(Tbilisi, Civil Georgia, August 3, 2002) - Following a request from Georgian authorities, the UN High Commissar for Refugees (UNHCR) has temporarily suspended its aid activities to Georgia's Pankisi gorge, which hosts 3,800 Chechen refugees, amid rising insecurity in the region, UNHCR official website reports on August 2.

"We are concerned that the situation stabilise so that the refugees can remain in safety and continue to receive protection in the Pankisi Valley. The current suspension of activities is the most recent in the region, where security concerns and lawlessness have prompted short-term suspensions of aid a number of times in the past " said UNHCR spokesman Ron Redmond at press briefing in Geneva on August 2, adding that the agency hoped to resume work soon.

"The refugees have enough supplies to last them through mid–August after a recent distribution of food and other aid items," he assured.

The UN refugee agency has been working with the Georgian government on improving protection for the refugees in Pankisi, most of whom fled fighting in Chechnya in 1999. 

According to the UNHCR the vast majority of the refugees in the valley stay with host families. More than 53 percent are children, and almost half the population is female.