"Memorial": Chechen authorities evict refugees from hostels and put resettlers from the new buildings in Argun instead there

Hostels in Grozny are liberated for internally displaced persons (IDPs), who lost their housings during the war in Chechnya and who were provided flats in 2007 in two high apartment buildings in the city of Argun at 111 Kadyrov Street and 9a Titov Street. Human rights activists assert that the authorities are conducting a "chain reaction" of evicting people from flats into hostels, and from hostels into the street.

In 2007, keys from apartments in Argun were awarded in a solemn ceremony, which was shown by local television. The head of Argun Administration signed standard contracts of social hiring with new tenants. They have complied with all contractual terms; and there was no reason to evict them, the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" reports.

In accordance with the Housing Code, eviction is possible only by the court order, human rights activists report: however, on January 14 all the residents of the two solemnly inhabited houses were invited to come down into the yard, where they were announced that they had 48 hours to collect their belongings and leave the apartments.

The people were told that they would be accommodated in hostels in Grozny, while their flats would be occupied by those residents of Argun, who had lived before November 2010 in the houses to be demolished under the city reconstruction plan. A business centre and a mosque will be erected instead.

After demolition of their houses, the tenants were first recommended to go to relatives, explaining that the administration can not afford providing them with any housing or compensate the cost of the list flats. However later funds were found to pay one million roubles per family; and land plots were allocated for building new houses.

The above liberated houses in Kadyrov and Titov Streets have a large number of empty apartments; therefore, the evicted people doubt that they are intended to accommodate residents of demolished houses. It can be assumed that the vacant and evicted apartments will be sold, the statement of the HRC "Memorial" runs.

On January 14 in the evening about forty women-residents who are evicted from their flats decided to go to Khosi-Yurt (Tsentoroi), the family village of the head of the Chechen Republic Ramzan Kadyrov, aiming to meet him personally and talk to him. The women were not admitted into the village. According to the members of the delegation, securities talked to them very rudely, despite the fact that there were elderly women among them. Abuyazit Vismuradov, head of the guards of the Chechen leader, forbade the women, in offensive form, to appear again in Tsentoroi. Then the women went to the government of the Republic, where they met Magomed Daudov, deputy chairman of the Chechen government for the power block, who also refused to deal with their problems and, according to the women, also spoke rudely.

So far, Magomed Daudov has not commented this information.

In their despair to find justice, the residents of the houses liberated in Argun gave up any resistance. They are afraid that by writing complaints they will only worsen their situation, as rights activists assert.

Starting from the evening of January 16, former residents of the houses located in Kadyrov and Titov Streets in Argun are distributed among hostels in Grozny.