MOSCOW - Federal troops are ignoring a top-level order to make searches for suspected rebels more transparent in breakaway Chechnya, the head of the Moscow-appointed Chechen administration said Monday.

"People still disappear without a trace, while those involved in the operations do not introduce themselves or say where those arrested are to be moved or what the charges against them are," Akhmad Kadyrov said, according to the Interfax news agency.

In March, Lt.-Gen. Vladimir Moltenskoi ordered officers in charge of so-called mopping up raids to identify themselves by name and rank when entering homes so that residents would be able to file complaints in cases of violations. He also ordered all military vehicles involved in the sweeps to carry clearly identifiable number plates.

The order came in response to mounting concerns about human rights abuses. International human rights groups and Western governments have protested against arbitrary detentions, torture, beatings and even killings by the military during the sweeps.

"Today I met with a large delegation of women from various towns and villages who requested that at least the bodies be buried," Kadyrov said, according to Interfax.

Chechen women have held regular protests outside local government offices in Chechnya to demand information about male relatives who they say have been missing since military sweeps.

Meanwhile, a senior military commander, Lt. Col. Oleg Stryukov, and his deputy were kidnapped Friday in Chechnya's Shatoi region when their vehicle was attacked by two gunmen, Interfax and the ITAR-Tass news agency reported, citing sources in the military headquarters.

Interfax reported that two Chechen privates traveling with the senior officers were disarmed and later released. An investigation is under way.

Russia has fought two wars in Chechnya in the last decade. The first, which lasted from 1994-96, ended in defeat for the Russian military and de facto independence for Chechnya.

Russian forces returned to Chechnya in fall 1999 following rebel incursions into the neighboring Dagestan region and after apartment house bombings that killed some 300 people, which were blamed on rebels.