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53 gunmen killed, 300 surrender in Chechnya in 2006 - police chief

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GROZNY, October 20 (RIA Novosti) - Fifty-three gunmen have been killed and about 300 have surrendered in Chechnya since the start of 2006, the interior minister of Russia's North Caucasus republic said Friday.

"Police have killed 53 members of illegal armed groups in special operations since the start of the year," Ruslan Alkhanov said, adding 11 of them were militant leaders.

Another 280 militants accepted a surrender offer, announced July 15 and valid until September 30, Alkhanov said.

The amnesty, which offered fair trials for cooperative militants in Chechnya and other parts of the restive North Caucasus, was a further Kremlin attempt to bring normality to the region, which has been ravaged by a decade of warfare between federal troops and separatists.

The amnesty was declared after the killing of the most wanted terrorist, Shamil Basayev, who controlled militant groups in Chechnya. But it did not extend to those who committed grave crimes, including hostage-taking and terrorist attacks. Alkhanov said terrorist acts in the republic have declined by 44.3% this year.

Citing other crime statistics for the republic, Alkhanov said police have uncovered over 1,700 economic crimes, including the embezzlement of federal funds allocated as compensation for housing and other property Chechens lost during the warfare. The damage caused by economic crimes is estimated at over 168 million rubles ($6.24 million), he said.

Moscow have declined to raise allocations for Chechnya, citing massive embezzlement, although it has urged businesses to invest in the reconstruction of the republic.

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