BEBR organizes a march to Moscow

Today, the Board of Elders of Balkar People (BEBP) held a sitting of the organizing committee of the pedestrian march to Moscow.

Bakhaudin Etezov, deputy chairman of the BEBP, said to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that the idea about holding a march was moved at one of the latest rallies. As he said, over three hundred persons, aged 20-84, have already signed-in to take part in the march.

According to Mr Etezov, the aim of the action is "to bring the situation with the Balkar People to the knowledge of the country leaders." He explained that the decision to hold a march was made because the demands of the Balkar People about enforcement of the decision of the Russian Constitutional Court and the provisions of the Federal Law 131 "On Organization of Local Self-Government" are not fulfilled for a long time.

Besides, as Mr Etezov has added, the decision-making process was affected by the latest events: threats addressed to the BEBP members and physical pressure on them. Thus, the car of Dalkhat Baidaev, a Board member, was burnt down; and Tamara Gerieva, a BEBP member, was forced by militiamen to the Nalchik Prosecutor's Office. The external video surveillance camera, installed at the entrance to the BEBP office, recorded an unknown person in a hood trying to break it, first with a ceramic tile, and then with an axe.

According to Bakhaudin Etezov, it is not yet decided technically how the march will be held, where the participants will stay for the night, but the organizing committee is engaged in this issues.

After the march reaches Moscow, its participants will demand a meeting with Russian President Dmitri Medvedev or Premier Vladimir Putin. Mr Etezov has added that they will not leave Moscow until one of the two meets them.

To the question, whether it could be better to send a letter or an appeal, instead of undertaking such an expensive and technically complicated endeavour, he said: "In these years so many papers have been sent, and so many formal answers have been received that there's no more hope on correspondence."

Mr Etezov said that on the outcomes of the Moscow campaign the BEBP would make a decision on addressing to the Constitutional court of the Russian Federation on definition of the status of the Balkar People.