MOSCOW, April 16 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Russia hailed Wednesday, April 16, the UN's rejection of a resolution condemning Russia for accusations of rights abuses in Chechnya, saying the vote proved that the situation in the war-torn country was improving.

"The results of this vote once again clearly show the world community is understanding more and more that the situation in Chechnya is getting better," Agence France-Presse (AFP) quoted a Russian foreign ministry official as saying.

Earlier in the day, the UN Commission on Human Rights failed for a second year running to pass an EU-sponsored resolution condemning Russia for the war in Chechnya -- after consecutive condemnations in 2000 and 2001.

The small mountainous republic has been ravaged by conflict since 1994, with just three years of relative peace after the first war between Russian forces and Chechen fighters ended in August 1996 and the second broke out in October 1999.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) immediately criticized the UN vote, saying failure to condemn Russia for alleged widespread abuses risked inflaming the bloody war that has been raging between Russian troops and Chechen fighters since October 1999.

"Human Rights Watch deeply regrets that the resolution was not passed," said Anna Neistat, head of HRW's Moscow branch.

"This practice has already shown that it risks causing a new aggravation of the situation," the New York-based rights group warned.

"The situation deteriorated quickly, with Moscow seeing a sign that the world community had decided to close its eyes," Neistat said.

Twenty-one of the UN commission’s 53 members rejected the resolution, with 15 countries voting in favor and 17 abstaining.

"This decision is due to the composition of the Commission on Human Rights, which includes many countries who cannot brag about respecting human rights," Neistat said.

"If the United Nations is not ready to call on Russia to take responsibility for Chechnya, we hope that Europe at least will do it," she added, noting a recent threat by the Council of Europe to set up a war crimes tribunal for Chechnya if Russia fails to improve the human rights situation there.

In a new report published last week, Human Rights Watch warned that human rights violations were increasing in the republic and cited official but unpublished government statistics saying that 1,132 civilians were killed in Chechnya in 2002 -- nearly 95 civilians a month.

The opposition daily Nezavisimaya Gazeta presented another report on Wednesday supposedly compiled by Chechen Prosecutor General Vladimir Kravchenko and presented to a secret meeting of Chechen security forces in early March.

"The fact that dozens, if not hundreds, of Russian soldiers and police officers systematically break the law in Chechnya has been legally established," the report says, according to Nezavisimaya Gazeta.