Authorities in the flood-hit southern Russian town of Krymsk have ordered a volunteer camp to move out of the center, prompting claims from the volunteers that the real motive is to get rid of eyewitnesses to the clean-up effort, several Russian media reported on Wednesday.
The camp was set up on July 9, two days after torrential downpours hit Krymsk, killing at least 171 people, according to the Russian Emergencies Ministry. One of the town's central squares housed the camp and the location was approved by the authorities. About 350 activists were camping there, coordinator Oleg Melnikov told Moskovsky Komsomolets.
However, on July 16, the acting head of Krymsk District, Alexander Vasilyev, handed the volunteers an official letter instructing them to move to the suburbs, coordinator Anton Smirnov told Gazeta.ru.
“Authorities are uninterested that people who could directly convey information about the clean-up effort in the town and could ask the residents how they get their compensations remain in Krymsk,” camp coordinator Alyona Popova told the RBK-daily newspaper on Wednesday.
“Now the town is being cleansed bit by bit from eyewitnesses. The situation has stabilized, the time of PR has come, and the authorities do not want to share it with independent people,” ecologist Suren Gazaryan told RBK-daily on Wednesday.
Officials said local residents have complained that the camp had occupied the entire square and hinders them from walking and resting in the public area, Gazeta.ru daily reported. Sanitary services have also exposed hygiene problems in the camp.
Officials cited hygiene issues as the main reason to move the camp, its coordinator Yevgenia Smorchkova told the Vedomosti daily. “But talking to us unofficially they tried to make us understand that they no longer need us.”
“They instructed us to move the camp to the suburbs where one more camp engaged in distributing humanitarian aid is located... But we helped with the physical labor: helped clean homes, clear the debris. We will now have to spend one more hour to get to the [devastated] homes,” Lyudmila Milovidova, one of the coordinators of the camp, told RBK-daily.
On Wednesday, Kommersant daily reported that a bill regulating volunteer campaigns will be introduced for public discussions in August. A working group to elaborate on the draft legislation has been set up by the initiative of the Federation Council, Russia's upper chamber of the parliament. The group involves deputies, officials, lawyers, and rescuers.
