Rostov Region: retired mine workers are on hunger strike

In the city of Zverevo, Rostov Region, 11 retired miners are on hunger strike. The protesters, some of them have been hospitalized, stand for the privilege they deserve by the law - the right to use free-of-charge coal or heating facility.

According to the law, former miners have the right to privileges to be funded by the state or the state-owned enterprise where they worked. But the mine "Obukhovskaya" where they worked was incorporated and became private; now, there is just nobody to pay for the privileges to former miners, as the "Rossiya" TV Channel reports.

"This is an old case, and we have a decision of the Supreme Court, stating that one should pay for rendered services," Alexei Chumakov, head of the administration and Mayor of the city of Zverevo, has explained.

Miners have thousands of unfulfilled court decisions in their hands. The protesters believe that the city authorities should address their problems. However, Alexei Chumakov asserts that once he had already helped to write off two-year-old debts of the miners, but he would not do it again, the RenTV Channel quotes him as saying.

In total, eleven persons take part in the action; three of them are already in hospital, as the "Echo Moskvy" Radio reports. Three times a day they are visited by an ambulance. Even in hospital, the hunger-strikers refuse to take meals. The health condition of the patients is better, but doctors still treat it as no more than satisfactory.

In the Rostov Region only, 19,000 former miners cannot take advantage of their lawful privileges. Miners from other cities are ready to join the Zverevo protesters. The retired pensioners plan to send documents to the Strasbourg Court.