MOSCOW - Russia's top police official said Wednesday that about 200 Chechen rebels have surrendered to federal forces since the beginning of an amnesty lauded by the Kremlin as a key instrument to peace in Chechnya. Ninety of them have been granted amnesty so far.

"Members of rebel groups have been turning themselves in almost daily since the announcement of the amnesty," Interior Minister Boris Gryzlov said, according to the Interfax news agency.

The amnesty, which took effect in early June, offers immunity from prosecution to rebels who give up their weapons by Sept. 1 and also applies to federal troops in Chechnya, who are accused by human rights groups of committing widespread abuses against civilians.

However, anybody found to have tried to kill federal police and servicemen is denied clemency and the amnesty does not apply to rebels or soldiers who have committed terrorist acts or particularly grave crimes, or to foreigners.

Human rights groups have criticized the Kremlin's peace efforts, saying the only way to end the war is through negotiations.

Meanwhile, Russia's government minister for Chechnya, Stanislav Ilyasov, said that 18,000 Chechen refugees are now living in camps in the neighboring Ingushetia region and that they would return to Chechnya "at their own will," the ITAR-Tass news agency reported.

The Kremlin has been at pains to see the refugees go home to Chechnya as a sign that normality is returning to the region.

But humanitarian organizations say the refugees don't want to return, fearing for their safety in the war-torn republic. Refugees and human rights groups say officials have threatened to close refugee camps and are using intimidation and blackmail to persuade people to return.

Russian forces withdrew from Chechnya in 1996 after a 20-month war with separatists, after which Chechnya became de facto independent and was plagued by lawlessness. Russian forces swept in again in September 1999 after Chechnya-based insurgents mounted incursions into neighboring Dagestan and after some 300 people died in apartment explosions that authorities blamed on the rebels.