MOSCOW. Sept 29 (Interfax-AVN) - The first group of Chechen refugees will return home from Georgia's Pankisi Gorge on a Russian plane on Wednesday.
"An Emergency Situations Ministry plane will bring Chechen families who have expressed their wish to come home from Georgia's Pankisi Gorge to Russia on Wednesday," Deputy Emergencies Minister Yuri Brazhnikov told Interfax-Military News Agency.
An IL-76TD Candid cargo plane will deliver 11 tonnes of food and nearly 5,000 sets of clothes and footwear to Tbilisi on Monday evening. "The humanitarian aid will be brought to the Pankisi Gorge and distributed among the refugees in cooperation with the Georgian Interior Ministry and the UNHCR," Brazhnikov said.
"Several tens of families of Chechen refugees who are temporarily accommodated in Pankisi want to take the plane back to Russia," the deputy minister said.
"Chechnya already has all required conditions, including financial ones, for their normal reception and accommodation," he added.
According to Brazhnikov, "the Georgian party has created all required conditions for orderly and safe departure of Chechen refugees' families from the Pankisi gorge."
"The refugees' departure for Russia is purely voluntary and takes place in strict compliance with the law," he said.