"They declared war on us-commoners." In the Bashkir Trans-Urals, more than thousand people protest against illegal gold mining, 29 April 2023

[Summary translation prepared by Business and Human Rights Resource Centre]

In the village of Ishmurzino, Baimaksky district of Bashkortostan, a people's gathering was held on Friday who protested against the issuance of licenses for exploration by gold mining companies...

..."The locals, residents of villages are forced to quickly study federal laws, charters, organise gatherings, overcoming the obstacles that the district administration creates. State employees are faced with a dilemma: either vote for projects, as the administration says, or lose their job. Pensioners are persuaded by gifts. Activists are intimidated by local policemen, while district police officers visit the houses of the organizers of the gatherings,” Ilsur Irnazarov, a well-known Baymak activist and defender of Kushtau, wrote on social networks...

According to a participant of such gathering, an activist of the "StopKronospan" movement Irina Kureli, more than one thousand people participated at the gathering in Ishmurzino.

...“People are afraid that they will lose their pastures and hayfields - after all, everyone has several cows, horses and other livestock. In addition, it is also dangerous for residential buildings and other buildings, since study will be carried out including through blasting. In Baymak and other regions, there is already a sad experience when the population faced the arbitrariness of gold miners. People there have lost pastures, reservoirs - these companies leave behind a "lunar landscape". And so the people rose up."

Kureli added that, as she learned, the village was going to close the kindergarten and the school.

“This way, young people are being squeezed out of the village,” added Kureli.

The participants of the meeting unanimously voted against the issuance of licenses, as well as against the closure of the kindergarten and the school...