Belarusian stability: the parents being dead, the children are evicted

A Minsk accountant Vera Mialeshka, her under-aged brother (whose guardian she is) and her two-year-old daughter are evicted from the apartment.

Vera Mialeshka applied to Radio “Liberty” as the last resort.

The decision about the eviction, issued by the Maskouski District Court of Minsk, was passed to her on Monday. The peculiarity of the situation is that these people have no other place to live.

Seven years ago Vera's parents perished in a car accident. Vera has been the brother's guardian since then. The apartment in Raviyeu Street in the Minsk suburb Malinauka is a social one, which means that it does not belong to Vera Mialeshka and her brother. The authorities did not let them privatize the apartment. At the same time, the woman had no opportunity to start the construction of a new apartment being on on maternity leave.

“In 2006 an agreement was concluded with me according to which a new apartment was to be built within three years. However, at the moment when the agreement came to an end, I went on a maternity leave and quit the job. During the action of the agreement, I was told that no apartments were built at the time and my turn had not come yet.

While on the maternity leave, I kept coming to them, asking to put me on the list of the people for whom flats were being built, but they refused. Then I asked them to extend the agreement to avoid the situation when we could be evicted, and received another refusal.

The administration just proposed to direct my brother to a school boarding, my child – to an orphanage, and me – out to the street.

In spring I was proposed a variant of building, but I explained that I was currently unemployed and no bank would issue a loan. They agreed to wait until I settled the affairs with the job. In August I came to the executive committee again, told that I would take the child to a kindergarten and start working. They told it was alright and they would wait for it. The following day I received the document about the eviction, together with an under-aged orphan and two-year-old daughter,” says Vera Mialeshka.

The court verdict concerning the eviction was issued by the judge of the Maskouski District Court of Minsk Yury Shastou. By the way, he is banned entrance to the European Union. The judge demanded documentary evidence of her numerous applications to the executive authorities.
“What evidence? I was told that no one was going to evict us, and I believed. Now I see that they deliberately deceived us,” says the woman. She is sure that officials of the executive committee just used the campaign for cleaning up the queues for construction of apartments:

“Me and all my friends are of the opinion that somebody just put an eye on my apartment. It is not bad, three-room flat. The metro is near, the district administration too,” comments the woman.

A RFE/RL correspondent phoned to the officer of the housing policy of the Maskouski District Executive Committee Larysa Tsitova, with whom Vera Mialeshka discussed the subject of building an apartment. Larysa Tsitova said that there were legal norms which gave the grounds to initiate the eviction, and the decision was to be taken by court.

The journalist: “The trial has taken place already. It was decided to evict her.”

The official: “I cannot comment on it without the permission of higher-ups”.

However, the journalist did not manage to catch the head of the social policy department on the phone. Maybe because the official again accepted some citizens who had questions. There is no place in such queues for the young mother and guardian Vera Mialeshka any more – her fate has been already decided: eviction.

Earlier Vera Mialeshka had also applied to the prosecutor's office and the presidential administration, but it brought no results.