MOSCOW (AP) - The head of the Moscow-backed Chechen administration said Friday that so many people are disappearing in the republic, possibly seized by Russian servicemen or police, that he's ashamed to look his people in the eye.
Akhmad Kadyrov's statement underlined the fear tearing at the fabric of the republic in the midst of an intensified Russian crackdown and the delicacy of his own position - answerable both to the Kremlin and to suffering Chechens.
After last month's seizure by Chechen rebels of hundreds of hostages at a Moscow theater, Russian forces in Chechnya have stepped up the widely hated ``mopping-up'' operations in which villages are sealed off while troops search for suspected rebels and collaborators.
Throughout the war, now in its fourth year, Chechens and human rights groups have denounced the operations, saying troops summarily kill some of the people they seize, spirit away others - whose corpses are occasionally found months later - commit rapes and loot houses.
``Nine people have been taken away from my native village of Tsentoroi this week and it's impossible to find out where they are now. I can't look my fellow villagers in the eye,'' Kadyrov said, according to the news agency Interfax.
Kadyrov, although seen by many Chechens as a lapdog of the Kremlin, has become increasingly critical of the Russian campaign to wipe out separatist rebels. He has called the Russian troop presence a major obstacle to peace.
Still, his remarks Friday stopped short of open accusations.
He said people were taken away ``in the night, by unknown armed individuals,'' raising the possibility that some were seized by separatists, who often act brutally against people they believe sympathize with Russia.
At least 220 people were detained by Russian forces over the past 24 hours, an official in the Kremlin-backed Chechen administration said Friday.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, also said 12 Russian servicemen and allied Chechen militiamen were killed in the previous day - four in attacks on army outposts, four in a clash with rebels in the village of Geldagen and the others in ambushes or by land mines.
After the end of large-scale offensives in 2000, the Chechen war became locked in a pattern of small clashes, hit-and-run attacks and land mine blasts that kill five to 10 Russian servicemen a day.
Despite the violence, Russian officials claim stability is returning to Chechnya and make much of programs to restore war-shattered buildings and services.
On Friday, the new Kremlin-appointed prime minister of Chechnya, Mikhail Babich, took up his duties. His predecessor, Stanislav Ilyasov, who has moved up to federal minister for Chechnya, said he and Babich ``have a common cause - the restoration of normal life in the republic.''
The semblance of normalcy has been undermined by the kidnappings of several aid workers, including the seizure Wednesday of two Russian drivers for the Red Cross. Kadyrov said ``it is 90 percent known who did it,'' the ITAR-Tass news agency reported.
Another report named a Chechen warlord as the probable suspect, but critics have suggested some previous aid worker kidnappings were committed by Russian forces or allied Chechens in order to discourage sporadic pushes for Russia to hold peace talks with insurgents.
Kadyrov's own security services have also faced allegations of criminal activity. On Friday, police in the neighboring region of Ingushetia said three men carrying papers identifying them as Kadyrov's guards had burst onto a bus Thursday and tried to seize two passengers.
The attempt ended in a grenade explosion that killed four people and injured nine, and the three supposed guards now face charges of attempted kidnapping for ransom.
Russian forces withdrew from Chechnya in 1996 after rebels fought them to a standstill in a 20-month war, but swept in again in September 1999 after Chechnya-based insurgents made incursions into neighboring Dagestan and after some 300 people died in apartment bombings that officials blamed on the rebels.