Nearly 400 people disappear in Chechnya this year

18.08.2003

By Alexander Stepanov

MOSCOW, August 18 (Itar-Tass) - As many as 380 people disappeared in Chechnya since the start of the current year, Tass learnt on Monday by phone from Chechen Interior Minister Alu Alkhanov in Grozny.

According to the minister, republican law enforcement bodies found 84 people in the first six months of this year from among those who had disappeared earlier. "It turns out during investigation that 70 percent of abducted people had criminal records. It turns out during investigations that they are often implicated either in committing crimes or in operations of armed gangs," the minister noted.

He is convinced that to expose better such crimes, "kith and kin of a missing person should give full information to law enforcement bodies on what was his business and what his connections were like". "This information will help to track down an abducted person," the minister added.

Besides, he continued, there are cases when law enforcement bodies receive a statement about disappearance of a person. Then, it turns out that he was at a refugee camp outside Chechnya. According to the minister, relatives often announce as missing people, participating in armed gangs.