MOSCOW (AP) - A Kremlin human rights official conceded Monday that hundreds of Chechens have disappeared during the war in Chechnya, and called for stronger oversight over civilians detained by the army.

Earlier, the top Russian military commander in the breakaway republic, Gen. Gennady Troshev, called in an interview published Monday for rebels to be publicly executed. "This is what I would do: I would gather everybody on a square, hang a bandit and leave him hanging for everybody to see,'' Troshev told the Izvestia newspaper.

The Justice Ministry and the Prosecutor-General's office quickly rejected that possibility, highlighting tensions within the ruling elite over how to handle Chechnya.

Russian forces routinely seize Chechens from the streets during sweeps for suspected insurgents, and some of the detainees have later been found dead. Human rights groups accuse Russian forces of torture and summary executions of detained civilians.

President Vladimir Putin's commissioner for human rights in Chechnya, Vladimir Kalamanov, said Monday that 930 people had officially been reported missing since the start of Russia's military campaign in August 1999. Investigators have located 366 of the missing people, most of them in Russian detention, and 18 more have been found dead, Kalamanov said.

The number of dead apparently did not include dozens of victims whose bodies were found this winter near Russia's main military base outside the Chechen capital Grozny. Many of those bodies were identified by relatives as civilians detained by federal troops, but the military denied accusations of executing detainees.

Kalamanov conceded that arbitrary detentions sometimes result in disappearances.

"The number of reports (of missing people) increases sharply after so-called mopping up operations and passport checks, because many checks have been carried out without the participation of representatives of the prosecutors' office or local administration ... and often without apparent reason,'' Kalamanov said in parliamentary hearings on disappearances in Chechnya.

Kalamanov said that the Federal Security Service, which has taken charge of the military campaign in Chechnya, and prosecutors should control detentions.

Kremlin aide Sergei Yastrzhembsky called military commander Troshev's call for public executions unacceptable.

"The anti-terrorist operation in Chechnya cannot be fulfilled under conditions of lawlessness and infringement on Russian law - public executions or summary killings are out of the question,'' he said.

In Chechnya on Monday, Russian forces blocked all roads leading into and out of Grozny, Argun, Gekhi and Chiri-Yurt and searched the towns for suspected rebels. More than 50 people were detained as suspected rebels on Sunday and Monday in Chechnya, a pro-Moscow Chechen official said on condition of anonymity.

Eight Russian servicemen were killed and at least 16 wounded in rebel attacks Sunday and overnight, the official said.

By ANNA DOLGOV, Associated Press Writer