BRIEFS

–MORE THAN 300 SERVICEMEN HAVE GONE MISSING IN CHECHNYA

The Unified Group of Forces’ deputy military prosecutor, Col. Vladimir Kalita, reported on November 1 that 376 federal servicemen have disappeared in Chechnya since 1994. “Nothing is known about their fate, but work on this is ongoing,” Itar-Tass quoted him is saying. “We are also determining the burial sites of servicemen.” Kalita said that a special group had been created to search for missing servicemen and that the remains of 304 people had been exhumed since 1999. “We are finding remains with signs of torture; the [rebel] fighters shot servicemen point-blank so that it wouldn’t be possible to identify their bodies,” he said, adding that despite this, it had been possible to identify victims.