MOSCOW, Nov 24 (AFP) - A Council of Europe delegation deplored the unsatisfactory conditions facing refugees who had fled the war in Chechnya, on their return Friday from a fact- finding mission to the North Caucasus.

"We have seen a little progress since our last visit but it does not satisfy us or the refugees," the head of the delegation Tadeusz Iwinski said at a conference in Moscow.

"Progress has been made in education and medical aid but the situation is still extremely precarious with many refugees exposed to contagious diseases and suffering illnesses such as hepatitis A and tuberculosis," he added.

The delegation said it was shocked by the "inhumane" conditions in which some 8,000 people had been living for over a year.

"We saw about 2,000 people living in appaling and unacceptable conditions in 47 train wagons in the western Chechen town of Sernovodsk whilst another 6,000 are currently housed in railway carriages in Karabulak and Sputnik in the neighbouring republic of Ingushetia," said Iwinski.

The government has pledged to house 6,000 refugees by the end of the year but another 2,000 will have to wait until at least April next year, the delegation said.

"The situation in the camps is a little better but the refugees don't have any sanitation facilities and have to use an outside toilet," said Ans Zwerver.

Russian parliament deputy Dmitry Rogozin, who accompanied the Council of Europe's fourth mission this year, said that half of the Russian population used outside toilets and did not consider it a humanitarian catastrophe. "And believe it or not, there are people in Russia who live in worse conditions than the refugees," the Interfax news agency quoted Rogozin as saying.

In a statement received by AFP late Friday, the Council of Europe called on the Russian government to encourage international aid organisations to work in Chechnya by ensuring the security of staff members, minimising bureaucratic obstacles and lifting sales tax off all humanitarian goods.

Three Council of Europe observers are currently working in Chechnya in the office of Vladimir Kalamanov, the presidential human rights representative.

The delegation will present a report on its findings in January 2001 the next session of the parliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe, which is to discuss the return of voting rights to Russia, revoked in April because of alleged Russian military crimes against Chechen civilians."

AFP