Health condition of Dagestani hunger-strikers deteriorates

The women-participants of the hunger strike in the Dagestani village of Shushiya report the worsening of their health status and state their readiness to stop their protest against guarantees of fulfilment of their demands.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on February 10, in Shushiya, protestors resumed their hunger strike demanding to return in the form of shares 9 hectares of land leased out by Agricultural Production Cooperative (APC) "Almaz". The current protest action takes place in an uninhabited and unheated house on the outskirts of the village, and it initially involved 15 persons. Later the number of hunger-strikers decreased to seven persons.

"We all feel bad – weakness and stomach pains. I lost 15 kilos; my bones and kidneys are aching; and my blood tension has dropped," Elmira Bagirchaeva, the organizer of the hunger strike, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent today.

According to her story, today the hunger-strikers were visited by the chief physician of the Novolak District Hospital. "She came on her own initiative, rendered no help, but just demanded that we stop the hunger strike. Obviously, she follows the instructions of the district administration, where her husband works," said Bagirchaeva, adding that the protesters wrote a new appeal to the President of Russia, reporting that his instruction to solve the problem of resettlers is not performed.

"We are now convinced that nobody cares about our lives and health, same as about the lawlessness, because of which we are deprived of the right to work on our land. We are ready to stop the hunger strike, if the National Council of the Lak People will sign with the Government and give us a protocol, stating the particular date, when we'll get the land plots that we own under the law," said Elmira Bagirchaeva.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.