IN REGIONS HUMAN RIGHTS ARE FORGOTTEN MORE OFTEN
Support A1+!RA Ombudsman Larissa Alaverdyan has been to Gyumri on official duty recently.
About 20 citizens had come to receive the Ombudsman. The reception took place in the Gyumri branch of the non-governmental organization of the “Armenian Center of Defense of Human Rights after A. Sakharov”. The main issue the residents of Gyumri were concerned by was of course the housing problem.
According to Mrs. Alaverdyan, the Human rights defense is realized more badly in the faraway regions. A case of this is the village Voghji. The facts of complaints to the Ombudsman from this village were registered during the visit of her representatives. Moreover, the regional governor had applied to Regional Governing Minister Hovik Abrahamyan in March with the request to resign the head of the village from his post but there has been no answer yet.
The lands which are cultivated by the residents of the village are near the border. In order to go there a permit is needed. The permits are given to the people 1.5 month before the spring and autumn agricultural seasons. Those people who had «dared» to send a complaint to the Ombudsman, in contrast to the rest, had not received their permits by June 7 in order to cultivate their lands.
Today the residents of the village do not have Property documents of their houses. Under the present head of the village the population of the village has been considerably reduced.
According to L. Alaverdyan, the actions of the Voghji head do not suit a local governor.
