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GUDERMES, Russia - Russia's troubled Chechnya region uses systematic torture, including electric shocks and forced confessions, a senior European human rights official said today.
Thomas Hammarberg, the Council of Europe's commissioner for human rights, visited a prison on Tuesday in the Chechen capital Grozny ahead of a human rights conference in the town this week.
"Today I have met people who convinced me there is not only a system of bad treatment, but even torture," Hammarberg said.
"It's not just one or two cases, but a whole system," the white haired and soft spoken Hammarberg said.
Inmates at the pre-trial centre visited by Hammarberg live up to 10 to a room. They wailed through thick red metal doors as the European delegation walked past.
Kadyrov, who sat opposite Hammarberg squeezing a pen between his hands, replied he was not in charge of defending human rights in his previous job of prime minister.
He promised he would investigate fully any allegations of mistreatment.
"I welcome all your advice and help," he told Hammarberg.
Two Russian military campaigns launched from 1994 to quell Chechnya's independence drive have reduced to ruins the North Caucasus region bordering Georgia.
Kadyrov, the 30-year-old son of a murdered Chechen leader and a former rebel himself, now controls the region backed by his own security forces and Russian troops.
Rights groups accuse his loyalists of resorting to illegal arrests and torture, but Kadyrov, promoted by Russian President Vladimir Putin to acting president this month, denies the charges.
Kadyrov will chair the human rights conference this week, seen by the regional and Moscow leadership as a sign of a return to normal life.
Some rights groups have said they will boycott the conference as it lends legitimacy to the Chechen leader.
- REUTERS
