(Adds European human rights commissioner's comments) GROZNY, Russia, March 2 (Reuters) - Chechnya's parliament rubber-stamped on Friday Russian President Vladimir Putin's nomination of a regional strongman, accused by critics of kidnap and murder, as the new president of the troubled province. In Moscow the European commissioner for human rights, Thomas Hammarberg, called for a commission to be set up to discover the fate of the estimated 2,600 people who disappeared in Chechnya without trace during two wars since 1994. A joint session of parliament's two chambers elected Ramzan Kadyrov with 56 supporting votes, one against and one abstention. "We will continue the great course started by my father and president of the country Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin," the stocky, bearded Kadyrov told Russian television after the parliamentary vote. "If not us, who will restore our republic?" Kadyrov, who controls his own security force, has been de facto ruler of Chechnya despite holding the secondary position of prime minister. His father Akhmad, a Moscow-installed president, was killed by a bomb blast in 2005. The new president wore a suit emblazoned with the Hero of Russia medal -- Russia's highest award which Putin had given him -- with the top button of his shirt undone and a slightly askew tie. He grinned, hugged and backslapped delegates. Most analysts have said the Kremlin was waiting for Kadyrov to turn 30 last October -- the minimum age for a president -- to formally promote him. Two Russian military campaigns to quell Chechnya's independence drive have reduced the mountainous southern region bordering Georgia to ruins. Russia says the situation in Chechnya is stabilising despite sporadic fighting between rebels and pro-Moscow forces. Earlier this week Hammarberg visited Chechnya. On Friday he told journalists the economic situation had improved in the region but torture to extract forced confessions was widespread. He wants to set up a commission based on the Latin American model -- where thousands of people also disappeared in turbulent times -- to find out what happened to the missing. "This is a serious human rights matter not only for those who actually disappeared, maybe killed, maybe alive somewhere but also for the relatives who have no knowledge of what happened," Hammarberg said. Kadyrov, who met Hammarberg on Tuesday, said he had not been in charge of human rights protection as prime minister but promised to look into the issue as president. (Additional reporting by James Kilner in Moscow)
