Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06KIEV558
2006-02-10 14:40:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Kyiv
Cable title:  

UKRAINE: MAJOR REFUGEE NGO ON CHECHENS, UZBEKS

Tags:  NOTAG UP 
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This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 KIEV 000558 

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/10/2016
TAGS:
SUBJECT: UKRAINE: MAJOR REFUGEE NGO ON CHECHENS, UZBEKS

REF: 05 KIEV 4971

Classified By: Ambassador for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d).

Summary
-------

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 KIEV 000558

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/10/2016
TAGS:
SUBJECT: UKRAINE: MAJOR REFUGEE NGO ON CHECHENS, UZBEKS

REF: 05 KIEV 4971

Classified By: Ambassador for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d).

Summary
--------------


1. (C) Two senior interlocutors from a major
refugee-assistance NGO, the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society
(HIAS),told us February 1 that Ukrainian authorities were
continuing to refoul Chechen asylum seekers in violation of
international law. Our HIAS contacts warned of a surge in
the number of Uzbeks illegally entering and living in
Ukraine; HIAS was quietly working with "hundreds" of them to
file asylum claims. Uzbek "illegals," some of whom allegedly
witnessed the May 2005 Andijon massacre, were reluctant to
have any contact with Ukrainian authorities, justifiably
fearing that they could be arrested, refouled, and subjected
to cruel and unusual punishment by Uzbek security forces.
According to the HIAS officials, Uzbek refugees have largely
clustered in and around the eastern Ukrainian city of
Kharkiv, where unscrupulous local cops have targeted them for
shakedowns. HIAS was working with IOM and the State
Committee on Nationalities and Migration (SCNM) to establish
a toll-free call center in Kiev, staffed by multi-lingual
HIAS employees, many of them former asylum seekers, that
could provide interpretation services to Ukraine's law
enforcement community. End summary.

Ukraine Continuing To Refoul Chechens to Russia
-------------- --


2. (SBU) During a February 1 meeting in Kiev, the director of
HIAS' Russia/Ukraine programs, Leonard Terlitsky, and the
director of the HIAS Kiev office, Alexander Galkin, told us
that Ukrainian authorities were continuing to refoul Chechen
asylum seekers, in violation of international law (reftel).
Since the beginning of 2006, HIAS had confirmed that seven
Chechens had been refouled to Russia in three small groups;
in one egregious case, border guards refouled a Chechen
family over the protests of a HIAS lawyer who was helping
them fill out asylum claims, our interlocutors asserted.
Echoing what we have been told by UNHCR officials here,
Terlitsky said that the State Border Guard Service (SBGS) has
a standing, but unwritten, order to send Chechens back to
Russia, adding that SBGS Chairman Mykola Lytvyn (note:
brother of Rada Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn) clearly "worried
more about offending Moscow" than meeting Ukraine's
obligations under international law.

Number of Uzbeks Growing
--------------


3. (C) A matter of more urgent concern, Terlitsky and Galkin
said, was the reported surge in the number of Uzbeks
illegally entering and living in Ukraine. Trusted contacts
in the Uzbek community had told HIAS Kiev that there were now
at least 3,000 such Uzbek "illegals," largely clustered in
Kharkiv. The majority were from the Fergana valley; some had
allegedly witnessed, and fled Uzbekistan in the wake of, the
May 2005 Andijon massacre. Terlitsky and Galkin related that
HIAS was quietly working with "several hundred" Uzbeks to
prepare asylum claims. Generally speaking, the Uzbeks
accepted the help only reluctantly, justifiably fearing that
contact with Ukrainian authorities could lead to arrest,
refoulement, and certain mistreatment -- if not worse -- back
in Uzbekistan. Our contacts asserted that, in keeping with
Karimov tradition, the Uzbek Embassy in Kiev continued to
send out "security officers" to hunt down Uzbek illegals and,
with alleged assistance from sympathetic elements within the
Security Service of Ukraine (SBU),send them home against
their will.

The ATM Effect
--------------


4. (SBU) Terlitsky said he was appalled to report that
corrupt cops in Kharkiv were increasingly preying on the
Uzbek community, shaking down illegals in exchange for not
sending them back to Uzbekistan. The average cop on the
street, Terlitsky asserted, had figured out that Uzbeks were
"really scared" and were "willing to pay significant cash
bribes" to avoid being detained and sent home.

Call Center: Bengali to Bantu
--------------


5. (U) Ending on a positive note, our contacts reported that
HIAS was working with IOM and the State Committee on
Nationalities and Migration (SCNM) to establish a toll-free
call center in Kiev, staffed by multi-lingual HIAS employees
(many of them former asylum seekers),that could provide
interpretation services to Ukraine's law enforcement
community. Often, our contacts explained, police officers
and/or border guards could not communicate with illegal
border-crossers they detained. The call center, Terlitsky
said, would be staffed by people who spoke everything from
"Bantu to Bengali" and would at least "help the authorities
communicate" with potential asylum seekers.

Comment
--------------


6. (C) Ambassador has raised the refoulement of Chechens with
the Ukrainian Government and has received mixed signals in
return. SBGS Chairman Lytvyn denied that Chechens had been
refouled and characterized Chechens in Ukraine as illegal
job-seekers. In contrast, SCNM Chairman Serhiy Rudyk
acknowledged that Chechens had been refouled and that
refoulement was a violation of international law -- but he
also said he lacked the authority to make the SBGS stop doing
it.
HERBST