Chechnya activist's murder sparks international outrage

By Aydar Buribayev and Amie Ferris-Rotman

MOSCOW (Reuters) - The abduction and murder of a prominent human rights activist from Chechnya sparked international outrage on Thursday and her grieving supporters asked "Who is next?."

Friends carried Natalia Estemirova's body from neighboring Ingushetia, where she was dumped in woodland after she was abducted as she left home, and buried her in Chechnya.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel urged Russia to clarify the circumstances surrounding her killing.

"I expressed my shock at the death," Merkel said after meeting Russian President Dimitry Medvedev in Germany.

Medvedev called it "a very sad event" and said he was determined to find and punish Estemirova's killers.

His remarks contrasted to those of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who when president in 2006 was dismissive of slain Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, saying she had "minimal influence" on Russian society.

Politkovskaya was gunned down in her Moscow apartment building in 2006. Nobody has been convicted of her murder.

The human rights organization she worked for, Memorial, and Helsinki Group, Russia's oldest NGO, blamed Chechnya's Kremlin-backed president for Estemirova's killing.

Amnesty International said it stemmed from a culture of impunity both within Chechnya and in Russia as a whole. The United States called it an "outrageous crime."

A close friend of Politkovskaya, Estemirova, aged about 50, and who leaves a 15-year-old daughter, worked for Memorial in the Chechen capital Grozny and documented abuses by law enforcement agencies.

Her abduction in Chechnya on Wednesday and killing was the latest of a series of deaths of establishment critics which have led to questions about Medvedev's pledges to uphold the law.

Russia's Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev told reporters in Munich the government was pursuing several scenarios, while prosecutor General Yury Chaika was shown on Russian television saying he would take personal control of the case.

Memorial's chairman Oleg Orlov blamed Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov, an ex-rebel turned Kremlin loyalist.

"I know, I am sure of it, who is guilty for the murder of Natalia ... His name is Ramzan Kadyrov," he said in a statement.

"Ramzan already threatened Natalia, insulted her, considered her a personal enemy."