Jolie visits Chechen refugees

CHECHEN refugees flocked around Angelina Jolie yesterday as the actress visited a refugee camp in Ingushetia.

The Tomb Raider star was visiting the Bella camp in her role as a goodwill ambassador for the UN High Commission for Refugees.

But most of the refugees were frustrated in their attempts to tell the Oscar-winner about their plight. Jolie spent about 40 minutes at the camp, and while most of them did not get to talk to her, the refugees said they were grateful she came at all.

“At last someone has paid attention to us,” said a weeping Aina Khasakhanova, 49. “I am crying out of happiness.”

The visit came as Russian authorities prepare to close Bella and camps like it in an effort to show that peace has returned to Chechnya.

Officials claim the refugees are returning to Chechnya voluntarily, but many say they are being pressured to return against their will.

This month, Chechen Prime Minster Anatoly Popov was quoted as saying the camps would be closed by October 1.

Many people in the crowd shouted slogans against Akhmad Kadyrov, the Moscow-appointed leader of Chechnya, blaming him for the closing of the camps.

Malika Sagaipova, 29, who has lived in the camp since 1999, said the refugees had delegated five women to speak to Jolie but they did not get the chance. Jolie was surrounded by bodyguards during her visit.

“We wanted to tell her that the military and Kadyrov’s people are moving us out of here. We know that Angelina cannot stop the war in Chechnya, but maybe she will help us stay here,” Ms Sagaipova said.

But 43-year-old Zulai Dadasheva said that the actress’s visit had at least made the refugees “feel like people”.

Jolie was due to visit a second camp later.