Rights groups snub Chechen conference

GROZNY, Russia, Mar 1 (Reuters) Major human rights groups snubbed a Moscow-sponsored rights forum in Chechnya as a sham aimed at concealing abuses by its leader, but President Vladimir Putin praised him for bringing peace to the region.

Activists condemned the rights conference in ruined Chechnya as a Kremlin attempt to lend legitimacy to Ramzan Kadyrov, a Moscow-backed Chechen leader accused of allowing torture and civilian kidnappings in his volatile Muslim province.

Only a handful of low-key officials turned out for the conference intended by Moscow to show that Chechnya is returning to peace after two decades of a bloody military conflict between Russian forces and Chechen separatists.

As a group of Chechen mothers rallied in the capital Grozny holding photos of their missing sons, Putin met Kadyrov in Moscow and praised him for his achievements.

''Chechnya has made significant and noticeable steps forward over the past few years,'' Putin said in televised remarks. ''You have done a lot to rebuild Chechnya in the past few years as deputy prime minister and the head of the republic.'' Putin confirmed he would nominate 30-year-old Kadyrov as president, a move certain to be rubber-stamped by Chechnya's parliament.

A bearded, youthful-looking Kadyrov, shown sitting opposite Putin at his Moscow residency, seemed delighted.

''If the federal centre continues to give us as much support as today, Chechnya will become the calmest and most prosperous region in coming years,'' Kadyrov said.

More than a 1,200 km (750 miles) south of Moscow, in Grozny, two dozen women rallied outside a building where the conference was taking place, holding pictures of their missing sons.

Rumi Arzhiyeva, 52, burst into tears as she told a Reuters correspondent how her two sons disappeared without trace three years ago. ''Please help, please help,'' she said.

Another woman shouted over her shoulder: ''Please help us find our sons and return them to us. We don't know what to do.'' MISSING Rights activists say hostage-takings by security forces are widespread in Chechnya and torture is systematic in secret prisons and illegal detention centres. Arbitrary charges are regularly brought against innocent civilians, activists say.

They accuse Kadyrov's men of using illegal arrests and torture.

Kadyrov, promoted by Putin to acting president last month, denies this.

Human rights activists said they did not see Kadyrov as a man who can bring peace to the region.

''I don't believe it's possible to improve the situation in Chechnya through contacts with Kadyrov,'' said Lyudmila Alexeyeva, head of Moscow's Helsinki Group.

''Human rights organisations in Moscow refused to attend the event. Kadyrov is ... responsible for kidnappings and abductions of many innocent people whose bodies are being found with torture signs on their bodies or not found at all.'' Thomas Hammarberg, EU commissioner for human rights, was one of the few figures of international status at the conference. In Chechnya on a fact-finding mission, he accused its leadership this week of using systematic torture in prisons.

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