GUDERMES. Nov 27 (Interfax-AVN) - The Chechen authorities are assisting former members of illegal armed groups to return to peaceful life, Chechen Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov said at a meeting in Gudermes with a delegation from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).
"This is one of the main issues. Some high-ranking politicians maintained that former members of illegal armed groups could not be pardoned or amnestied. However, today we are certain that [former Chechen President] Akhmad Kadyrov's line to return them to peaceful life has proved to be correct," the Chechen prime minister said.
"There are a lot of former militants in high positions in the Chechen Interior Ministry, the parliament, the agricultural sector and other areas," he said, when asked by Andreas Gross, the head of the PACE delegation, what happens to those who surrender.
"Musa Dadayev, the head of the Achkhoi-Martan administration, commanded a unit of the [Aslan] Maskhadov's guard. The commander of the South battalion at the Interior Ministry was a prominent militant as well," Kadyrov said.
"Necessary measures are being taken to provide young people, who were unable to receive higher education in due time, with opportunities to fill the vacuum, to become qualified professionals and get jobs," the premier said.