MOSCOW. Feb 21 (Interfax) - Russian human rights activists have backed Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov's proposal to hold a new amnesty for members of illegal armed groups in Chechnya, because previous ones were not held properly.

"I support the idea of a new amnesty," Director of the Moscow Helsinki Group Lyudmila Alexeyeva told Interfax on Thursday.

"There is no war in Chechnya now, but some several years ago people were held there at random, and as far as we know, there is a great number of instances where people were given long sentences, even though they were not militants and never took part in military operations," said Alexeyeva, who heads the oldest Russian human rights organization.

Alexander Cherkasov of the Memorial Human Rights Center also said that the previous amnesties in Chechnya were not proper ones.

"All amnesties that were held in Chechnya until now failed to take people out of the conflict because they said that those who committed grave crimes will not be amnestied. But a militant is the one who shoots," Cherkasov told Interfax on Thursday.

"The amnesty should cover the parties to the conflict who shot and even killed. The amnesty should not cover those people who held hostages and committed crimes against civilians," said the representative of the Memorial Center, which specializes in monitoring the human rights situation in North Caucasus.

Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov has asked the Russian leadership to initiate an amnesty in respect of those who committed crimes during the anti-terrorist operation in North Caucasus."