Volgograd Mayoralty to inspect township, where unidentified people tried to demolish Gypsy's houses

The administrative authorities of Volgograd promised to conduct an inspection and recommended the Gypsies who claimed that some identified people had tried to destroy their houses in the village of Verkhnyaya Elshanka, to appeal to the court.

"I can only act according to the law. This is a difficult problem. It cannot be solved immediately," stated Tatiana Derevyanko, the head of the Division on coordination of land allotment of the Committee of Land Resources at the Administration of Volgograd, at today's meeting with representatives of the Gypsy community.

The Mayoralty office explained the representatives of the Gypsy community of the village of Verkhnyaya Elshanka that their houses faced a threat of demolition, since the leaseholder believed that the houses occupied his territory.

Tatiana Derevyanko reported that the land plot, which became a subject of the dispute, had not been registered in the prescribed manner, and "according to the inspection conducted by the Division of the municipal land control, the adjacent land plot, provided to the leaseholder A. S. Tkachenko, contained no buildings or structures," Tatiana Derevyanko said.

However, according to the representatives of the Gypsy community, the new leaseholder is "confident that our houses are on his land".

"Either he's lying and trying to illegally capture our land plots, or the employees of the Committee of Land Resources made a mistake during their inspection and gave the leaseholder the land plot with Gypsies' houses located on it. This mistake can lead to serious conflict, and it should be corrected as soon as possible," Zhora Gaganovsky, the head of the Gypsy community, said.

Tatiana Derevyanko promised to conduct a new inspection of the territory under question. Besides, the community members should collect documents and legitimize in the court their rights to the land that they occupy.

According to Zhora Gaganovsky, for several years Gypsies try to legitimize their rights to land, where their houses are located. He admitted that the community members built their houses in 2004, without waiting for approval from the authorities. At that time, the community was experiencing serious difficulties, since it was forced to hastily flee the Moscow suburbs, where the Gypsy village was burned down by criminals.

At that time, about five thousand people lived in tents in the city till late autumn. The Mayoralty helped Gypsies and verbally authorized the construction of temporary buildings on a vacant land plot. The village was even supplied with electricity and running water; people obtained a temporary registration and were able to arrange their children to attend the school.

The city administrative authorities promised to help the community to register the rights to lease; however, instead the part of the land, on which six Gipsy houses were located, were leased by private individuals, the head of the Gypsy community reported.

"We have a conflict with the leaseholder. He demanded that one of the families immediately demolish their house or pay him 300 thousand roubles, without court decision. On October 26, unidentified people approached the house and began to break it down. It was a miracle that the situation did not turn into a massacre. Then, the police intervened," Zhora Gaganovsky stated.

"A 'good will' of the head of Volgograd and the Governor should help. If the Mayor understands the status of our Gypsy and provides them this land by circumventing the law, the prosecutors will immediately visit him and initiate a criminal case against him. Therefore, we have to listen to repeated references to the law, as Tatiana Derevyanko said. She is not entitled to act in another way," says Andrei Bachman, a Volgograd political scientist, an activist of the anti-fascist movement, whose mother belongs to one of the Gypsy communities of the Krasnodar Territory.

"They failed to solve this problem for years, since they have three classes of education. They need help and not a reproach to their strange customs and ignorance. I do suggest that the regional authorities should develop a special programme to support the Gypsy communities of Volgograd Region. We should keep a dialogue with Gypsies. Believe me, they are ready for it," Andrei Bachman said.

Let us add that the Gypsy community also appealed to the Human Rights Ombudsman of the Volgograd Region to help resolving the conflict.