Protest in Mahiliou: multi-stored houses instead of a birch grove

Dwellers of the Yubileynu suburb of Mahiliou stand against the cut-down of a birch grove and construction of multi-stored building in its place.

At 9 p.m. on 28 November about a hundred people gathered to a spontaneous meeting. They spoke emotionally and said they would keep defending their grove until the end and were ready to block the work of the builders.

The new construction site started being fenced off three days ago. Nobody informed the dwellers of the neighboring houses about the building of new houses. The name of the building organization remains unknown.

A group of citizens has paid a visit to the Mahiliou City Executive Committee, but managed to find little about the building. The officials stated that at first 14 birches will be cut down, and some young trees may be planted instead of them. The people were prohibited to take photos of the documents according to which the decision about the construction of the houses and the felling of the trees was adopted. The officials also stated they would not go out to the place of the conflict until receiving orders from higher authorities (they did not specify which authorities, though).

The people are also anxious that their old houses can be damaged as a result of the driving of piles for the new houses, as some of them are already about 50 years old.

The birch grove was planted by the suburb dwellers. It serves as a recreation place and has a sports ground. The dwellers have collected almost 200 of signatures against the continuation of the construction works, and are going to hold new gatherings to solve this problem.