The number of people abducted in Chechnya is decreasing, Col. Gen. Arkady Yedelev, Russian deputy interior minister and head of the operational headquarters in the North Caucasus, said in an interview published in the Rossiiskaya Gazeta newspaper on Friday. \"This criminal business is shrinking,\" he said. \"Twenty-eight abductions were registered by the prosecutor\'s office of Chechnya last year. The figure for 2005 was 108, and 153 in 2004,\" the general said. Asked whether he is convinced that the process of normalizing the situation in Chechnya is irreversible, Yedelev said: \"I am absolutely sure.\" However, abductions in Chechnya remain a matter of concern among Russian human rights activists. (Interfax-AVN)