Residents of Kabardino-Balkarian village seek help from human rights activists

9 families from the village of Atazhukino, Kabardino-Balkaria's Baksan district, turned to the Kabardino-Balkarian Human Right Center on May 11. They inform in their letter that the house they lived in burnt down because of a short circuit on the night of April 9-10, 2004. The house was built in 1933 and has never been under thorough repair. The roof leaked, which caused the short circuit. The tenants hardly saved themselves as fire instantly seized the entire building. All the tenants' belongings burnt down. The people have been huddling together in a village drugstore for a month already, women and children sleeping on the floor and men living in a garage. The Atazhukino residents complain about actions of the Baksan district administration, "The Government of the Republic of Kabardino-Balkaria has allotted 1.5 million rubles to us as welfare, but the district administration doesn't give it to us under various pretexts."

Commenting on the situation, the head of the human rights center, Valery Khatazhukov, said he was going to bring this fact to the Kabardino-Balkarian prosecutor's office as the Housing Code provides for criminal, administrative or other procedures against people guilty of breaking the rules of maintenance of apartment houses, living quarters and engineering equipment.