Balkar elders left Manezh square in Moscow

Balkar elders who had been carrying out an open-ended action of protest in Manezh square left it on December, 13, in connection with mass disturbances in Moscow.

Muradin Rakhaev, leader of the pressure group, told a reporter of "Caucasian Knot" that he and the like-minded people had been compelled to leave the place of their open-ended action near the Kremlin walls because of the "imminent danger of provocations from Moscow nationalist groups".

Law enforcement bodies of the Central district of Moscow declared that for the reason that the situation had become tense lately because of the nationalists' actions, it would be difficult for the militia personnel to secure the Balkarians' safety, that was why they could not guarantee anything in this respect. In the militia officers' opinion, it is especially risky for the participants of the protest action to stay in the square at night.

The Balkarians considered the militia's arguments convincing. At the same time, Rakhaev explained that neither he nor his fellow-countrymen were not yet going to return to their motherland. They are still standing up for the status of the villages of Khasania and Belaya Rechka in Kabardino-Balkaria and demand of equal political and other rights for all the peoples of KBR.

"In case of our return to the republic we will undergo repressions from its authorities, - the leader of the initiative group says. - Neither do we intend to go out to the square any more. In case of impossibility of carrying out our action in the territory of Russia we will probably ask for a political asylum in one of the countries, we have not yet decided which one exactly. For some period of time my friends an I will be staying in our friends' and acquaintances' homes in Moscow".

Meanwhile, an information appears from off-the-record sources that the Balkarians have already left Russia and are now demonstrating their protest in Norway, near the offices of international human rights organizations. Having changed the place of their action they maintained their initial demands to the republican and federal authorities and an intention not to return to KBR unless they achieve their goal.

It should be reminded that a group of Balkarians has been on a hunger-strike in Manezh square of Moscow since July demanding observation of Federal law No 131 "On Organization of Local Self-government in the Russian Federation". Five Balkarians of those on the hunger-strike have already been taken to hospital but the group had continued the hunger-strike.