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Russia rejects mass grave blame

Russian soldiers
Grozny residents protest near a Russian armoured vehicle  


MOSCOW, Russia -- Russian officials have strongly denied that federal troops were involved in the deaths of 51 people found in a mass grave in Chechnya.

Also on Wednesday the Kremlin released official casualty figures showing that over 3,000 troops had been killed since the latest campaign in the breakaway republic began in October 1999.

New York-based Human Rights Watch released a report on Tuesday saying that the mass grave found near the devastated capital of Grozny in late February was evidence of extra-judicial executions of civilians by Russian forces.

But pro-Russian Chechen prosecutor, Viktor Dakhnov, told the Interfax news agency that there was nothing to suggest the victims were killed by federal forces.

"No evidence confirming these allegations was found in the course of the investigation."

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Interfax quoted Dakhnov as saying: "I often hear assertions, especially from foreign journalists not familiar with the situation, that the bodies were discovered on the territory of a former military base.

"This is not true -- no troops were based closer than one-and-a-half kilometres from the place of the discovery."

The report, entitled: "Burying The Evidence: The Botched Investigation into a Mass Grave in Chechnya," said that the mass grave lay less than a mile from Russia's main military base in the province.

The report said 16 of the victims were last seen by their relatives being taken into custody by Russian federal forces.

It said only 19 of the bodies discovered were identified, and the rest were buried without prior notice or proper autopsies.

The Russian Prosecutor General's Office said on Wednesday that 24 of the bodies had been identified -- all civilians -- and they had been reburied at the request of local residents.

Russia sent troops into Chechnya in late 1999 in a second attempt to crush a separatist insurgency.

It has since established shaky control over the province, but its troops still come under almost daily attack.

Rights groups have criticised both the Russian government and rebel groups for what they say are consistent human rights abuses in the region.

And casualty figures for troops, rebels and civilians are proving impossible to verify, with both sides believed to exaggerate enemy losses and minimise their own.

The first Russian casualty figures released in months showed 3,096 Russian servicemen killed and 9,187 wounded in the conflict to date, Interfax reported. Losses during the earlier 1994-1996 conflict reached 3,826 with 17,892 injured and 1,906 unaccounted for, the office of Sergei Yastrzhembsky, the Kremlin's chief Chechnya spokesman said.







RELATED STORIES:
RELATED SITES:
• Human Rights Watch
• Russian Government
• Chechen Republic Online

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