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Apr 18 2004 12:42PM About 600 Russian servicemen still missing in Chechnya MOSCOW. April 18 (Interfax) - About 600 servicemen are missing in action in the two armed conflicts in Chechnya. "A total of 578 Defense Ministry servicemen and policemen have gone missing in Chechnya since 1994," Maria Fedulova, a member of the presidential Commission for POWs and Missing Persons, told Interfax. She said 298 servicemen went missing during the first armed conflict, and 244 during the counter-terrorist operation in the North Caucasus. "Another 36 servicemen went missing in the period between these two wars, between 1997 and 1999," said Fedulova, who is an official with the Russian Soldiers Mothers Committee. She said the fate of the missing servicemen must be established before the end of the counter-terrorist operation. "The presidential commission is doing everything possible to find out what happened to the missing servicemen before the combined federal forces are removed from Chechnya, although it is a difficult task," Fedulova said.
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