Defying federal law, Ingush leader Yunus-Bek Yevkurov has ordered that the bodies of slain rebels be turned over to their relatives, Interfax reported.
Slain rebels are supposed to be buried in unmarked graves according to a 2002 law aimed at preventing their graves from becoming pilgrimage sites. The Constitutional Court upheld the law in 2007.
But Yevkurov said late Tuesday that the law might foster violence in Ingushetia, one of the most restive republics in the North Caucasus. "Let them bury them," Yevkurov said, "in order not to sour the attitude of those left alive."
(MT)