Nurdi Nukhazhiyev told an interdepartmental conference in Grozny, the Chechen capital, "In total, according to our data, in the Chechen Republic 4,825 people have been listed as missing or kidnapped since 1994."
The conference is being held to assess the work of law enforcement agencies into the search for missing persons in the republic.
Another speaker, Aset Malsagova, from the peacekeeping center in the North Caucasus, suggested that a special website be set up to process data on those, who are missing or have been kidnapped. She said the site would allow eyewitnesses to share information with law enforcement agencies.
She also said she considered the exhumation of graves unacceptable until a forensic laboratory had been set up to help in identifying the remains.
Akhmed Dakaev, director of Chechnya's presidential and governmental department for cooperation with law enforcement bodies, told the conference 1,258 people had been declared missing in 2000-2007, with 557 of them being traced.
According to the U.S. rights group Human Rights Watch, the European Court of Human Rights has discovered that Russia was responsible for human rights violations, including "torture, enforced disappearances, and extrajudicial executions" in over 30 rulings. The court has also repeatedly condemned Russia for its failure to ensure "effective domestic remedies."
