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Fugitive Chechen ex-minister could help republic - pres.

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A former Chechen separatist minister, who is currently in exile, is a good doctor and could help reanimate his homeland were he to return to the troubled republic, the new Chechen president said Thursday.
GROZNY, March 15 (RIA Novosti) - A former Chechen separatist minister, who is currently in exile, is a good doctor and could help reanimate his homeland were he to return to the troubled republic, the new Chechen president said Thursday.

Umar Khambiyev, health minister under warlord Aslan Maskhadov, who was killed two years ago, arrived in Italy Tuesday to request political asylum. President Vladimir Putin, who was in the country on a two-day visit, said Khambiyev could return to Chechnya.

Akhmad Kadyrov, appointed Chechen president in late February, said Khambiyev's expertise as a doctor could be instrumental in recovering Chechnya's healthcare system devastated by two wars of independence in the 1990s.

"Scores of hospitals have been restored and new ones built in the republic," Kadyrov said. "They are equipped with the best equipment, and Khambiyev's vast medical experience could come handy here."

"Khambiyev is a wonderful doctor and surgeon, his profession is very much in demand in Chechnya, which is suffering from a shortage of qualified specialists," Kadyrov told Chechen parliamentarians.

Khambiyev's brother, Magomed, was defense minister under Maskhadov and is now a member of the Chechen parliament.

Following the killing of Chechnya's warlord and number one terrorist, Shamil Basayev, Russian authorities announced a partial amnesty July 15 for militants who had not been involved in major atrocities. Officials say more than 600 militants have surrendered since then, mainly in Chechnya.

Although the active phase of the North Caucasus antiterrorism campaign in Chechnya officially ended in 2001, the republic remains disrupted by sporadic bombings and clashes between gunmen and federal troops.

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