07:00, 21 March 2009

Strasbourg Court accepts Rostov miners' complaints to consideration

Over 30 miners from the city of Zverevo, Rostov Region, received notifications from the European Court on Human Rights that their complaints related to privileges will be considered by the Court.

The confrontation of miners with bureaucrats lasts for four years. Miners-pensioners demand that court judgements be enforced on supplying them with cheap coal and granting privileges on heating. However, the authorities of the Rostov Region found the demands of former miners to have the heating privileges ungrounded.

In January, 124 complaints were lodged from Zverevo to the Strasbourg Court. The "Novaya Gazeta" writes that every claimant had assessed his moral damage as two thousand euros. In the opinion of miners-pensioners, the article of the European Convention on Human and Citizen's Rights, which guarantees enforcement of court judgements, was broken in relation to them.

The shift-by-shift protest hunger strike of Zverevo miners that was launched on December 4 continues, as the "Interfax-South reports".