Liza Vronskaya, gazeta ru

It has emerged that last week Russian soldiers probably committed yet another appalling crime against Chechen civilians. On Saturday, September 8, the residents of the Chechen village of Michurin held a rally in Grozny to protest against the murder of 86-year-old Abaz Suleimanov.

Relatives of Abaz Suleimanov told correspondents of a Russian nationwide TV channel that on September 3 two Russian soldiers entered their home and demanded money. The family said they had none and the soldiers left empty-handed only to return shortly afterwards whereupon they dragged the elderly man into an empty room, closed the door, beat him up and then shot him.

They also seriously injured the man's wife Aishet Suleimanova who was later admitted to hospital in Grozny. Doctors from Grozny city hospital No 9 told an Interfax source in Chechen television that Aishet Suleimanova was in a critical state.

Protesters at the rally in Grozny on Saturday called upon the commander of the united federal forces in Chechnya General Valery Baranov, the head of pro-Moscow civil administration of Chechnya Akhmad Kadyrov and Russia's president Putin to take urgent measures to put an end to violence against civilians in Chechnya.

The chief of staff of the Russian Interior Ministry's central department in Chechnya Colonel Akhmed Dakayev said in an interview with Chechen TV that a federal serviceman had already been detained on suspicion of murdering Abaz Suleimanov and assaulting his wife and that the soldier had already confessed to the crime.

Chechen TV quoted the press service of the Chechen administration as saying that the detained soldier was a certain Oleg Kuzmin.

The number of crimes committed by the federals against the civilians in Chechnya continues to grow and there are no tangible signs that the violence will stop. The federal authorities' numerous promises that all those guilty of abuses will be brought to trial become less credible with each repetition.

Last week the Kremlin's information officer for Chechen affaires Sergei Yastrzhembsky announced that several dozen Russian servicemen had already been convicted for crimes perpetrated against Chechen civilians. He repeated his claim in an interview with the Russian ORT channel on Thursday.

Yastrzhembsky said that the media and international humanitarian organizations would soon be granted access to the finalized information on completed investigations and emphasized that the military prosecutor's office has looked into all claims of crimes committed by Russian soldiers.

But Yastrzhembsky was recruited by the Kremlin from the Moscow Mayor?s Office namely for his PR skills. It was he who confidently promised that the so-called anti-terrorist operation would be successfully completed before the summer of 2000.

The second military in campaign in Chechnya began almost two years ago. Although open combat with the separatist rebels is now a rarity, genuine peace seems as remote a prospect for the republic as ever.

Underpaid and demoralized, some Russian troops have resorted to looting and pillage: for them the label "armed bandit formations" - regularly used by Yastrzhembsky to describe the separatist rebels - would be more appropriate.