Chechen leader pledges war on rebels' families By Oliver Bullough
MOSCOW, June 9 (Reuters) - Ramzan Kadyrov, the son of Chechnya's slain pro-Moscow president, pledged on Wednesday to target rebels' families in a new hardline attempt to end more than a decade of conflict with separatists.
Rights groups say the thousands-strong militia under Kadyrov's control already follows such a policy. But his overt voicing of the idea suggested he saw Russian policies as ineffective in crushing the guerrillas.
Ramzan's father, Akhmad Kadyrov, died in a bomb attack a month ago, and the burly 27-year-old implicitly referred to the Chechen president's death in his comments.
"We must not forget that we are Chechens, that they can kill our relatives, our fathers and brothers, but we cannot kill theirs," he told NTV television.
"Now, we will punish relatives who help the bandits while saying they are just helping their relatives."
He said that if legislation did not permit such a practice, "we will ask the State Duma (lower house of parliament) to pass such a law, otherwise the war will never end."
Kadyrov denies men under his command commit excesses. Authorities in Moscow consider his activities to be within the competence of Chechnya's devolved government and offer no comment on them.
The Kremlin, which sent troops into Chechnya for a second time in 1999, says the situation is normalising in the mountainous region on Russia's southern flank.
But police and troops die in nearly daily attacks and Akhmad Kadyrov's death has left Russian President Vladimir Putin without any central figure to rely on. A presidential election is set for the region in August.
According to the Russian SNO human rights group, Russian forces have used mass air strikes against rebels hiding in the mountains this week, while conducting "sweep operations" to find fighters and their supporters in villages.
Rights groups denounce the "sweeps," in which young men are often rounded up after house-to-house searches.
Ramzan Kadyrov, elevated to deputy prime minister of Chechnya after his father's death, said this week that an amnesty to encourage rebels to surrender should be wound up.
"If you turn down this opportunity, that is your decision, and it leaves us no choice but to destroy you," he said.
According to rights groups, Ramzan's troops -- made up almost entirely of former rebels -- commit widespread abuses in their quest to eliminate the separatists, who ruled a de facto independent Chechnya between 1996 and 1999.
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#2 Dead Chechen leader's son backs minister in poll By Oliver Bullough
MOSCOW, June 10 (Reuters) - The son of the slain head of Russia's Chechnya province backed his father's interior minister to lead the region on Thursday, a step almost certain to boost the minister to the presidency in an August election.
Ramzan Kadyrov, whose father Akhmad died in a bombing carried out by separatists in May, controls a thousands-strong and widely feared militia. Any candidate without his support would have trouble winning the August 29 poll.
Kadyrov junior endorsed local interior minister Alu Alkhanov, who directs local police helping Russian troops in their decade-old campaign to crush separatists.
The attack on Akhmad Kadyrov dealt a major blow to President Vladimir Putin, who relied on the rebel-turned-loyalist to battle his former comrades.
"(Akhmad) Kadyrov always hoped that Alkhanov would restore order in Chechnya," Ramzan told Russian state television.
"Because he is in charge of police we think he will restore order and is a worthy candidate."
Television showed Chechen men wearing skullcaps and tall Caucasus sheepskin hats gathering at Kadyrov's sprawling house in Tsenteroi, his home village southeast of the regional capital Grozny.
A regional government spokesman said the meeting grouped religious and political leaders from across Chechnya to decide who they would back in the elections.
Putin has pledged the bombing will not derail his plan to restore peace by offering the region autonomy. But officials have been casting around for a leader with the authority to bring the province back within Moscow's fold.
The government has near-total control of the state apparatus in Chechnya and in last year's presidential poll all main rivals to Kadyrov were either sidelined or pulled out. A candidate with government backing would thus have a big advantage.
The Kremlin has yet to make its backing clear, but state-owned federal television channels have started to cover Alkhanov more than other Chechens, and praised his career in the police and his opposition to the separatists on Thursday.
Separatists in Chechnya briefly won de facto independence when they pushed Russian forces out in 1996 but were chased out when Moscow dispatched its troops to the region for the second time since the collapse of Soviet rule.
The Kremlin refuses to negotiate with separatists and troops and police die in nearly daily rebel attacks. A statement from the unified command reported clashes on Thursday in Grozny and the mountains to the south.
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