Refugees
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The article entitled "Starting From Scratch: Chechen Refugees Face Russian Fears as They Try to Begin New Lives" was very effective in giving insight into the Chechen-Russian refugee situation. Written by Tom Wait as an entry to a Reporters Notebook, the literature is an account and description of the refugees he came across while assisting the Russian-American Journalism Institute in Rostov, Russia. The author tries to focus on the contemporary issues facing these outcast people.
The first refugees he encountered were two Chechen students, seeking temporary safety in Rostov. They were eager to discuss their unfortunate situations and were willing to talk about how this problem developed. When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, the Chechens have been in perpetual conflict with Russia. Large amounts of people were forced to leave after the miserable failure of Chechnya's first independent government, due to economic and political instability. Violence is constant between armed Islamic militants and pro Russian forces fighting for power. Adding to the conflict, Russian President Boris Yeltsin ordered a military strike to squash the separatist movement. Since then Russians and Chechen separatists have traded control of the capital city, but rebels still hold most of the territory (Wait, 2003)...