VLADIKAVKAZ - Representatives of the Council of Europe and the Russian parliament visited a refugee camp Monday in Chechnya, while fighting continued throughout the rebel region.

Tadeusz Iwinski, chairman of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe's commission on migration, refugees and demography spoke to refugees at a camp in Znamenskoye village, 80 kilometers (50 miles) northwest of the Chechen capital, Grozny.

The refugees said they fled their homes because of the continuous fighting, restrictions on travel and violations of civilians' rights during security raids by Russian troops.

"We live here not because it's good here, but because it's safe," said one refugee, Mosha Shakhgeriyva, a 37-year old former Grozny resident. "In Grozny and other places security isn't guaranteed - we are afraid of both federals and bandits."

Iwinski, accompanied by Dmitry Rogozin, chairman of the Russian parliament foreign affairs committee, was to meet with Moscow-appointed Chechen leader Akhmad Kadyrov later Monday.

On Tuesday, Iwinski was to visit another camp for Chechen refugees in the neighboring republic of Ingushetia. Ingush officials have said their impoverished region lacks resources to accommodate refugees and the federal government has failed to provide funds.

Ingush parliament member Akhmed Maisigov told The Associated Press that the federal government owes Ingushetia 500 million rubles (dlrs 16 million) to accommodate the Chechen refugees.

As a result of the debts, refugees who settled at abandoned milk farms in Ingushetia's Sunzha region haven't received any bread since Jan. 1, after authorities failed to pay a local bakery.

Conditions are better in some other refugee camps, but their residents have also complained of chronic shortages of food, medicine and other basics.

Several days ago, Russian Interior Ministry trucks delivered 200 tents, 250 stoves and bed linen to the Bart refugee camp in Ingushetia, where Iwinski will visit Tuesday, Maisigov said.

Russian troops retreated from Chechnya after a 1994-1996 war, leaving Chechnya with de-facto independence. Russian forces returned in 1999 after rebel incursions into neighboring Dagestan and apartment-house bombings in Russian cities blamed on Chechen rebels that killed more than 300 people.

Despite the Russian military's claim of defeating the main rebel forces, fighting continues unabated throughout Chechnya. At least six Russian servicemen were killed and another 15 wounded in rebel raids, ambushes and land mine explosions during the last 24 hours, an official with Moscow-appointed Chechnya administration said on condition of anonymity.