Groznyy, 11 July: Chechnya needs to open its own laboratory to identify the remains found at burial sites on the republic's territory, Chechen ombudsman Nurdi Nukhazhiyev believes.

"Issues concerning the construction of housing and the restoration of destroyed towns and villages are being successfully tackled in Chechnya, but thousands of unidentified bodies are still lying in anonymous graves. In such conditions it is impossible to speak of drawing a line under the tragic events of Chechnya," Nukhazhiyev told Interfax on Wednesday (11 July).

According to him, the Council of Europe earlier undertook to equip a laboratory for the identification of exhumed bodies, however "this issue is still at the level of intentions". "The government of Chechnya has allocated accommodation and R47m, but more than 6m euros is needed to start work. This sum was promised by the Council of Europe," Nukhazhiyev said.

The ombudsman estimates that "the total number of unidentified bodies on Chechen territory exceeds 3,000". "Of course, they may include kidnapped and missing people who are still being looked for by their relatives," he said. That is why, in the opinion of Nukhazhiyev, the North Caucasus Military District's 16th state centre for forensic medicine and criminal science in Rostov-na-Donu should get involved in the identification of the remains without waiting for a laboratory to open in Chechnya.

The ombudsman also reported that he had a letter written by the military commandant of one of Chechnya's districts in which he speaks about the discovery of a communal grave of troops killed in hostilities between 1996 and 2000. "Body fragments are packed into 124 bags of the Emergencies Ministry. A plan showing where the remains are buried is attached. According to Emergencies Ministry figures, 1,138 unidentified bodies were buried in Chechnya in 2000 and 2001 alone. This does not include data for recent years," Nukhazhiyev said.

He also reported that more than 4,400 people in Chechnya are listed as missing. "These people disappeared without trace not during the active phase of hostilities, but during "sweeps", special operations and at checkpoints. For Chechnya the loss of 4,400 people is tantamount to the loss of 1m people for the whole of Russia or 5-6m people for Europe. Such is the scale of the tragedy," Nukhazhiyev said.

The Chechen ombudsman is concerned by the law-enforcement authorities' "failure to prosecute military personnel guilty of kidnapping and killing civilians". "This is caused by either the unwillingness of the Prosecutor's Office or some invisible forces not allowing such cases to be investigated," he believes.

According to Nukhazhiyev, "many such cases feature instructions - there were orders or decisions for someone to carry out special operations". "Furthermore, people used to be detained at roadblocks. Specific military and police personnel were manning them. How can one explain to people that no-one knows what happened to a person taken away by men in military uniform?" he said.

The ombudsman cited the example of the tragedy in the Aldy settlement in Groznyy's Oktyabrskiy district when on 5 February 2000 "in the course of a 'classic' special operation more than 100 civilians were shot without investigation and trial".

"The criminal case has been 'halted owing to the impossibility of establishing those implicated in the crime', although it is common knowledge that the sweep was carried out by Ryazan and St Petersburg OMON (special police) detachments. The surname of a specific official who took part in this outrage is known, but no-one has been punished," the ombudsman said.

In the opinion of Nukhazhiyev, in order to tackle these problems the Russian authorities should set up an interagency commission with broad powers. "Otherwise, the number of cases filed with the European Court of Human Rights, which has already ruled in favour of claimants on many occasions, will grow by the day," he believes.