Russia: Chechen rebels murdered an 82- year-old village elder yesterday for backing this week's controversial election for a local leader, and promised to kill any other supporters of Moscow's stuttering peace plan for the region, Russian officers said.
Mr Khumid Visaitov was found shot dead in his home in the village of Abugoroi, with a note pinned to his chest saying: "This will happen to every enemy of the people".
The walls of his house were also daubed with the words "An enemy of the people", according to a military spokesman, Col Ilya Shabalkin.
Mr Visaitov lived in the mountainous south of Chechnya, the stronghold of separatist rebels who are fighting their second war with Moscow since 1994.
They denounced as a sham Sunday's election for a Chechen president, which was won by huge margin by the Kremlin's candidate after all his rivals dropped out or were excluded from the poll.
The guerrillas vowed to fight on, despite Moscow's claims to have all but pacified the region and to have the overwhelming support of locals for its peace plan.
Col Shabalkin said Russia's beleaguered forces in Chechnya were on the trail of Mr Visaitov's killers.
"The rebel band is being pursued, and its route is known," he said.
"The rebels will be eliminated later today."
A separatist website, Kavkazcenter.com, reported no comment from the guerrillas on the murder, but said a soldier was killed and a policeman concussed in explosions in Abugoroi when they went to investigate Mr Visaitov's death.
Moscow's troops still die daily in bomb attacks and ambushes by highly mobile guerrillas who know Chechnya's rugged terrain intimately.