The European Court of Human Rights starts examining application of Kabardino-Balkaria residents

Caucasian Knot correspondent Lyudmila Maratova reports that residents of Tyrnyauz city, Kabardino-Balkaria, Raja Shogenova, Nina Hahlova, Irina Shishkin, Fatima Atmurzaeva and Halimat Budaeva, have received European Court notification that the court has started examining their case.

The petitioners lost their property in July, 2000, when the city of Tyrnyauz suffered from a land slide. They had received compensation of 15 thousand roubles for a one-room apartment, 30 thousand roubles for a two-room apartment, plus 13 thousand roubles for the other property lost. The petitioners insisted that this compensation was insufficient.

The plaintiffs went through all levels of the courts in Kabardino-Balkaria and in Russia, demanding compensation from 250 to 730 thousand roubles for their lost property, and moral compensation from 100 up to 250 thousand roubles. Their claims were rejected in all venues on the grounds that a landslide is a natural phenomenon which cannot be foreseen. The petitioners claim however that the authorities were warned in advance by the experts of High-mountainous Geophysical Institute who had proposed a list of urgent measures to be taken prior to the occurrence of the landslide. The petitioners allege the authorities of Kabardino-Balkaria ignored this information.

This case will be the first one from Kabardino-Balkaria to be investigated in the European Court. Earlier the Court has accepted a complaint asking invalidation of the results of presidential elections in Kabardino-Balkaria in 2002 and a number of other complaints, concerning human rights violation.