AKI-YURT, Russia -- Though Moscow has failed so far to secure victory over Chechen rebels after three years of a brutal war, Russian authorities have found another, easier target on the public relations front: Refugee camps.

Hundreds of thousands of Chechens fled their war-torn country after Russian troops poured in on October 1, 1999, finding shelter in makeshift camps in neighboring regions, notably Ingushetia and Dagestan.

But now Russia has decided that the camps must be dismantled and the refugees return home, AFP reported.

It's all about image, said Koka, a refugee at Ingushetia's Imam Camp, near the Chechen border.

"For the Russians, the camps are a huge eyesore.

So if there were no more camps, this would mean there were no more refugees, and that in turn would mean there was no more war," Koka said.

The decision to wind down the camps was taken in July, when Chechnya's pro-Russian Prime Minister Stanislav Ilyasov announced that around 10 Ingush camps hosting some 53,000 refugees were to be closed down before winter set in.

As a result, Ingush Migrations Ministry officials now come almost every day to Imam, said another refugee, Asya, who hails from the Chechen capital Grozny.

"They first came on September 10, along with an official from Moscow, and told us, 'in three days, if you are not gone, we will use force,'" Asya said.

"However, the NGOs (nongovernmental organizations) protested so they're not threatening us any more. But they continue to come to the camps to try and convince us to leave. Even on Sundays, they can't leave us alone," she added.

Asya said the officials used all possible means short of threats and actual violence to convince refugees to leave, including cutting off gas supplies.

Pro-Russian Chechens with the committee for the return of refugees also regularly visit the camps, which only increases tension among refugees, said an official with the Russian human rights organization Memorial.

The committee officials "promise money to the refugees and try to convince them to sign a declaration saying they are leaving of their own free will, but as they cannot guarantee them security, tension mounts and the officials often end up threatening them," says Lipkhan Bazayeva.

Since they cannot convince enough refugees to go back to Chechnya, officials offer them "homes" in other places where they will draw less attention, like run down factories and abandoned farms, a refugee named Dogman said.

Inside their tents, the refugees endure stifling heat in summer and bitter cold in winter.

Vines cover many of the tents, with the children playing outside in the dust.

The camp includes a school for 215 children, a mosque, a hairdresser, a sports room and a room for sewing. "I have 10 children to look after," one young woman said wearily. "My own two, together with eight nephews and nieces whose parents were killed. They get food at school, but I have to spend a lot of the aid I receive on clothing them."

The aid is a dwindling commodity, the Russians having cut off their allocations and the international contribution is being reduced.

The election of a former KGB general to the Ingush presidency last April has helped the Kremlin in achieving its objective, though Murat Zyazikov denies he is pressuring the refugees to return.

"There may be security problems in Chechnya, but it's better for them to live there than in rotten tents in Ingushetia," he told AFP, estimating the number of refugees remaining at 70,000, compared with 147,000 in June.

Earlier this month, refugees who had recently returned to Grozny told a Council of Europe delegation that they were by and large glad to be back. Though they had been "encouraged" to return, none had been forced, they said.