Officials: Drazdy 2 Is Not For "Commons"

The houses of common people near the elite village are being "cleared away".

There is a private elite district, which is mainly built by officials and Belarusian stars, in Winners Avenue on the shore of the Drazdy reservoir. But, if an ordinary house is found there – it goes under demolition, Belsat reports.

Plaksionak and Kastsiuk family’s 3-bedroom house with a plot will be destroyed by the decision of the Minsk City Executive Committee. Instead, they have been forcibly offered a two-room apartment and a cash compensation for three people, although six people are registered there and eligible to use it.

The capital construction management tried to evict the family via the court.

"The court that was before that: the court of Tsentralny District, it dismissed the capital construction management’s claim on our eviction," – resident of the house Andrei Kastsiuk remembers.

Today, the capital construction management challenged the decision to replace the compensation, and the owners tried to cancel the decision to destroy the house in the Minsk City Court. The court refused to satisfy the complaint to both the capital construction management and the residents of the house.

The house of Plaksionak and Kastsiuk families was built in 1939

The plot of land with the garden and the lake have become a part of their life. The district has changed a lot recently, cottages have replaced the houses. The Minsk City Executive Committee plans a new construction on the site of Kastsiuk’s house. The inhabitants re ready to destroy the house and build a new, modern one for their own money, but the officials don't let them do this. The reason for the eviction is state needs. The 44th article of the Constitution allows for expropriation only when there is social necessity and with timely and the state should make full reimbursement of the value of the expropriated property.

"There is no social need. let's think what could be a social need: building a school, a kindergarten, an oil pipeline," – the human rights defender Viktar Bartashevich notes.

Evicting people without their consent, officials also violate the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

"Today, the Kastsuk family, as well as others, our friends from Loshitsy, Minskers from Viliems Street, Selkhozposelok, Asmolauka, Rosa Luxemburg Street, Guy Street, Arlouskaya Street - they all say that "we are being evicted against our will. This is a direct violation of Article 9," – the human rights defender adds.

But if there are state needs or, more precisely, the needs of civil servants, Belarusian courts seldom side with ordinary people.