Hammarberg is concerned of kidnappings in Chechnya

Chechnya shall solve the problem of searching kidnapped and missing persons. This was stated by Thomas Hammarberg, CE's Commissioner on Human Rights, and Russian Ombudsman Vladimir Lukin, who arrived in Chechnya on September 7.

On that day, Messrs Hammarberg and Lukin had a meeting with Chechen Ombudsman Nurdi Nukhazhiev; according to his opinion, the republic suffers more from illegal detentions of citizens by the militia, not from kidnappings, as reported by the Radio Liberty.

"Relatives of kidnapped and missing people have the right to know about their destiny. The Balkan experience evidences that when the authorities try to solve this sort of problems, the situation is not heated further, but, on the contrary, the society calms down," said the Commissioner of the Council of Europe and promised that he would try to bring these proposals and requests to the leadership of Russia.

The Chechen Ombudsman asserts, in his turn, that in the overwhelming majority of cases, after holding the operative-investigatory actions, following detention of citizens by law-enforcement bodies, the detainees are set free, as the "Echo Moskvy" Radio reports, quoting Mr Nukhazhiev's interview.

Nurdi Nukhazhiev told Mr Hammarberg that he had asked President of Russia to set up a special interdepartmental commission for solving the problem of establishing the whereabouts of all the kidnapped and missing citizens, and about his efforts towards creating in the territory of the republic of a laboratory for identification of exhumed bodies.

See earlier reports: "In Chechnya, human rights activists wait to meet CE Commissioner," "Estemirova, Sadulayeva and her husband were killed by same gunmen, Chechen NGOs believe," "СЕ Commissioner is concerned with interrogation methods used in Chechnya."