CHECHNYA LINKS LIBRARY

Some Chechens obliged to contribute to Kadyrov's memorial

By Timur Aliyev

NAZRAN, Ingushetia (PW) - Some Chechen public sector employees have been obliged to make contributions for a memorial to Akhmad Kadyrov, the Kremlin-backed Chechen leader assassinated last spring in Grozny.

They have to contribute 1,000 roubles from their salaries to the Kadyrov commemorative fund, which will finance the construction of the memorial.

Sergei Abramov, the Moscow-backed Premier of the Chechen Republic, earlier said that the memorial will be built in the center of the Chechen capital at Kadyrov Square on the banks of the Sunzha River.

"The Chechen government has already put out a public tender for this project of the memorial complex," Abramov stated.

Kadyrov, a former Chechen guerrilla and religious leader, was picked by the Kremlin to lead the republic after the second Chechen war started in 1999. Following rigged elections in October 2003, he was proclaimed President of the Chechen Republic. On May 9, 2004 he died in a bomb attack in a Grozny stadium.

(T/E)