Senior pro-Moscow Chechen official killed as anniversaries pose new threat

A senior pro-Moscow Chechen official has been killed in a car bomb attack and two senior Russian officers were reported missing as a series of anniversaries threatened to increase the tempo of the war in Chechnya and its side-effects in metropolitan Russia.

Yesterday was the first anniversary of the outbreak of the current conflict in the northern Caucasus and it also marked 70 years since the founding of Russia's elite parachute regiment. On Sunday the Chechens will mark "independence day of the Republic of Ichkeria". Russian forces have stopped all traffic in and out of the Chechen town of Gudermes which has become the regional capital in place of Grozny which was almost totally destroyed.

The deputy chief administrator of the town of Urus-Martan, 19 km from Grozny, identified only by the surname "Shamsuyev" died as a car bomb exploded in the town. He had previously received a number of death threats. Two months ago the town's pro-Moscow Imam, Umar Idrisov, was shot dead.

Mr Mayerbek Vachegayev, who represents the Chechen rebels in Western Europe, said: "Last Monday, a meeting of warlords and the Sharia [Islamic] court of the south-western front branded all collaborators traitors of the nation and ordered them arrested or, if that is not possible, eliminated." He also warned of more attacks, particularly in Gudermes.

On the Russian side, deputy chief of staff Gen Valery Manilov announced that 13,500 Chechen rebels had been killed in the conflict so far including 500 in the recent "special forces campaign". He gave no details of Russian casualties.

In the north-western city of Pskov, President Putin marked the day by unveiling a monument to 84 local paratroopers who lost their lives in a single engagement in February. Even before the February losses, the memorial wall in Pskov, similar in design to the Vietnam wall in Washington, named twice as many casualties from Chechnya than from the Soviet Union's disastrous war in Afghanistan.

"Only our decisive actions, which aimed to restore the legitimacy of the constitution and the rights of citizens, halted the process of disintegration of the state," Mr Putin told a military ceremony. "The armed forces played a great role in this. We paid a heavy price but it was not in vain," continued Mr Putin, flanked by the paratroopers' commanding officer, Gen Georgy Shpak.

In Moscow, extra troops and police were drafted into the capital to deal with the usual mayhem which occurs on the paratroops' anniversary.

Paras in their blue berets gather at several points in the capital, swim in the fountains, drink vast quantities of alcohol and stage pitched battles against the police and special security forces.