(Adds quotes, details) By James Kilner GROZNY, Russia, March 1 (Reuters) - Major rights groups snubbed a Moscow-sponsored rights forum in Chechnya on Thursday as a sham to cover up abuses by its leader, but President Vladimir Putin praised him for bringing peace to the region. Major rights groups boycotted the event in ruined Chechnya, calling it a Kremlin attempt to lend legitimacy to Ramzan Kadyrov, a Moscow-backed Chechen leader accused of allowing torture and civilian kidnappings in his volatile province. Only a handful of low-key activists and a host of government officials turned out for the conference, intended by Moscow to show Chechnya is returning to peace after two decades of a military conflict between Russian forces and Chechen rebels. But Kadyrov, a former rebel who had been due to chair the forum, outmanoeuvred the embarrassment and flew to Moscow instead to meet Putin who praised him for his achievements. "Chechnya has made significant and noticeable steps forward over the past few years," Putin said in televised remarks. "You have done a lot to rebuild Chechnya in the past few years as deputy prime minister and the head of the republic." Putin confirmed he would nominate 30-year-old Kadyrov as president, a move certain to be rubber-stamped by Chechnya's parliament. A bearded, youthful-looking Kadyrov, shown sitting opposite Putin at his residency outside Moscow, seemed delighted. "If the federal centre continues to give us as much support as today, Chechnya will become the calmest and most prosperous region in coming years," Kadyrov said. More than 1,200 kms (750 miles) south of Moscow, in Grozny, two dozen women rallied outside a building where the conference was taking place, holding pictures of their missing sons. Rumi Arzhiyeva, 52, burst into tears as she told a Reuters correspondent her two sons had disappeared without trace three years ago. "Please help, please help," she said. Another woman shouted over her shoulder: "Please help us find our sons and return them to us. We don't know what to do." MISSING Thomas Hammarberg, Council of Europe rights commissioner, was one of the few figures of international status at the conference, along with a U.N. refugee official. The Kremlin sent its own human rights aide, Ella Pamfilova. In Chechnya on a fact-finding mission, Hammarberg urged its leadership to do more to prevent torture in prisons and disappearings. He promised to help investigate some cases. "It will not be easy to solve the problem (of the missing)," he told the forum in remarks translated into Russian. "But we have information about the location of mass graves, and this will help solve at least a part of the problem." Kadyrov, promoted by Putin to acting president last month, has denied accusations that hostage-takings by security forces are widespread in Chechnya and torture is systematic in secret prisons and illegal detention centres. (Additional reporting by Maria Golovnina)
