Forty-three citizens were kidnapped in Chechnya in 2004, Executive Director of the Memorial human rights center Tatiana Kasatkina told Interfax on Thursday. \"As far as we know, 37 people went missing in January, five in February and one in March,\" she said, adding that this information is incomplete. The number of abductions could increase in February, Kasatkina said. \"Seventeen of the 37 Chechen residents abducted this January were released or ransomed, two were found dead and there is no information on the other 18,\" she said. Memorial monitors abductions on 25-30% of the territory in Chechnya, she added. \"We estimate the total rate of crimes against civilians in the Chechen Republic as approximately three to four times higher than the data we have,\" Kasatkina said. Human rights activists believe that law-enforcement departments and rebel units are responsible for the abductions in Chechnya. \"Both of them are behind the abductions. There are cases of abductions by rebels, but the federal troops or law-enforcement agencies subordinated to [Chechen President Akhmad] Kadyrov are behind this in the absolute majority of cases,\" Memorial head Oleg Orlov said earlier. (Interfax)