4 Mass Graves Found in Chechnya

ROSTOV-ON-DON, Russia (Associated Press) April 6, 2003- _ Police in Chechnya have discovered four graves filled with disfigured bodies, many of them with their heads and arms cut off, officials said Sunday.

Three sites were found in the northern Nadterechny district, usually a relatively peaceful area, Chechnya's Emergency Situations Ministry said.

The heads and arms had been severed from the corpses, which were stacked in a shallow grave and covered with soil, the ministry said. It did not say how many bodies were in the graves.

Another grave with two bodies was discovered in the village of Solyonaya Balka outside the capital Grozny, the ministry said. The dead men's heads were wrapped in black plastic bags. Both bore signs of strangulation and their teeth had been knocked out, it said.

Investigations were launched into both cases.

Such grisly discoveries are not uncommon in Chechnya, where Russian forces have been battling separatists for 3 years. Human rights organizations claim Russian troops are responsible for the killings, while the military blames the rebels.

Also Sunday, the body of a Chechnya-based Russian military officer was discovered, the Interfax news agency reported. The body of Madzhid Aguyev, the deputy commander of a rapid-reaction platoon of the Chechen commandant's office, was found with multiple bullet wounds in a car near the village of Tsti-Su, the agency said, citing the Chechen Interior Ministry.

Meanwhile, Ruslan Visarigov, an officer in the pro-Moscow Chechen police force, was killed by a bomb that exploded near his home in the Shelkovskaya district, Interfax said.

Rebels frequently have targeted Chechens who work for the Kremlin- appointed government.

Russian forces fought a disastrous 1994-96 war with Chechen separatists before withdrawing. Troops returned three years later after rebel raids on a neighbouring Russian region and after apartment-house bombings blamed on the rebels killed more than 300 people in Russian cities.