Memorial Human Rights Center

Maly Karetny pereulok, 12 Moscow 127051 Russia

т. (495) 225-31-18

September, 17^th, 2007

Daghestan has provided land for permanent settlement to the inhabitants of the Borozdinovskaya Village still living in the camp of « Nadezhda ».

Help to build houses is needed

In two days, «Nadezhda», the camp of refugees from Borozdinovskaya, will not be anymore. This is the second time in its history and apparently the last.

Let's recall that on June 4^th of 2005, soldiers from the «Vostok» battalion lead a harsh «zashistka» in the Chechnyan village of Borozdinovskaya (Shelkovskiy District). During this mopping-up operation, two houses were burnt, two persons killed and 11 more disapappeared. Later on, the villagers gathered their belongings and set up a campsite on the territory of their neighbours, Daghestan. ( Borozdinovskaya is 5 kilometers away from the border of Daghestan). The symbolic name of «Nadezhda» (Hope) was given to the camp.

During 2 years, the former inhabitants of the Borozdinovskaya village have tried to get the guilty of the raid on their village punished. There still is no result.

During this whole time, human rights advocates have kept an eye on the development of the events related to the camp, and kept the representants of governmental structures informed about the community situation. On Moukhou Alyev's initiative, the president of Daghestan, a working group was created on the subject of families' accomodation in the villages of the Kizliarskiy District. For the other 30 families, which are still living in the camp today, land parcels were allotted in several villages to house building: Avyeryanovka, Yuzhniy, Kosyakino, Kizliarskiy. However, no plan was foreseen for a financial support to house building.

Refugees are doing their best to build reed habitations or booths out of old materials left from the former camp habitations. Practically, no one can seriously afford to pay for a house built out of adobe blocks or bricks. They have no financial means to purchase building materials: cement, slate, beams, strips of wood, bricks. The mere building materials for a 4 rooms house cost between 90.000 and 100.000 rubles. Migrants need a lot, but before all they need building materials. In a very short time, before winter comes, they need to build at least small houses.

Thus, refugees were in fact resettled on an empty land. But this new settlement is actually quite similar to a camp : they are once again on open-land and their everyday life problems are the same as 1 or 2 years ago.

Apart from alloting land parcels of 600 square meter each, the working group has not promised them anything. An officer from the « Migration Rights » Network of HRC Memorial has adressed a letter to the president of the Republic of Daghestan and asked him to request help from the Danish Council on Refugee or to UNHCR in Northern Caucausia, as the latter are International Organisations whose first mission is to help people in such situations.

The Human Rights Center Memorial also intends to adress a request to International and Russian Organisations: help for the inhabitants of Borozdinovskaya. In Northern Caucasia, cold weather has come and the residents of reed huts, which they move along with, already have a hard time to keep their home warm.

Said Magomedov, jurist from the «Migration Rights» Network, HRC «Memorial», Daghestan, Kizliar.

Svetlana Gannushkina, member of the Council of HRC «Memorial», Head of the «Migration Rights» Program, Chairperson of the «Civic Assistance» Committee, Moscow.