MOSCOW - Russian authorities must launch an inquiry into the disappearance a month ago of a rights activist in Chechnya, the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights said Wednesday.
Murad Muradov, 29, was working in the Chechen capital Grozny as head of Let's Save the Generation, a Russian organisation aiding handicapped, orphaned and other particularly vulnerable children, when he was seized on April 15.
He has not been heard from since.
Muradov "was illegally detained in his Grozny apartment ... by unidentified security forces," the International Helsinki Federation, which groups 44 human rights organisations, said in a statement.
The federation called on Chechnya's prosecutor, Vladimir Kravchenko, "to open an inquiry into the disappearance of Muradov and to find out where he is," or, if he was arrested, "to provide Muradov's family with the official arrest warrant explaining the reasons for his arrest."
According to Helsinki Federation, Muradov's disappearance happened during a bloody raid by security forces against guerrillas in an apartment in the same building.
During the raid, unknown security forces, "probably the FSB," or Russian secret police, also seized documents and a computer from the offices of Let's Save the Generation, the statement said.
According to Russia's Memorial human rights group between 3,000 and 5,000 people have vanished in Chechnya after being arrested or abducted in the last five years.
The New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) described in March the disappearances as "crimes against humanity."
HRW said most victims are suspected separatist guerrillas, their relatives or accomplices.
05/11/2005 14:17 GMT