after the storm of Grozny has been completed, they are continuing the barbaric destruction of our city, justifying this by their concern for the safety of civilians.Almost every day, multistoried buildings are blown up and leveled on the pretext that they cannot be restored and are a safety hazard. This is done without any preliminary inspection and without the decision of a competent commission.Before September 1999, two thirds of Chechnya's population lived in Grozny. The former inhabitants of Grozny are now living in inhuman conditions in tents and other temporary shelters in Ingushetia and Chechnya. They can and they will return only to Grozny. They have nowhere else to go.We demand:

• an immediate halt to the further destruction of Groznythe creation of a special commission to inspect the condition of the remaining buildings faster de-mining of Grozny's streets and rendering harmless unexploded ordnancefree access to Grozny for civilian residents of the cityassistance for the quickest possible reconstruction of apartment buildings, homes, and utilities.

International observers must be granted access to Grozny in order to monitor the human rights situation. International humanitarian organizations must be provided with the necessary safeguards and conditions so that they can provide needed assistance to Grozny's civilian population.We believe that the reconstruction of Grozny is the moral duty of democratic Russia and the whole civilized world.

Musa Akhmadov

• Member of the USSR Writers Union, senior lecturer at the

University of ChechnyaSaid-Magomed Dibiev

• Professor of the Grozny Oil Institute

Ovta Salamov, Professor of the University of Chechnya
Abdullah Arsunkaev

• Director, Institute for Educational Problems of the Grozny Oil Institute

Ruslan Goitemirov

• Rector of the Chechen affiliate of Moscow's University of the Humanities

Deni Sumbulatov

• Editor of the newspaper Daimokhk

Said-Emin Elmirsaev

• Member of the USSR Union of Artists

Kyuri Idrisov

• Psychiatrist, member of Doctors of the World

Abdullah Saidov

• Engineer

Zuleikhan Bagalova

• Actress, Executive Director of LAM

Lecha Ilyasov,

• Ph.D, Philologist

Taus Serganova

• Ph.D, Philologist