Abduction and killings terrorise Chechens

Chechens are living in fear of a knock on the door at night, a leading human rights group said yesterday. It cited leaked government statistics suggesting that civilians are still being terrorised by killings, disappearances and beatings.

Statistics said to have been compiled by the pro-Moscow Chechen administration contradict the Kremlin's claim that stability is returning to the republic, which has been engulfed in fighting and lawlessness since the break-up of the Soviet Union.

Last year, 1,123 civilians were killed in Chechnya – a murder rate at least 10 times higher than in the Russian capital, said Anna Neistat, head of the Moscow office of Human Rights Watch, which said it obtained the statistics from a government source.

In the first two months of this year, 70 civilians have been killed and about 14 a week have gone missing, according to another report.

Chechnya's Moscow-appointed leader Akhmad Kadyrov denied the secret crime data existed. But a Chechen administration official said an inquiry had begun to find who leaked the statistics.

Ms Neistat said Chechens usually disappeared after being seized in their homes by masked gunmen who burst in late at night.

The Russian human rights group Memorial recorded 537 abductions last year, most by federal troops. Eighty-one people were found dead, 90 were freed and 366 are missing.

Fighting in the republic continues. In the past 24 hours, five Russian soldiers have been killed and 12 wounded in rebel attacks, an official said.