Villagers' land seized to construct cottages near Brest?

People in the village of Zbiragi near Brest complain that the village council has given away their land to build new cottages. Villagers insist they were never notified about the sale of land plots. Geodesists were the first to appear in the village and were quickly followed by preparatory construction works.

"I inhertited the house from my late husband... Some unknown people came over, burnt all the grass, seized the plot and said it was the village council that had sold the land to them [Zbiragi belongs to Cherninsk rural administrative unit]," narrates local resident Maryia Yakimuk. "This land has belonged to my house for ages. My grandfather and my grandgrandfather planted here and used it. No official came to ask or to notify. They just came abruptly and began to build. Do they have the right to seize my land? Let it be only two meters, but they are mine! All the taxes and fees were properly paid. I have all the documents (the woman is showing a stack of papers) for the house, for plots."

Almost a half of Zbiragi residents tell the same story about some undesired "guests" on their plots. The new construction sites owned by the residents of Brest appeared on approximately 15 plots last year. Fiodar Petrusevich, a human rights defender from Brest, says the villagers are not able to even appeal the resolution of the local rural council, because it was never approved in writing. The land owners were simply notified about it verbally!

"This is outrageous! Construction should be transparent. If someone wants to build something in your garden, there should be a public debate, the minutes of the meeting and voting by residents. That never happened! This is pure robbery to seize land plots without monetary compensation. People are clearly abusing their office. They come and take your land plot from you and re-distribute it to someone else without paying attention to the queue. Those who have many children or those whose parents died were most targeted, because they could not afford to pay to be let alone." 

Rural council chairman Siarhei Sauchuk told Euroradio that all the construction works are being carried out with approval by the Brest District Executive Committee. The land for construction was given according to the queue. No officials or bureaucrats from Brest are mong those building. The program to build new housing will allow to connect the village with a natural gas pipeline, says Mr Sauchuk.

"People received the plots in accordance with the queue. All the plots do not exceed 15 ares." Believe me, there is no single public servant on the list of those building. The area is not so posh to be of interest to officials in Brest. There is no gas, and nobody knows when it is likely to be connected. All this is being done in order to connect the village to a gas line. Under the president's program, 2 km of pipeline could be potentially connected free of charge in the future."

The rural council chairman adds that all the land belonged to the rural council. Nothing was seized illegally, because people did not privatize their 'extra' ares.

Photo: euroradio.fm

Specially for human rights program Cardiogram