Maskhadov's relatives address world community

The family of Aslan Maskhadov, leader of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria killed in Tostoi-Yurt, Chechnya, on 8 March 2005, has sent an address to the leaders of the 11th ASEAN summit member states with a request to make the Russian government give out the body of the ex-leader and stop the war in Chechnya.

The address which has also been forwarded to Caucasian Knot claims that Mr Maskhadov's elimination is a great blow on the process of peaceful settlement of the Russian-Chechen conflict.

Mr Maskhadov's relatives remind in their address that 250,000 Chechens, including over 40,000 children, have died in the last two military campaigns in Chechnya, hundreds of thousands of people have become disabled, and tens of thousands have been missing.

The ex separatist leader's relatives believe that the bodies of killed rebels are not given out to their families with but one aim: to hide the "marks of torture and degrading treatment on their bodies which they experience even after death." Besides, they point out, rightly as it seems, that the law on terrorism under which terrorists' bodies are not given out to their relatives is incorrectly extended to members of the Chechen resistance.

The 11th Russia-ASEAN summit has been under way in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, today.

More about Aslan Maskhadov:

• Maskhadov, Aslan (Khalid) Alievich