VLADIKAVKAZ - Fighting persisted in Chechnya on Monday, while human rights activists called for the creation of an international tribunal that would prosecute Russian troops and rebels suspected of war crimes in the region - an idea the Kremlin has angrily rejected.

A group of 40 Russian and foreign activists signed a statement supporting a proposal for a Chechnya war crimes court modeled after the U.N. tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, the Vienna-based International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights said in a news release.

The statement, issued after a conference in the Russian city of Pyatigorsk, near Chechnya, said participants were "deeply concerned by the continuing violations of international human rights and humanitarian law in Chechnya that claim civilian lives and cause enormous human suffering on a daily basis."

Rights groups accuse Russian forces of abuses against civilians including killing, torture and rape, during security sweeps in which they search for rebels and detain suspects. Russian officials acknowledge that abuses have taken place but say the claims are overblown and that the situation has improved.

The idea of a war crimes court for Chechnya was raised in mid-March by Rudolf Bindig, a German member of the Legal Affairs and Human Rights Committee of the Council of Europe, and drew swift and sharp criticism from Russia.

President Vladimir Putin's human rights ombudsman Oleg Mironov said Monday that no international court is needed because "there are enough organizations in Russia to investigate crimes" in Chechnya, the Interfax news agency reported.

Monday's statement by the rights activists said few people suspected of committing such violations during the two wars in Chechnya in the past decade have been prosecuted.

Russian forces pulled out of Chechnya in 1996 after a failed 20-month war that left the region in rebel hands. Federal troops returned in 1999 following rebel attacks in a neighboring region and a series of deadly apartment-building bombings blamed on the rebels.

Large-scale battles are now rare, but violence persists. Five servicemen were killed and six others wounded in rebel attacks, skirmishes and mine blasts over the previous 24 hours, an official in Chechnya's Moscow-backed administration said Monday on condition of anonymity.

The administration and the Kremlin say the March 23 referendum in which voters in Chechnya approved a new constitution for the region and gave the green light for presidential and parliamentary elections there will help bring peace.

The International Helsinki Federation criticized the referendum in a statement issues Friday, saying the high turnout and overwhelming approval rate announced by election officials were not credible.

The statement quoted the group's director, Aaron Rhodes, as saying the process of drafting the constitution and organizing the vote was "among the most illegal and manipulative electoral exercises in the entire post-Soviet period."

It said that surveys taken before the vote registered strong opposition to the referendum and that independent observers reported low participation. It cited reports that people were pressured to vote and that some were ferried to numerous polling places to create the appearance of a high turnout.

Russia said the vote was fair.