BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Mar 26, 2003

Akhmad Kadyrov, the head of the (pro-Moscow) administration of the Chechen Republic, has suggested that Russian federal forces are behind the so-called "death squads" in Chechnya blamed by the Memorial human rights centre for breaking into homes at night and abducting people.

"Last December and January it was done by people driving armoured personnel carriers and Urals lorries. (Chechen warlord Shamil) Basayev does not drive an APC today," Kadyrov told Ekho Moskvy radio in an interview on 26 March.

"In order not to search for who is behind this sort of thing - the Federal Security Service or the Interior Ministry or the Defence Ministry - and in order not to have to check several agencies, we need to have just one body operating in Chechnya. That agency should be the Interior Ministry," he added.

Source: Ekho Moskvy radio, Moscow, in Russian 1108 gmt 26 Mar 03