Mrs Robinson, who has just ended a fact-finding trip to the region, played the part of the consummate diplomat at her concluding press conference in Moscow.

I was shocked and appalled by the harrowing accounts of the Chechen civilians

Mary Robinson

She described her meeting with the Russian Foreign Minister, Igor Ivanov, as "constructive", and said she welcomed the appointment by the Russian government of a human rights envoy for Chechnya.

But the visit cannot be described as a resounding success.

Refugee camps

Whilst in the North Caucasus at the weekend, Mrs Robinson was denied access to a number of refugee camps where there have been allegations of human rights abuses.

Mr Putin at a funeral of officers killed in Chechnya

And, back in Moscow, she was not granted the meeting she had requested with the President-elect, Vladimir Putin.

As if to emphasise Russia's stance on Chechnya, at the time when he might have been meeting Mrs Robinson, Mr Putin was attending the funeral of three security service agents who had been killed in Chechnya.

This certainly underlined the difference in opinion between Russia and the West over Chechnya.

Terrorism

Russia has maintained all along that the military operation they have been conducting in the breakaway republic is an anti-terrorist operation.

Moscow blames Chechen rebels for a number of criminal acts, including the bombing of blocks of flats in Moscow and the southern city of Volgodonsk in September last year.

I listened to testimony of summary executions, intimidation, looting by military personnel, disproportionate use of force, attacks on civilians convoys, rape and other violations

Mary Robinson

The Russian Justice Minister, Yury Chaika, used this as a way of deflecting Mrs Robinson's query as to whether the military operation in Chechnya had any legal basis.

The former Irish president pointed out that no state of emergency had been declared.

But Mr Chaika said that as the operation was an anti-terrorist operation, it was already covered by Russian legislation.

Interference

For his part, Mr Ivanov promised to consider Mrs Robinson's proposal that Russia set up a commission to investigate allegations of human rights' abuses.

But at the same time he repeated the foreign ministry line that outside attempts to affect events in Chechnya was regarded in Moscow as unwarranted interference in Russia's internal affairs.

Mrs Robinson avoided criticising Moscow

What appears clear, though, is that the allegations of human rights abuses are not without foundation.

The conversations which Mrs Robinson held with refugees, as well as independent reports from journalists who have spoken to people from the ravaged republic, and in the neighbouring republics of Ingushetia and Dagestan, all suggest grounds for serious concern.

There have been too many reports of violence, wanton destruction, rape and drunken behaviour for them to be groundless.

Violence

In the initial stages of the operation, in northern Chechnya, the general impression was that there were few excesses by Russian forces.

Problems began when regular conscripts were replaced by so-called "contract soldiers".

These soldiers have appeared in the Russian Army only in the last few years, when the number of young men avoiding military service caused a serious shortage of manpower in the army.

But those who sign up are often ex-conscripts, the homeless, or those who have been unable to find any other work.

Certainly, when the contract soldiers appeared in Chechnya, the incidence of violence rose dramatically.

Suspension

However much Moscow might complain about alleged outside interference, Mrs Robinson's departure did not end the controversy over Russia's human rights record in Chechnya.

As the UN representative was leaving the Russian capital, the Council of Europe's political committee recommended that the Council consider suspending Russia's membership.

It seems that the international community is not prepared to allow the question of human rights in Chechnya to be simply pushed to one side.