By Country / Russia
Officials Says 200 Abductions In Chechnya This Year
October 31, 2005
31 October 2005 -- Chechen President Alu Alkhanov today said there have been about 200 abductions in Chechnya this year.
Alkhanov called for stronger measures to prevent such abductions from happening in the war-battered republic.
Rights advocates say that Russian federal troops and local security forces are responsible for most of the abductions in Chechnya, but that Chechen separatist fighters are also to blame.
Meanwhile, the regional department of Russia's Interior Ministry said in a statement issued today that two federal soldiers and two suspected rebels were killed in a clash in the southern Shatoi region of Chechnya.
The Emergency Situations Ministry said that also in Shatoi, a mudslide swept a federal armored vehicle into the Argun River, killing two soldiers.
(ITAR-TASS/AP)