Conflict in Nechaevka village, Dagestan's Kizilyurt district

The recent conflict between residents of the Nechaevka village, Dagestan's Kizilyurt district, and the village administration and GUP Sultanyangiyurtovsky, a local state farm, has reached a new stage.

The other day, Nechaevka people with transparencies and posters in their hands threatened to block the Kavkaz federal route. But they did not take radical steps finally and sent their representatives to Makhachkala, where they were received by Chairman of the Dagestani State Council Magomedali Magomedov. Having heard out the workers of the state farm, he asked them to wait for results of the revision that is being carried out in the farm by the Dagestani Ministry of Agriculture and Food and promised to decide the matter fairly.

On December 23, 2003, a group of local residents demanded that director of GUP Sultanyangiyurtovsky Sirazhudin Magomedov and village administration head Gashim Gashimov, a close relative and supporter of the former, should be dismissed.

Some 30 people even went on hunger strike, demanding that land issues in the village should be settled fairly and the privatization of the farm by Sirazhudin Magomedov should not be allowed. The Dagestani Ministry of Agriculture and Food and district authorities interfered in the conflict at that time. The villagers were given a promise that the matter would be examined and settled.

The ministry has been carrying out a revision of the state farm for over a month, but residents of Nechaevka are not sure the situation will change for the better.