Dagestani hunger-strikers demand three hectares back from authorities

The participants of the hunger strike continued in the village of Shushiya, Novolak District of Dagestan, have declared their readiness to stop the protest, should the authorities allocate land plots to them with the total area of three hectares.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on February 10 the hunger strike, initially declared on December 23, 2014, was resumed in the village of Shushiya. The protest was suspended on December 24 after the promise of the district head Gadji Aidiev to return the land that had been granted into lease to the Agrarian-Production Cooperative (APC) "Almaz", back to villagers. The hunger strike takes place in an uninhabited and unheated house located in the outskirt of the village; and initially there were 15 hunger-strikers.

Currently, there are 10 hunger-strikers. Today, one of them felt bad; and she needed medical help, Elmira Bagirchaeva, another hunger-striker told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

According to her story, they are ready to stop the hunger strike, if the district authorities issue certificates on three hectares of land to them.

"This land is not within the 9 hectares, which are now litigated about; so the authorities have no need to wait till February 26 to give land plots to people. We have our legal right to own them," Bagirchaeva has explained.

The hunger-strikers wanted Amuchi Amutinov, the head of the "Lak National Council", to represent their interests in negotiations with the district authorities, she noted.

"We treat him as a leader and trust him more than other public figures. There are no lawyers among us; and we fear that they may deceive us again, like they deceived us all these years," she added.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.