MOSCOW: The two military campaigns Russia has conducted in separatist Chechnya have claimed a toll of up to 160,000 persons, a Chechen official said on Monday. "Between 150,000 and 160,000 civilians and military have died or gone missing in the two campaigns," Taus Dzhabrailov, head of Chechnya's interim Parliament, told a press conference in Moscow. He said ethnic Chechnens accounted for only a fourth of the total losses. "Rough estimates show that between 30,000 and 40,000 ethnic Chechens have died in both campaigns," Mr. Dzhabrailov said. According to official figures around 5,000 Russian servicemen were killed during the first war in 1994-1996. Unofficial estimates put the number of Russia's military losses in the second campaign launched in 1999 at 7,700. Vladimir Radyuhin
Refrences The Hindu
