STRASBOURG, Aug 24 (AFP) - The 45-nation Council of Europe said on Tuesday it was sending a delegation to Chechnya this week, when the separatist Russian republic is holding an early presidential election.
During its 27-30 August visit, the team from the pan-European rights watchdog is scheduled to meet interim president Sergei Abramov, who took over as Chechen leader when his predecessor, the Kremlin's ally Akhmad Kadyrov, was killed in an explosion in the capital Grozny on May 9.
The Council of Europe delegation will also hold talks with the candidates standing in Sunday's presidential ballot, which is widely expected to be won by Alu Alkhanov, a soft-spoken career policeman who most Chechens had never heard of until a few months ago.
Western observers have not monitored any of the Moscow-staged elections in Chechnya since the war between the Russian army and Chechen separatists began in October 1999. They are not expected to be present during Sunday's poll either.
The Council of Europe team has also scheduled meetings with officials responsible for displaced people and refugees in Chechnya and the neighbouring republic of Ingushetia.
In early August the Helsinki Federation for Human Rights accused Ingushetia of forcing Chechen refugees back into their war-torn homeland and treating them brutally, an allegation hotly denied by Ingush President Murat Zyazikov.
The parliamentary assembly of the Strasbourg-based Council of Europe is due in October to discuss three reports on Chechnya, dealing with political issues, humanitarian concerns and human rights.
The six-member team travelling to Grozny on Friday includes the assembly's rapporteurs on humanitarian and political issues in Chechnya.
On June 25 the assembly severely criticised the brutal tacitics of both Russian troops and Chechen rebels, and said it was "appalled by the scale of human suffering" in the region.